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U.S. News rankings are about to come out, but my guidance counselor told me last spring to ignore them. What do you think that they are useful for? Are there other rankings that would be more useful for me?

I am in the top 5% of my class, my SAT's are 1420 and I am a so-so soccer player. I am interested in a liberal arts college in a relatively mild climate.

By Dave Berry on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 08:23 am: Edit

You don't have to ignore them, Matt, but don't take them as gospel. They are useful as a source of quantitative comparison for college statistics. You'll find all the numbers nice and neat in one place. However, be careful about the subjective information there, such as so-called "reputation" scores. How can one objectivize reputation? That's what makes these rankings relatively useless.

For a more in-depth look at those and some other rankings, check out our site at:

http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_rankings/index.htm

where we rank the rankings, so to speak.

With your profile, you won't have any trouble finding a great LAC. One that comes to mind immediately is Davidson College. Check it out.

Keep us posted on your search and let us know if we can be of further help. Good luck!