‘So, how is school at Boston College?’
‘I’m sorry, sir; I go to Boston University. I tell you that every time I come home.’
‘Oh yeah … Hey, U.S. News ‘ World Report came out with their college rankings. Boston College was in the top 50 … You must be really proud.’
‘No … I don’t go to… Yeah, I am really proud. Go Eagles.’
Every year this happens. We pick up the new issue of U.S. News ‘ World Report, flip past the main page and find ourselves in the second tier. Arguably, we are in second place in the second tier, but the truth is that those other schools after the big 50 are put in alphabetical order. There we are, always right behind American University. This year it was Colin Riley, BU spokesman, who had to handle The Daily Free Press when the rankings came out (‘BU receives low marks from U.S. News, Seventeen,’ Sept. 20, pg. 1).
Mr. Riley said, ‘We don’t participate in the survey by the U.S. News ‘ World Report.’ I say, ‘Why the hell not?’ If the administration thinks for one second that students in this university do not care about how outside sources view us, they are unrealistic. Also, students in high school go right to the college issue of U.S. News every year it comes out. It’s usually their first impression of how ‘good’ a college is. It may be a wrong impression, but it is a first impression nonetheless. Why should these students have to flip to page two to find us? Oh, I remember, it’s because we are too good to participate in a survey conducted by mere mortals.
Mr. Riley said, ‘But all you have to do is ask students here. Do they believe this is a second-tier school?’ Is he proposing that students at BU should have a Stuart Smalley-like self-affirmation session every time the U.S. News and World Report comes out? It would go like this: ‘I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And gosh darn it, I don’t care if Penn State is ranked higher than us, even though it costs about $15,000 less to go there.’ By the way, Penn State is number 45.
Where a student goes to college is not only an economic investment, but it is also an investment of one’s pride. Parents reluctantly put bumper stickers on their new cars saying their child is an honor-roll student in the second grade. But give that same parent a Notre Dame sticker, and that sucker will be slapped on the new BMW in no time. Notre Dame is tied for 18th, in case you were wondering. There’s nothing I hate more than having to validate where I go to school. One could argue that I shouldn’t worry about what others think. But I think we should take a step into the real world for a second where people are self-conscious of just about everything.
We care about rankings. My parents and their 40 grand care about rankings. The vendors on the streets who sell MIT, Harvard and Boston College sweatshirts obviously care too. They live and die by U.S. News and World Report.
If Mr. Riley is so confident that students here feel like we are at a top 50 school, why don’t we just participate in the survey? According to U.S. News, Boston University has several graduate programs that are in the top 50 of their respective fields, such as the law school and the medical school. Why are those programs in the top 50 without participating in the survey? With the excellent undergraduate program we are supposed to have, and the distinguished graduate program we apparently do have, why doesn’t Boston University participate in a survey that lists the best overall universities? You would think that any university would jump at the chance to say it is one of U.S. News and World Report’s top 50. It is a great marketing ploy, and I don’t think I am out of line in making that assessment.
Just to appease me, let’s participate in the survey next year. The survey may not be 100 percent accurate, and it may be unfair, but to tell students that they shouldn’t pay attention to those rankings is ridiculous because everyone else does.
If we do participate, and we are still a second-tier school, then that is fine with me. Maybe it will come out that we are a third-tier school, but at least we would be giving it the old college try.