By Karen Vargo
U.S. News and World Report”s best colleges survey recently ranked BYU among its yearly best.
These rankings are nationally recognized and are used by some to help determine where to attend college.
BYU is continuing to stand strong academically.
According to the U.S. News report, BYU has a 90 percent freshman retention rate and a graduation rate of 71 percent in the year 2000. Also, according to the report, BYU”s accounting program was ranked sixth, the business program was ranked 38th and general management was ranked 46th, all among the other 249 ranked national universities.
“Students can use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of the many criteria students should consider in choosing a college,” according to the U.S. News report.
So while BYU students and faculty are concerned that BYU receive good rankings, it is not the only qualifying factor.
Although rankings are helpful and necessary, they do not take every aspect of a university into account.
“People need to remember that rankings only deal with what someone thinks is important. Therefore the ranking is simply their view of the world and how they place things within that view,” Jeffery M. Tanner, associate dean of admissions and records, said.
The aim of a BYU education is to be spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character building, leading to lifelong learning and service, according the BYU Web site.
These are aspects of BYU that cannot be academically ranked, Tanner said.
If a student decides to attend an institution based on ranking alone they may find the university not to be a good match for them, he said.
Most attending BYU hold the aim of a BYU education to be unique.
“The people that come here, are here not only for a good education but also for a spiritual experience, and I feel that”s what BYU gives them, and that”s what they are looking for,” said Robin Jolley, a junior from Vernal, Uintah County, majoring in history education.
Students would like BYU to be ranked high but feel the ranking is not necessarily what draws students to BYU, she said.
