Rankings matter because, unfortunately, it affects the perceptions others have of the university. When people complain about Rices ranking, they arent bemoaning their experience, their friends, and the people they meet at Rice. Rather, they are being cognizant that a higher rank means more publicity and awareness of what Rice can offer, and that the potential students, potential Owls, potential friends and people to meet at Rice, can be (generally) improved with a higher ranking. Of course, whether the applicants a higher ranking draws is an improvement over those of a lower ranking is subjective, but in general trends, it should be, since a higher ranking generally means more applicants, and if we can trust our admissions department, a larger pool to draw from, and thus a larger number of strong potential owls. Its dumb to base everything off of rankings, yes, but its ignorant to say they dont matter. Rice should strive to improve its ranking, so long as the methods to do so dont the withdraw from the potential experience. Many will argue that by virtue of a higher ranking, the Rice experience will change. This isnt necessarily bad, and such change will not detract from the Rice experience, and to insinuate that it will reflects insecurity over the Rice experience.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 02:56:25 +0000