The Brown & White

For many high school seniors, college rankings from publications such as U.S. News and World Report are an important tool in their decision making about which college to attend.

Forbes magazine released its own set of college rankings in August placing Lehigh at 310th.

In comparison, U.S. News and World Report ranks Lehigh as 35th in the nation, and BusinessWeek has rated several of Lehigh's business programs highly, including a rank of first in the nation for the accounting program.

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity ranked 569 colleges and universities based on the quality of the education they provide and how much their students achieve, according to the Forbes article.

J. Leon Washington, dean of admissions, said that the different methodologies that Forbes and U.S. News and World Report use to produce their rankings caused the variations.

The CCAP based their rankings on the responses on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com and also on how many of Lehigh's alumni were included in the Marquis publication, "Who's Who in America."

The average amount of debt at graduation, percentage of students who graduated in four years and the number of students who won national awards, such as the Nobel Prize, were also considered in Forbes' rankings.

Other college rankings use noticeably different methods. U.S. News and World Report, for example, separates the schools into either research universities or liberal arts colleges and also by location in the U.S. Information about the schools in 15 different academic categories is gathered and each area is assigned a weight. The schools are then ranked on their weighted combined scores.

Washington said he thinks there is more to colleges than what rankings say.

"Personally, I do not agree with Forbes' rankings," he said. "It is my hope, however, that students will continue to look beyond mere rankings in selecting a school to attend."

Students should look for schools that are the right fit by visiting, interacting with faculty and students and making sure what they want to pursue is offered, Washington said.

Washington said he urges prospective students to look beyond the rankings to more substantive elements such as reputation, academic offerings, location and the success of a college's alumni.

"Probably the last thing we need is another system that ranks colleges and universities, but since the college search process is not a 'one size fits all' approach, then perhaps some students might find the different ranking systems beneficial," Washington said.

Washington said the Forbes rankings will not cause any changes to the way Lehigh operates.

"We won't change anything," he said. "I think that we have already established a long, rich tradition of providing students with an outstanding, well-rounded, enjoyable college experience."