多學(xué)生和家長(zhǎng)在選擇學(xué)校的過(guò)程中，總喜歡參考美國(guó)大學(xué)排名，而且大部分都是大學(xué)排名的鐵粉，但是耶魯大學(xué)招生官Jeffrey Brenzel 以獨(dú)特的視角給出了值得思考的建議。下面出國(guó)留學(xué)網(wǎng)和你說(shuō)說(shuō)美國(guó)的大學(xué)排名真的靠譜嗎？
A Few Thoughts From Jeffrey Brenzel, Dean of Admissions, 2005-2013
Every year, U.S. News & World Report, Money, and a few other national magazines publish college rankings. And every year, Yale is at or near the top of the lists. I am writing to say that there are many excellent reasons to apply to Yale, but Yale’s position in the rankings is not one of them.
每年U.S. News & World Report, Money等國(guó)家級(jí)雜志刊登大學(xué)排名，而且每年耶魯大學(xué)都位列榜單前列。這里我想說(shuō)，耶魯大學(xué)有很多地方可以俘獲學(xué)生的芳心，值得申請(qǐng)，但排名絕非其中之一。
Make no mistake: the publication of college rankings is a business enterprise that capitalizes on anxiety about college admissions. Ranking lists do not provide much useful information for making decisions about where you should apply. Their main flaw is obvious but worth stating: the more or less arbitrary factors that go into the ranking calculations often have little to do with what will be important to your educational experience.
不要搞錯(cuò)了：大學(xué)排名的公布只是企業(yè)試圖利用學(xué)生和家長(zhǎng)對(duì)大學(xué)申請(qǐng)的憂慮。排名榜單并不能為學(xué)生選擇申請(qǐng)的學(xué)校提供太多有效的信息。他們的主要缺陷是顯而易見(jiàn)的，但還是值得說(shuō)明一下：統(tǒng)計(jì)排名時(shí)參考的多少有些主觀的因素，通常和對(duì)影響你教育經(jīng)歷的重要因素并無(wú)太大關(guān)系。
I do not mean to vilify the magazines that create such lists. They merely respond to consumer demand. Rather, I would like to illustrate the hazards of relying on the rankings and to make a case for a more personal and holistic approach to deciding on your list of colleges.
我并非要誹謗制作這些排名列表的雜志。他們只是回應(yīng)消費(fèi)者的需求。相反，我只想說(shuō)明依靠排名擇校的危害，并給出如何從個(gè)人實(shí)際情況出發(fā)進(jìn)行全面考慮來(lái)最終決定大學(xué)申請(qǐng)名單的建議。
To better understand the phenomenon of the rankings, it is important to look at three things: why they are so popular, what is wrong with them, and why they have a bad influence on college decision-making.
為了更好地了解排名現(xiàn)象，需重點(diǎn)關(guān)注三個(gè)問(wèn)題：為什么它們?nèi)绱耸軞g迎?它們哪里不好?以及為什么他們對(duì)大學(xué)的選擇會(huì)造成不良影響?
What Drives Public Interest in Rankings?
什么激發(fā)了公眾對(duì)排名的興趣?
The college search process can be a formidable task of sifting through enormous amounts of information, and the stakes are high. Ranking systems have an immediate and obvious appeal: they seem to simplify making sense of complicated and confusing information.
We have also become accustomed to relying on rating systems as consumers. When buying a vacuum cleaner or a television set, we can turn to Consumer Reports, which employs testing labs, engineers, surveys, and independent experts. By these means, they are able to condense and filter a great deal of information. We’ve learned from experience that there are good reasons to trust their advice, and the college ranking lists depend on people making the assumption that they are providing a similarly useful service.
大學(xué)的搜索需要篩選大量信息，是一個(gè)非常艱巨的任務(wù)，而且利害攸關(guān)。排名體系有一種直接和明顯的吸引力：它們似乎簡(jiǎn)化和弄明白了撲朔迷離的信息。
作為消費(fèi)者我們也習(xí)慣于依靠評(píng)分系統(tǒng)。當(dāng)購(gòu)買(mǎi)吸塵器或電視機(jī)時(shí)，我們可以參考《消費(fèi)者報(bào)告雜志》—雜志充分利用了檢測(cè)實(shí)驗(yàn)室、工程師、調(diào)查問(wèn)卷和獨(dú)立專(zhuān)家。通過(guò)這些方式，他們能夠匯總和篩選大量的信息。我們從經(jīng)驗(yàn)中得知，有充分的理由相信他們的建議。大學(xué)排名就利用了人們錯(cuò)誤的認(rèn)為它們會(huì)提供簡(jiǎn)單有用的建議。
What’s Wrong with College Rankings?
