The U.S. Department of Education has faced consistent criticism for its arbitrary college ratings system. Each year, it releases a list of the country’s colleges and their respective ratings despite the list and its merits being called into question. The ratings are intended to help individuals decide which college they should attend each year, but the list is relative and too often favors expensive legacy schools—colleges that are more likely far-fetched pipe dreams rather than actual attainable goals. 

The constant stream of criticism the department fields after its annual ratings are released has resulted in possible changes for the system. According to a March 16 Chronicle of Higher Education report, the U.S. Department of Education intends to implement two rating systems rather than fixing the current, already flawed system currently in place.

Each new rating system would be geared toward a specific demographic. One rating system would be for the “consumers”—because that is what students really are—and the other for the institutions themselves. The measured data and metrics that make up a rating would vary, though, meaning the results from one system may be favored over the results from the other.

Though the argument that students would benefit from knowing where their college stands and college administrations may be held more accountable is reasonable, supporting any rating system at all is pointless. 

Most students do not say yes or no to a college because of its position on a list—comparing the offerings of Columbia to those of MIT and Yale is fruitless. They usually decide on a college based on several factors that metrics cannot determine such as proximity to home and the quality of faculty. 

The data the current rating system provides is important in understanding a college’s retention and graduation rates as well as its tuition and student population, but categorizing colleges based on these factors alone does not speak to the diverse communities, curricula and experiences colleges across the country offer. 

One of the proposed systems would aid in holding colleges accountable and determining federal aid, but the idea that students should choose a college because of its position on what is just another listicle speaks to the consumerism of the education industrial complex. These ratings do not reflect the needs and concerns of students, but the needs and concerns of investors.

The Department of Education should instead encourage students to research every facet of their potential college choice rather than encourage them to scroll through lists of numbers that do not provide the insight needed to determine where to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a degree. Data is important in making the decision between spending $60,000 a year versus spending $20,000 a year, but data alone should not be the reason someone chooses to attend this school over another. 

Students owe it to themselves to trust their own instincts and intuition rather than numbers churned out by the education industrial complex that considers them “consumers” and not individuals pursuing the wealth of a well-rounded education and the opportunities an education can offer.