Julia R. Cartwright’s Sept. 16 online op-ed, “Higher ed is a ‘market for lemons.’ College rankings aren’t helping,” is right that families deserve clear information about what colleges deliver.
Institutions should be held accountable for their students’ career outcomes. That is precisely why U.S. News & World Report added the earnings-by-major category to its Best Colleges rankings.
But the value of colleges cannot be determined solely by earnings a few years after graduation. Degree completion itself matters for employment and earnings. For that reason, whether students earn a bachelor’s degree and whether an institution graduates students at rates above or below expectations are meaningful measures of performance. This is especially important when ranking 1,500 institutions with varying completion rates.
Earnings data also cannot tell the entire story. The available data capture only employed graduates who received federal aid and whose highest degree is a bachelor’s. They do not fully represent graduates who pursue advanced degrees or careers in comparatively lower-paying fields.
The new U.S. News measure does not assume that the highest-paying jobs should automatically rise to the top; it instead compares earnings within fields of study rather than rewarding institutions that grant the most degrees in high-earning fields.
A well-rounded education matters. Faculty strength, institutional resources and the preparation of students help shape the academic environment. Assessments by top academics also have practical consequences. How other institutions view a college’s offerings can affect graduates’ access to advanced studies and future opportunities that early-career earnings data poorly capture.
Salary figures among specific early-career graduates provide a useful economic lens. But the Education Department’s earnings data should not be mistaken for comprehensive assessments of college value.
Eric Brooks, Washington
The writer is director of education data analysis at U.S. News & World Report.
I agree with Julia R. Cartwright that college rankings measure prestige more than results. But replacing reputation with earnings, employment and whether graduates have left their parents’ homes would substitute several incomplete proxies for another.
Those measures tell us about graduates’ economic circumstances, not what their colleges taught them. Earnings can also reflect students’ prior advantages, fields of study, regional labor markets and decisions to enter lower-paying professions such as teaching and public service. Living at home may reveal more about housing costs or family responsibilities than educational quality. The more fundamental information gap concerns learning. What does a graduate know and understand, and what can that graduate do independently because of the education received?
Grade inflation has weakened the transcript as evidence, as Cartwright observes. Generative artificial intelligence further complicates what institutions can infer from polished student work. Colleges award credentials to individuals.
Families and the public therefore need direct, program-specific evidence that graduates can analyze information, exercise judgment and accept responsibility for conclusions — not merely evidence that they completed courses or later earned a particular salary.
Employment and debt belong in any honest accounting. But until colleges can show what their degrees actually certify, rankings will continue to measure the circumstances surrounding an education rather than the education itself.
Roger Ochse, Tucson
The writer is a professor emeritus at Black Hills State University.
What I tell my daughters about AI
Regarding the Sept. 17 online Roundup, “‘It was a mistake’: What four writers wish they’d studied”:
This September, my younger daughter entered college. My eldest daughter is starting her third year and is considering what to specialize in. Over the past few years, I’ve talked with them many times about choosing skills and majors that will be useful to them while trying to make sense of what artificial intelligence means for their futures.
Talk of AI is everywhere. And some of the loudest voices promoting its promise might also turn out to be the most wrong. But college students today would be making a huge mistake if they avoided AI altogether.
We are lucky to be living in a moment of tremendous technological progress. That means we have the chance to seize the opportunities presented by this unfolding technology and direct its development toward a better future, one that benefits humanity for the long term.
So this is the message I want my daughters, and every young person starting out, to hear: Do not let either hype or fear make this choice for you. Learn this technology. Question it. Shape it. Use it to solve problems worth solving.
Ali Kashani, Vancouver
The writer is co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics.
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