
College Rankings Fail to Measure the Influence of the Institution - retupmoc01
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/business/new-college-rankings-dont-show-how-alma-mater-affects-earnings.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
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bluedevil2k
"To rank the value of colleges based on the ultimate earnings of their
graduates radically narrows the concept of what college is supposed to be
for."

I think _colleges_ have lost the concept of what college is supposed to be
for. When my parents went in the '70's here in the US, college was seen as a
way to prepare for your career. Now it seems colleges are focused on creating
"well rounded people" and raising money. You can see this at my alma mater,
where there's multiple art museums on campus and the big news is how many
billions of dollars the endowment fund is.

~~~
cmckay
The tension in education between the study of skills (what you would call
preparation for your career) and the study of values (what you refer to as
creating "well rounded people") has been around since the Ancient Greeks [1].
Most institutions tend to skew one way or the other, with smaller, liberal-
arts style colleges tending to be on the "values" side, and larger, research
universities tending to be on the "skills" side. (This is, of course, an
oversimplification).

Now, the rhetoric we've been throwing at kids to get them to go to college has
been strongly on the "skills" side of things, which is perhaps why you (and
others) feel that colleges aren't focusing on what they should.

As far as fundraising is concerned, it's complicated. You have to do something
to keep the doors open and the lights on. Amenities (like rec centers, nice
dorms, and so on) are justified by claiming that they increase recruiting
yield and retention (thus stabilizing revenues) but they cost a lot. Money in
the endowment means less of a dependence on tuition, which means more
stability in the face of possible enrollment shortfalls.

Something like an art museum serves multiple purposes. It's an amenity, sure,
and may help students (or their parents) decide that this institution is the
right place for them. If there is an art or art history department, it may
serve pedagogical functions. In many cases, though, donors may have given
significant amounts of art to the school, and they need a way to respond to
that gift. Having a museum to put it in makes everyone happy.

[1] Sorum, C. E. (2005) The Problem of Mission: A Brief Survey of the Changing
Mission of the Liberal Arts In _Liberal Arts Colleges in American Higher
Education: Challenges and Opportunities_ (pp.26--39).

