【升学指导】解密美国大学排名 | What Do College Rankings Actually Mean?

解密美国大学排名

How Useful Are College Rankings?

What Do They Actually Mean?

导语

又是一年大学申请季，市面上又出现了数十种各不相同的大学排名体系，荣登Top20的学校就会让中国家长和学生们趋之若鹜。那么，这些排名真的靠谱吗？他们到底是按照什么标准排出来的？

七宝德怀特的资深升学指导主任Mr. Rafael Katz将为你揭开大学排名的神秘面纱......

关世宁 Rafael Katz

七宝德怀特升学指导主任

布朗大学、耶鲁大学毕业

UCLA大中华区招生官

当我和家长学生聊大学列表时，我发现自己总是在说Top20大学、Top50大学，使用这些排名的原因自然是因为它们很方便。如果我告诉一个学生，“你的成绩足以考进排名前20的大学”，这里的“排名前20”其实只是泛指那些竞争激烈的顶尖大学。既然排名在大学申请中如此被大家重视，今天我们不妨来探究一下，排名究竟排的是什么？排名高低又意味着什么？

When I am talking to students and parents about college lists, I find myself frequently referring to top twenty schools or top fifty schools. The main reason I use rankings is that they are convenient.If I say to a student you have good enough grades to get into a top twenty school, top twenty basically means one of the most selective schools. Since rankings have become such a pervasive part of the college admissions conversation, I think it is worthwhile to look more closely at what the rankings are and what they really mean.

每年的大学排名都有起有落，比如斯坦福大学曾常年被U.S. News排在首位，今年竟然跌到了第七，这说明了什么？难道今年斯坦福比往年更容易考进了吗？UCLA今年挤进了Top20，位列第19，第一次超越加州大学伯克利分校，难道这意味着UCLA比伯克利好吗？具体好在哪里呢？

People follow the yearly rankings and look for changes. It is natural to attach significance if a college goes up or down year by year.Does it really say something meaningful about Stanford that they were ranked no. 1 by U.S. news for several years and now have fallen to seven?Does that mean Stanford has gotten worse or might be easier to get into?What does it mean that UCLA is now ranked 19 and in the top 20? For the first time, it is ranked higher than UC Berkeley. Does that mean it is better than UC Berkeley?Better how?

现在市面上的大学排名体系数不胜数：美国新闻和世界报导（U.S. News），福布斯，QS世界大学排名，泰晤士报大学排名，等等。其中，U.S. News资历最老，也被认为是最权威的排名。当留学中介让你签升学服务的合同时，你选择的大学在U.S.News的排名决定了你支付的费用。然而，如果对比不同的排名列表，你会发现关于顶尖大学的排位永远无法达成一致。比如说，今年U.S.News将哥伦比亚大学排第三，福布斯却把杨百翰大学排第三，利基把哈佛大学排第三，我们究竟该信哪一个排名？今年普林斯顿大学在U.S.News的美国大学排行榜上荣居榜首，但在世界大学排行榜上却排第九，哈佛反而排第一。这又是什么道理？难道普林斯顿在全美是最棒的大学，但在全世界就比哈佛大学差了？这个逻辑我实在不懂。

There are numerous college ranking systems; U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, Niche, Times Higher Ed., The Shanghai Index, etc. U.S. News is the oldest and usually considered the authority in rankings.When an agent is having a parent sign a contract for college admissions services, the U.S. News rankings can often determine the cost of the service. If you compare different ranking lists, it is clear to see that there is no agreement about what the top colleges are.For example, this year US News ranks Columbia #3, Forbes ranks Brigham Young #3, and Niche ranks Harvard #3. Which one should we trust? Many ranking systems have different lists for world universities and U.S. universities.This year U. S. News ranks Princeton #1 on the national list but then #9 on the World list, with Harvard as number one.Does that mean that Princeton is best when compared to U.S. colleges but not as good when compared to colleges around the world?I’m not sure that I understand that concept.

大多数人在提到大学排名时，都对排名的真实含义一无所知。就拿U.S.News来分析，你会发现一所大学获得高排名的原因对你来说并不重要。对U.S.News排名来说，评比中占比最大的权重是所谓的“结果”，这个因素从去年的占比30%已经涨到了今年的35%，大概这能解释为什么UCLA在排名上赶超伯克利。“结果”评估的方面包括：学生毕业率，家族中第一个大学生或少数族裔的学生比重。作为学生和家长，你真的关心大学里的同学少数民族多不多，或者家庭收入低不低吗？

Most people refer to college rankings without knowing what they really mean.If you analyze the U.S. News, the most widely quoted ranking system, you might discover that some reasons a university has a high ranking are not things that are important to you. The largest factor for U.S. News rankings is what they call `Outcomes’, this factor went up in importance from 30% last year to 35% this year and probably accounts for why UCLA is now ranked higher than UC Berkeley.Outcomes includes factors like how many students graduate and how many students are from underrepresented populations like first generation college students, or minorities.As a student or parent, you might ask yourself how important in ethnic diversity and having classmates with low incomes to you?

更加令人讶异的是，“专家意见”（学生及升学指导的观点）的比重从22.5%降低到了20%。“学生优秀程度”从12.5%跌至10%。大家最为关心的生源质量和学生成就竟然仅占十分之一！

The factor of `Expert Opinion’, ( what students and counselors think about the college), was reduced from 22.5% to 20%.`Student Excellence’ was reduced from 12.5% to10% this year. I’m guessing that many students and parents would value `Student Excellence’, which means the quality and accomplishments of students, very highly.

对我来说，比大学排名更有用的数据是大学录取率。一所大学每年录取百分之多少的学生？ED和RD的录取率是多少？中国学生的录取率是多少？这所大学以前录取过几个七宝德怀特的学生？这些才是在制定大学列表时真正有用的信息。斯坦福大学今年虽然被排在第七，但它的录取率依然只有5%，世界最低之一。比如两年前，我校的Bailey同学在申请斯坦福时，斯坦福排名下降与否对她来说就毫无意义，因为她确定自己喜欢斯坦福的教育。

For me, a factor that is more useful than rankings is acceptance rate. What percentage of students does a college admit each year? What is the colleges percentage of ED and RD acceptances?What is the percentage of Chinese students admitted? How many QD students have they accepted in the past. These factors are useful to know when making college lists.Stanford is ranked 7 this year but it still has one of the lowest acceptance rates at less than 5%. When one of our students was accepted by Stanford two years ago, Stanford’s U.S. News ranking dropped after being at number one several years in a row. This was quite meaningless to our student, Bailey, who beat the odds by being accepted and more importantly loves the education she is getting at Stanford.

最后，祝愿大家在早申请季收获满满！