Quick question: Where is Saint Xavier University?
No, the school in Cincinnati with a basketball team that usually plays in the NCAA tournament is simply called Xavier.
But many of you probably know that Saint Xavier is located in Chicago. You might have even seen the school’s TV ads during Cubs and White Sox games.
I bring up SXU because it recently made a prestigious list detailing the top U.S. colleges. That would normally be something you’d want to shout from the rooftop of an academic hall.
But how and where the school is listed should really raise questions about fairness, as well as how much stock we should put into lists like these in the first place.
The Wall Street Journal and the Times Higher Education released its annual U.S. college rankings report, including a big front page photo on the Journal’s Sept. 27 edition of a mansion-like university hall adorned with tall white columns, large windows and a castle-like front entrance with the headline, “Harvard Takes Top Honors.”
Duh, big surprise there.
The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education ranked more than 500 colleges and universities based on key indicators in four focus areas – student outcomes, engagement, environment and resources. So, it’s no wonder that most of the schools at the top of the list are the usual Ivy League suspects – with Duke, Stanford and MIT thrown in for a little non-ivy flavor.
The list of both public and private higher learning institutions went on for six pages. As I kept scanning past the first 100, 200 and 300, I wondered what schools might be at the bottom.
So, I flipped to the last page of the special section and found the schools listed at the very bottom. In a nine-way tie for 500th place is … yup … Saint Xavier University.
Tacking SXU on the end of a ginormous list of best colleges, which features plenty of other schools that you’ve never heard of, is kind of like comparing a local community hospital with the Mayo Clinic.
Treatments for conditions should pretty much be the same at both medical centers. The big difference is that one place has much more resources than the other.
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I personally don’t know of any Saint Xavier alumni, and I’ve never been to the SXU campus on the city’s far South Side. But I’m willing to bet though that the majority of its students decided to enroll because the school was the best fit for what they wanted to study and the best fit for what they could afford as they prepare for a future career.
That should be the primary reason any student chooses a school. It has to be a good fit.
I would hope that Saint Xavier administrators laughed after looking at this list, instead of feeling disappointed.
The Wall Street Journal/THE rankings does break schools out into different distinctions and also highlights other small schools. But to say the rankings mean there are 499 plus better colleges to attend than SXU is quite an elitist stretch.
Should you think a nurse trained at one of the top schools on the list is really 500 times better than a nurse with a degree from SXU? Of course not. Furthermore, no one should think schools at the bottom of the list are “bad” because they’re not ranked close to mighty Harvard.
There’s a perfect-fit college out there for each student who does their homework to find the right place to prep for their future. Regardless of where it sits on some list, a ranking shouldn’t discourage someone from thinking it is the best-fit school to meet their career-growth needs.
Eric Scott is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.