On Rankings of Schools

I spent several days off the Internet this summer, when visiting my mother in Kansas. She subscribes to a lot of magazines and it is a good time to catch up on a bit of reading in the free time that comes up. An article, “Are rankings over-rated?” in an advertising section in the June, 2010 issue of Scientific American caught my eye, especially these following statements referenced from Jon Butler, a dean at Yale.

For example, Butler says that a school ranked #12 and another ranked #6 may only be separated by a few points. Even though all programs and schools have been assigned a numerical score, the differences between those scores–particularly among the top 20 or so–are often slight. Butler calls the perception that there are significant differences among the top 20 schools because they each have different numerical scores “false precisionism.” That ‘precisionism’ becomes even more false when you drill down from the broad level of an individual school to the more specific–and more important–details about a particular department or faculty member; both of those choices will have more bearing on your overall satisfaction with your graduate experience….

Reading on in the article the bottom line of your experience will be based on the quality of the faculty member that will be your graduate advisor.

This thought is pretty easy to translate to horn in a way but in a way it is not. What is a quality faculty member? I have written in other posts of the “famous teacher” trap; they may or may not be a good fit for you just because they are well known. It is all something to research out early to make wise choices and is much more than just considering which schools are popular or famous for their music programs.