College ranking tool that puts students first.

Inaccurate college and career information disproportionately impacts first-generation students life outcomes

In seven years of being a nonprofit founder, few conversations are more memorable to me than when a?super smart, charismatic first-generation college student - who will likely?be my boss?someday -?told me that he wanted to go into social work and make a starting salary of $90k/year.

For a multi-generational college student with family financial security, this sort of misunderstanding, relative to how much a person can expect to make as a social worker, would be a wide-eyed misconception. For a first-generation college student with no safety net, this kind of information asymmetry is a career-destroyer, and I don’t use that language lightly. There are enormous assumptions about wealth, financial security, and preparation built into our workforce, and the resources and relationships that young people need to sort these things out are remarkably scarce.

A student-centered ranking tool

That’s why I’m so excited about the new college ranking tool that The New York Times?just released.

In short, the tool acknowledges that different students use different criteria when evaluating their college decisions, and that those criteria are driven by both preferences and life circumstances. While none of this sounds revolutionary, the result is clear: when students get to choose their own criteria, the?“top 10 lists” of colleges are dramatically different.

For many years, philanthropy, nonprofits and the social sector in general took a “one-size fits all”?approach to college rankings. That approach included “validated studies” from “esteemed institutions” touted by “public intellectuals”. The message underlying all of these old assumptions was simple: some people (read: not you, but rather elite gatekeepers in the media who went to Ivy League schools) know what’s best, and know what’s best for you.

At some point in the last ten years, though, the pendulum swung in the other direction, towards prioritizing and centering youth voices. While that correction was absolutely necessary, there is still a significant role for the social sector to play in equipping young people with the information necessary to make great decisions. If a young person says they want to go into social work and earn $90k a year coming out of college, we owe them some information. If a student who despises hard sciences is set on becoming a doctor because of the earning potential, we owe them some tough love.??

When students choose, this is what happens

That’s what I love about this new tool; it accounts for student preferences, while supplementing those instincts with real information, which is what we strive to do at Basta every day . We acknowledge that individuals know themselves best, and that what they need from us as experts and adults are critical mirrors and timely information, to ensure that their decision-making is rooted in truth, and not illusion. There are many factors that go into selecting a college, for example: from sticker price to party scene to earning potential. The Times tool has isolated 17 distinct variables, and prioritizing different factors has a dramatic effect on which colleges it recommends. Consider, for example, these three student profiles, which I invented:?

• Anna: grew up in the northeast.Her family owns a regional business that she is expected to take over one day. While college is not a necessity for her, that’s always been the known path. Her grades are fine, and what she’s most excited about is being independent and experiencing “college life.”?

=> Selected criteria: party scene, campus safety, athletics

• Darren: grew up on the west coast and is the first in his family to attend college. He’s always been known for his academic prowess, and both his school community and his family have high hopes and expectations for what a college degree will mean for his future. Darren feels the pressure and responsibility of those expectations and wants to live up to them.

=> Selected criteria: high earning potential, economic mobility, diversity

• Benji: grew up in the south, solidly middle class. His mom went to college and his dad did not. One of his siblings has an associate’s degree, while the other is in college. He always knew he would go to college. He doesn’t really see a major difference between his parents’ jobs, nor how his two siblings are experiencing their post-high school lives.?

=> Selected criteria: economic mobility, low sticker price, athletics

Using each of these students’ stated criteria, there was zero overlap in the top five colleges the tool recommended for each student.?

Notice how none of the recommended colleges are elite institutions - except for MIT - that are historically in the top tiers? In fact, six senior colleges of The City University of New York lead the nation in providing a combination of affordability, academics, diversity and high post-attendance earnings.

If this strikes you as wrong, chaotic, or confusing, I want to urge you to rethink your assumptions about higher education. This tool, while not perfect, pushes us beyond silver bullet solutions. It requires us to take a user-centered lens when designing solutions, as there was never a single ranking system that made sense. And with economic mobility as one of the criteria, my hope is that we are ready to engage in the necessary dialogue to critically examine how our higher education institutions can contribute to building career pathways for first-generation students before they pay their first tuition bill.

Sheila Sarem

Basta , CEO and founder