One of the most recent popular memes on TikTok involves a fictitious “boss and CEO” telling random people they’ve been promoted and are now one of her “elite employees!” Everyone is in on the joke that mocks the elitism concept.
In fact, authentic feelings and transparency are the new buzzwords — except in higher ed. It seems students, parents and alumni cling to the idea that the most prestigious names deliver the best education.
For Black students, the desire to attend an “elite” institution appears to be even harder than before. Last year the Supreme Court ended what are called race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities. The consequences are real: Black students make up just 5% of MIT’s incoming class; last year it was 15%. At Harvard, the percentage of incoming Black students dropped from 18 to 14.
But what if we’re looking at the situation through the wrong lens? What if most of the college rankings are just rewarding institutions for their wealth, fame and exclusivity?
America needs a new definition of higher education excellence, one that measures what colleges do for their country, instead of for themselves.
A better way to rank colleges is by evaluating them on their commitment to three goals: social mobility, research, and public service. That’s exactly what Washington Monthly magazine does in its College Guide.
What we see is that colleges that serve non-wealthy students and their communities do exceedingly well with these metrics, including historically Black colleges and universities, such as the ones below:
National Universities (Institutions that award a significant number of doctoral degrees)
• Winston-Salem State University: #96
• Jackson State University: #102 (out of 438 institutions)
Master’s Universities (Institutions that award a significant number of master’s degrees but few or no doctoral degrees):
• Tuskegee University: #50 (out of 589)
Bachelor’s Colleges: (Institutions that award almost exclusively bachelor’s degrees)
• Elizabeth City State University: #4
• Central State University: #24
• Bluefield State University: #28
Best Bang for the Buck—South: (The schools where students of modest means get the most for their money):
• Jackson State University: #18
• Paul Quinn College: #27
• Kentucky State University: #30
Best Bang for the Buck—Southeast:
• Elizabeth City State University: #12
• Winston-Salem State University: #13
• Bethune-Cookman University: #15
HBCUs offer incredible opportunities and support. Beyond HBCUs, regional public universities are too often overlooked, even though they graduate 60% of Black students with 4-year degrees.
U.S. News & World Report lists only three regional public schools among its top 100 national universities. In comparison, these regional public schools make it onto Washington Monthly’s top 100: Fresno State (#22), Florida Atlantic University (#41), and Montclair State (#57).
However, in spite of these findings, the Ivy Leagues still hold the public’s imagination in terms of prestige. Yet Professor David Kang reports that 14 of the 20 CEOs at the nation’s biggest companies by revenue went to public colleges, not elite private programs.
It’s very challenging to precisely figure out the value of higher ed. Just counting on one rating service can steer students the wrong way and could really dissuade them from going to college at all. Students should look at the rankings, highlighted in this column, that examine the value individual colleges offer to individual students and to the country as a whole.
Professor Barbara Diggs-Brown frequently lectures and writes on race in the media and co-authored a critically acclaimed analysis of race relations in the U.S., “By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race,” published by Dutton.