We’re No. 1… sorta.
A recent report made in Time’s Money Magazine declared NC State to be the best university in North Carolina. Now, I know that many of my fellow members of the Wolfpack would love to use this as an opportunity to boast to their Devil or Ram counterparts, but I believe that this ranking was inaccurate. Let me preface this by saying that, for me, attending NC State has been one of the greatest honors of my life; nonetheless, I strongly disagree with the ranking.
Money determined the ranking of our school through a number of metrics, including student success, financial aid given out and earnings upon completing school.
While these metrics are great for a quantitative approach to ranking schools in these respective areas, it does not work as an accurate tool for pinpointing the school that would be the best for you. For instance, a measure of the average high school GPA does not determine if you will like the atmosphere of a school. Likewise, the average early career earnings of alumni from our school do not entail that you will have your best possible four years here.
For someone who values a smaller community, NC State would not be the correct choice for them. This is not an indictment on our school in anyway; it is simply a matter of subjectivity. A person who likes the idea of always being able to meet a new face would be enamored of the population that NC State yields.
Just this weekend I had the opportunity to visit Duke University. While there, I was able to speak with many people who would adamantly declare their university to be the best one in North Carolina. Everywhere I went on the campus — and even in the surrounding parts of Durham off-campus — there were seas of students showing their college allegiance through the blue and white shirts they sported. Are these students wrong in thinking that their university is the best in the state?
A study devised by UCLA in 2012 showed that college rankings were not that large of a factor for high school seniors when it came to picking what college to attend. The survey showed that only around 18.2 percent of the soon-to-be college students were strongly influenced by rankings in their decision-making process.
As a senior in high school, I was once privy to the idea of using college rankings as the way to determine which school would be best for me. Had I followed the rankings, I would have ended up at Clemson University. This school was ranked higher in the US news rankings, and even landed the title of best university in South Carolina by Money. However, upon visiting my school options, NC State struck a special chord that really resonated with me. In my opinion, it was the best option of all.
It is not so much that the rankings do not mean anything, but instead it is more so that the rankings should not mean everything. I would be lying if I said NC State’s college rankings had no impact at all on my decision to go here. My decision to attend NC State came from viewing the campus and interacting with the community; however, the college rankings did give me a helpful idea about NC State’s general level of scholastic achievement.
I fully believe that NC State was the best school in North Carolina for me to attend, but I also realize that this is in no way an objectively true statement for all students in this state. It is reductionist to declare one college the best in a state because it matches a magazine’s criteria for being a good school. The best school in the state should be whatever school has the best experience to offer you. For me, that school is right here.
