Recently Challenge Success, the nationwide program that aims to decrease stress in students and increase student engagement through school based reform, released their fourth White Paper. These informational booklets cover topics relating to high school students that Challenge Success members have researched. The latest paper, titled ‘A ‘Fit’ Over Rankings: Why College Engagement Matters More Than Selectivity’, reveals a finding relevant for many students: the selectivity of a college that one attends has no bearing on success and happiness later in life.

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The white paper targets three main areas of interest, each of which can be summed up in one question. The sections are thus accordingly titled ‘What do college rankings really measure?’, ‘What is the relationship between college selectivity and student outcomes?’, and ‘What is ‘fit’? Why does it matter?’. Within these sections, the Challenge Success presents their research and draws out one final answer to address the guiding question.

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Beginning with ‘What do college rankings really measure?’, the research dives right into the criteria that they claim many students base their choices on. The section points out that rankings often collect easily gathered data, such as minimum SAT scores, graduation rate, reputation among peers, class size, etc. According to Challenge Success, the most meaningful information isn’t gathered at all. They point out how arbitrary the information in popular books and blogs, such as Barron’s, The Princeton Review, and U.S. News and World Report, can be.

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Regarding reputation, for example, they point out how measuring changes in the quality of professors at the school, which they argue should be reflected in the reputation category, is “an unreasonable task for already busy administrators and high school counselors”. These very administrators and counselors are the individuals they rely on for calculations. They support other critiques in similar ways.

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In the next section, ‘What is the relationship between college selectivity and student outcomes?’, Challenge Success introduces the theme of success being found through what a student does rather than where they do it. Citing data from the 2014 Gallup-Purdue annual report, they show that the report “found no relationship between college selectivity and both workplace engagement and general well-being.”

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Using that statistic as a launchpad, the text goes on to prove that a similar statement can be made in regard to economic standing after college: there is no relationship between selectivity and future economic standing.

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The final section details how engagement and personal drive within a student is, in the eyes of Challenge Success and their research, the main component to success and happiness. They conclude that “Engagement is key”. For guidance counselor Dr. John Steere, this conclusion is reassuring.

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“Especially within the U.S., people get very easily caught up in the name of a school. This is giving us data to support our work of finding the right fit for students. It’s not going to change what we do, but it gives us more backing of what we are doing,” Steere said.

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The creation of this paper originated from a survey conducted by Challenge Success across 100,000 high schools in the U.S. where they found that the college process presented the most stress for students. At the high school, students mirror that finding.

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“The college process has been very stressful, especially with the early November 1 deadline. For me, particularly, I’m often afraid that I’ll disagree with my choices of where to apply later on in the process,” said Rebecca Eneyni ’19.

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While the white paper strives to inspire students to base their choice on the fit of the college, rather than the ranking, Eneyni feels optimistic yet still skeptical of its overall impact.

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“It certainly removes some of my anxiety regarding college applications knowing that there is no correlation between success later in life and what college you attend. Unfortunately,  I highly doubt it will change the culture in school. I know many people value the name and prestige of the school over the education they would actually be receiving,” Eneyni said.