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Should Top Schools Boycott College Rankings?

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Ian Fisher College Coach

Written by Ian Brook Fisheron September 20th, 2017

I began my career in admissions by walking backwards as a student intern, giving guided tours, interviewing students, and reading applications for my alma mater, Reed College. After graduating, I began full-time work in admissions, reading thousands of applications primarily from the Western United States, especially Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. (I got to eat the best food on my travel!) In my last three years at Reed, I directed admissions for the entire continent of Asia and served as the director of marketing and communications for the admission office, honing our official voice for web, print, and social media. This helped me to develop a sharp eye for what works (and what doesn’t) in college essays. While Reed is not known (at all!) for sports, I was able to find my competitive outlet with the ultimate Frisbee team as a player and, when I graduated, a coach. After nine wonderful years at Reed, I left Portland to pursue a M.A. at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. When I graduated and joined College Coach, I was living in Palo Alto, California, an experience that helped me learn so much about the UC and CSU system and high school programs all around the Bay Area. In the end, I missed the rain too much, and moved back to Portland in the summer of 2016.
Learn More About Ian
Many families depend upon college rankings as a vital tool in their college search process, but new research suggests that a popular ranking system may do more harm than good in the world of higher education.  In his latest Huffington Post article, College Coach’s Ian Fisher calls upon universities leaders to take the difficult steps that are necessary to improve educational opportunity within their institutions at the precious cost of their high spots on the list of “best colleges.” See what Ian has to say in his HuffPo piece: “Change from the Top: How the ‘Best’ Schools Can Lead Us Away From Rankings Hysteria.” And, if you’d like to hear more about what Ian has to say about college rankings, check out these previous Insider posts: College-Visit-CTA

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