大學(xué)排名究竟哪里不好?
A college, however, is not a vacuum cleaner. Choosing a school is a far more personal, subjective, and ultimately expensive decision. Yet despite the greater importance and complexity of selecting a college, college rankings systems all take a far less thorough and scientific approach than Consumer Reports does when testing vacuum cleaners.
然而，一所大學(xué)不是吸塵器。選擇一所學(xué)校是極具個(gè)人感情色彩，主觀性強(qiáng)，需要承擔(dān)巨大代價(jià)的決定。然而，盡管選擇大學(xué)更為重要和復(fù)雜，但大學(xué)排名體系與《消費(fèi)者報(bào)告雜志》在測(cè)試吸塵器時(shí)所采用的方法相比，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠全面和科學(xué)。
Another problem with rankings is that they allow the dominant player – U.S. News and World Report, a magazine that has actually gone defunct and exists now only as a purveyor of rankings – to exert undue influence. A former Yale admissions officer, now working in college counseling at a high school, shared this story with me. Each year, she helps students who have just completed their junior year create a list of colleges that are a good fit with their interests, personalities, and achievements. Each summer, the students visit those schools with their families to get a first-hand look. When they return to high school in the fall, despite what they have seen on their visits and what they know about their prospects, many of the students have created new lists of their college preferences. These new lists always seem to correlate with the rankings in U.S. News. Students tend to discard excellent and appropriate colleges ranked lower in U.S. News and to add “stretch” schools that are unlikely to offer them admission. She tells me she had this experience with “truly depressing regularity.”
排名體系存在另一個(gè)問(wèn)題是，U.S. News and World Report 獨(dú)占鰲頭，這本雜志實(shí)際已經(jīng)不復(fù)存在的，現(xiàn)在似乎成了排名的承辦商，但卻具有不恰當(dāng)?shù)挠绊懥?。一名前耶魯大學(xué)招生官，目前在高中從事大學(xué)申請(qǐng)輔導(dǎo)工作，與我分享了一個(gè)故事。每年，她根據(jù)學(xué)生的興趣、個(gè)性和成就幫助11年級(jí)的學(xué)生選定大學(xué)申請(qǐng)名單。每年暑假的時(shí)候，學(xué)生們都會(huì)和家人們一起去參觀學(xué)校，得到第一手信息。當(dāng)他們?cè)谇锾旎氐礁咧袝r(shí)，盡管他們?cè)谠L校中有所了解，知道自己的前景，但是許多學(xué)生已經(jīng)擬好了新的偏好名單。這些新的名單似乎與U.S. News排名有很大關(guān)聯(lián)。學(xué)生傾向于放棄比較優(yōu)秀適合自己但在U.S. News排名較低的學(xué)校，并增加了一些不太可能被錄取的“勉強(qiáng)類(lèi)”學(xué)校。這個(gè)前耶魯招生官告訴我，她已經(jīng)習(xí)以為常了,但還是令人沮喪。
Why is That Bad?
為什么那么糟糕?
Rankings promote the notion that the college you attend signals something about your place in the world. The signal translates as something like this: “People will think better of me if I attend a more highly-ranked school.” Rankings encourage students (and parents) to internalize the myth that where you go to college defines your value and determines your future success in life.
大學(xué)排名向人們宣傳的理念是：你就讀的大學(xué)暗示著你在世界的地位。這種暗示翻譯一下差不多是這個(gè)意思：“如果我上一個(gè)排名更靠前的學(xué)校，人們對(duì)我的評(píng)價(jià)會(huì)更高”。排名引導(dǎo)學(xué)生(和家長(zhǎng))去認(rèn)同你去哪兒上學(xué)將定義你的價(jià)值和決定你未來(lái)的人生這種繆談。
What is the reality? This country happens to have hundreds of outstanding undergraduate programs, each offering more opportunities than any student could possibly pursue over four years. It will be up to the student to make something out of those opportunities, and it will not be the school that makes something out of the student.
