College & Workforce Readiness

High School Counselors and College Officials Differ on Some College Rankings

By Caralee J. Adams — January 03, 2014 1 min read
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Ask a high school counselor and a college official what they think about the reputation of a certain college and the answers can vary. That’s what U.S. News and World Report has chronicled in a new analysis released Tuesday.

The magazine has a list of colleges ranked more highly by high school counselors than college officials and another list of one that college officials think are better.

For the first time this year, the magazine included national liberal arts colleges in this comparison, along with national universities.

Robert Morse, the director of data research for U.S. News, notes that universities more highly ranked by high school counselors tend to be either smaller schools, universities that have recently expanded into research and doctoral degrees, or schools with a science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—concentration. The universities that are more highly ranked by college officials than by high school counselors are all very large public universities, often the state’s flagship school.

To see the different lists, go to Morse’s recent blog post here.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the College Bound blog.