Although undergraduate university ranking is an important consideration when picking out a college, people often overvalue it and overlook other things. When I was in during college, I was obsessed with undergraduate ranking. My parents drove me to succeed, and I was used to always striving to be the best and brightest. Undergraduate ranking seem like one of the most important considerations to me.
I wanted to go to the school with the best engineering program, believing that I would follow in my father's footsteps and be an engineer. I never considered more important factors like what kind of college I wanted to attend. Did I want to go, for example, to a small school or a large one? Did I want an urban location, or a school more isolated and separate from the city? What kinds of people did I want to associate with, and what kind of college environment did I desire? These are the questions I should have been asking, but instead I was obsessed with undergraduate rankings.
The fact is that you can't really reduce a college to numbers. This is especially true with undergraduate ranking. When you are going to grad school, looking at ranking makes a little but more sense. Graduate ranking is important because you have already picked out your program and are looking at a specific course set. With undergraduate university, however, you don't really know what you are going to major in. You may think that you have your whole career planned out, but most students change their major at least a couple times.
Rather than finding a school with good undergraduate ranking, you should find one with good all-around educational opportunities and the right atmosphere for you to succeed. College isn't just another opportunity for education. It is the time in your life when you really come out into the world, making friendships that will last a lifetime and connections that will be important in planning your future.
One of the things you have to realize is that most of your undergraduate courses, at least for the first couple years of your education, will be in large lecture halls. Even if you are in a high ranking school, you will not really benefit from it until you get into higher levels. This is why I am a firm believer in going to the school with the most diverse opportunities possible. The more you can experience, the easier it will be for you to decide what the future holds for you.
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