那么，現(xiàn)實(shí)是怎樣的呢?我們國(guó)家恰好有上百個(gè)優(yōu)秀的本科項(xiàng)目，每一個(gè)項(xiàng)目提供給學(xué)生的機(jī)會(huì)，遠(yuǎn)比任何學(xué)生在大學(xué)四年里實(shí)際可能利用的要多的多。利用這些機(jī)會(huì)去做出點(diǎn)什么，取決于學(xué)生，而不是大學(xué)去利用學(xué)生去實(shí)現(xiàn)什么。
Meanwhile, the formulas used to rank schools are based on factors that in themselves are often irrelevant to individual students. Their composite scores reflect alumni giving rates, student-to-teacher ratios, median SAT scores, persistence to graduation, admissions selectivity and other data that provide little information about specific program strengths, honors programs or the general way in which the school lifts and supports student aspirations. The simplicity and clarity that ranking systems seem to offer are not only misleading, but can also be harmful. Rankings tend to ignore the very criteria that may be most important to an applicant, such as specific academic offerings, intellectual and social climate, ease of access to faculty, international opportunities and placement rates for careers or for graduate and professional school.
同時(shí)，計(jì)算排名公式是基于大學(xué)自身而通常和單個(gè)學(xué)生毫無(wú)關(guān)聯(lián)的一些因素。他們的綜合得分顯示出學(xué)校的校友捐贈(zèng)率、師生比、SAT中位數(shù)、畢業(yè)率、申請(qǐng)難度和其他一些數(shù)據(jù)，這些數(shù)據(jù)提供的關(guān)于具體學(xué)校項(xiàng)目的優(yōu)勢(shì)、榮譽(yù)項(xiàng)目或是學(xué)校通常是如何幫助學(xué)生來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)夢(mèng)想的信息少之又少。排名系統(tǒng)的簡(jiǎn)單和清晰度似乎不僅具有誤導(dǎo)性，而且是有害的。排名往往忽視了對(duì)申請(qǐng)人而言可能最重要的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，例如具體的課程設(shè)置、學(xué)術(shù)和社交氛圍、同教授接觸的機(jī)會(huì)、國(guó)際機(jī)遇、就業(yè)率和繼續(xù)深造研究生和專(zhuān)業(yè)學(xué)校的比率等。
Rankings have also turned out to be bad for colleges. They encourage schools to expend resources on things that move their ranking positions rather than things that serve their students. They diminish the appeal of colleges that serve many students extremely well but do not fit the performance parameters that the rankings measure. At one lower-ranked college, for example, students without strong prior academic records may tend to make tremendous gains, while at a higher-ranked school, even better-prepared students may tend to underperform their potential. The ranking systems provide no way to find out which is which.
排名也給大學(xué)帶來(lái)了一些不好的影響。排名促使學(xué)校把資源用來(lái)提高排名地位而不是更好地為學(xué)生服務(wù)的事情上。他們削弱了一些為學(xué)生服務(wù)的特別好但是排名參照的各種參數(shù)不太占有優(yōu)勢(shì)的學(xué)校的吸引力。例如，在一所排名較低的大學(xué)，成績(jī)不是特別優(yōu)秀的學(xué)生也可能會(huì)獲得巨大的收益，而在排名較高的學(xué)校，即便是條件很好的學(xué)生也有可能無(wú)法充分發(fā)揮自己的潛力。排名系統(tǒng)無(wú)法幫助學(xué)生分辨哪所學(xué)校更適合自己。
A Better Approach
更好的方法
Your high school academic record, teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, test scores, and personal objectives will determine the range of colleges where you stand a good chance of admission. If your school has a good counseling office, you should certainly work with your college counselor to develop a reasonable sense of the different kinds of schools that lie within that range.
你的高中成績(jī)、推薦信、課外活動(dòng)、語(yǔ)言考試成績(jī)和個(gè)人目標(biāo)將決定你能錄取的大學(xué)區(qū)間。如果你的學(xué)校有一個(gè)良好的升學(xué)咨詢(xún)室，你一定要和升學(xué)指導(dǎo)老師在這個(gè)區(qū)間內(nèi)一起努力找到真正適合自己的不同類(lèi)型的學(xué)校。
Then simply keep in mind that the “ranking” differences among the schools within that group are likely to matter far less to your college experience than how you yourself decide to explore and engage the opportunities available at those schools. Look at different types of schools. Big schools and small schools. Schools focused on liberal arts and schools focused on technical programs. Schools known best for high academic standards and schools known best for their entrepreneurial spirit, outstanding extracurricular activities or social life. Schools with strong programs in your area of interest. Schools with interesting international opportunities. Decide which of these things is most important to you.
