Using university rankings as a potential indicator of student experiences in American higher education

ABSTRACT

Students at America’s most renowned private universities face different acceptance rates, college wealth, class sizes, and potential graduate earnings even in comparison with students at the nation’s highest-ranking public institutions. The analyses that led to these findings frequently focused on national or state-wide comparisons of public versus private universities. This paper contrasts these studies by analysing a fixed group of colleges, those regularly listed in the global top 50 of research and reputation rankings. It argues that even within this small subset of colleges, the highest-ranking public universities have more in common with their similarly positioned private counterparts than with lower ranking public institutions; a finding reflected in assessments of private colleges. Subsequently, the paper finds that student experiences are more likely defined by a college’s reputational rank than by an institution’s public or private status, endowment, or acceptance rates, however, the same was found not to be true of potential graduate earnings.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• rankings
• league tables
• student experience
• America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Troy A. Heffernan conducts research relating to higher education policy, and student equity in university and school settings.

ORCID

Troy A. Heffernan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8156-622X