A Word About Rankings
by Mike Sexton, Dean of Admissions

While you may have noticed that Lewis & Clark College appears in most all of the objective and subjective college admission guide books and magazines, you will not see us citing them in our admissions information. Many of these books and magazines claim to know the “best” institutions and even to rank them.

Many of these guide books, and their respective web sites, do contain valuable information to which you should have access during your college search. They contain everything from objective data that the colleges report to single student quotes, sometimes taken out of context. The statistically laden guides are a great place to start, but I advise against letting someone else decide which of those statistics should be most important to you in your college search.

The guides with less data and more narrative are usually much more interesting to read … and sell. Most admissions deans who read the entries about their institutions will cringe at some points, but also agree that there are elements of truth, too. We know the challenge of trying to capture the campus “culture” in our own series of publications and web sites, so you can probably imagine how well we think a brief, 800 word essay captures the essence of our institution, which was founded over 130 years ago.

“Knowledge is power.” wrote the English philosopher and lawyer Francis Bacon in 1597. Don’t give up the power you have in undertaking a thorough college search. Gather the information you can from books, other people and, most importantly, firsthand impressions. Put it all through your personal “filter.” That filter is unique to you as you decide what college is the best “fit.”

I invite you to consider an alternative viewpoint to the commercialized process that college admissions has become. The Education Conservancy is a non-profit organization that recently published a book entitled, “College Unranked.” It is a collection of essays by college presidents and deans who feel there is more to college choice than rankings. It also has timely advice for students and parents.

Enjoy the college search process. It should be great time of self-defining and discovery.

August 2004