請(qǐng)記住，于你而言，你自己打算如何探索和利用學(xué)校的機(jī)會(huì)遠(yuǎn)比學(xué)校之間的“排名”差異重要。先看看不同類(lèi)型的學(xué)校：大規(guī)模和小規(guī)模的學(xué)校;專(zhuān)注于文科和專(zhuān)注于理工項(xiàng)目的學(xué)校;以學(xué)術(shù)能力強(qiáng)著稱(chēng)的學(xué)校和重視創(chuàng)業(yè)精神并提供優(yōu)秀的課外活動(dòng)或豐富的社交生活的學(xué)校;在你感興趣的領(lǐng)域有強(qiáng)勢(shì)項(xiàng)目的學(xué)校;提供有趣的國(guó)際交流項(xiàng)目的學(xué)校。然后決定哪些對(duì)你而言是最重要的。
As you examine different types of institutions, your own feelings and thoughts are likely to change. Before zeroing in too quickly on what you think you want, give yourself time to absorb the ways in which colleges differ. Give yourself time to change your mind as you look at very different kinds of schools.
當(dāng)你把院校類(lèi)型納入擇校因素時(shí)，你自己的感覺(jué)和想法可能會(huì)發(fā)生改變。在你快速專(zhuān)注于你覺(jué)得你想要的學(xué)校前，給自己一定的時(shí)間理解各種高校之間的不同。當(dāng)你考察不同類(lèi)型的學(xué)校時(shí)，給自己時(shí)間去改變心意。
Perhaps you feel absolutely certain of the kind of school you want to attend, and you have a list of such places where you have a reasonable chance of admission. Even so, I urge you to apply to a couple of schools that do not fit the profile, but that you find interesting for one reason or another. Why? I have often seen students respond to a college very differently once they have been admitted in the spring than they did when visiting the prior summer. Students change in some important ways during their senior year in high school as they look outward to the rest of their lives, and they learn a great deal about colleges along the way. Give yourself the option in the spring of heading in a direction you did not anticipate in the fall.
也許你覺(jué)得非常明確想要去哪些學(xué)校，并且列出了能夠有機(jī)會(huì)入讀的學(xué)校清單。即使如此，我也希望你申請(qǐng)一些不符合你要求但是由于某種原因很吸引你的學(xué)校。為什么?因?yàn)槲医?jīng)?？吹?，學(xué)生在春季入學(xué)后，同夏季訪校時(shí)，對(duì)學(xué)校有完全不一樣的反應(yīng)。隨著同學(xué)們?cè)诟呷臅r(shí)候展望自己的余生，并且對(duì)大學(xué)的了解增多時(shí)，他們?cè)趽裥Ｉ蠒?huì)發(fā)生很重要的改變。在春季給自己多一個(gè)選項(xiàng)：這個(gè)選項(xiàng)是你可能在秋季的時(shí)候去到一個(gè)完全沒(méi)有預(yù)料到的方向。
Finally, once you have finished your applications, relax. You will very probably gain admission to some of your chosen colleges. You will probably have a few campuses to revisit as you make your final selection. You will also be prepared to attend college with the understanding that its rank does not correlate with what you are going to do there and how fulfilling the experience will be. What you accomplish in college – and in the years after – will instead be a function of how well you engage the incredible variety of opportunities and challenges that college presents.
最后，一旦你完成了所有申請(qǐng)，那么請(qǐng)放松一下。你很可能會(huì)獲得目標(biāo)院校的錄取。你也可能需要再次訪校，選擇最終入讀哪所大學(xué)。你必須明了，你即將入讀的大學(xué)的排名與自己將要在那里做什么和這些體驗(yàn)是多么的充實(shí)是沒(méi)有關(guān)聯(lián)的。你在大學(xué)期間-甚至是畢業(yè)之后的人生里取得的成績(jī)，是你如何利用各種絕佳的機(jī)會(huì)和資源以及如何應(yīng)對(duì)大學(xué)給你的挑戰(zhàn)的結(jié)果。