Some publications that rank schools and colleges say they do it to promote accountability; others say they do it to provide information to consumers. Those of us who work with students and parents have grave doubts about these motivations, doubts that were confirmed when The Wall Street Journal" s reporter told one of us that "this type of story gets a lot of readers". Indeed. Our belief is that rankings exist not because they help, but because they sell. The reality we see every day is that the choice of a college is a very personal matter, one that takes into account many different factors that all combine, sometimes mysteriously, into what we can only characterize as the right "fit. " Rankings never help us find that fit, for they misuse data in suggesting one can capture a general reality for all applicants, failing to understand the great differences we see between individual human beings trying to make sense of their own situations amid a wide array of options. If there is any type of ranking to be developed, it can only be a personal one, done based on one"s own unique set of criteria. No one ranking "fits" all. Far more important than where one goes to college is how well one engages with the opportunities afforded by that college, how much one learns at that college, and how well one is prepared for further study and adult life"s real challenges. Some highly ranked places turn out tragically wrong for students who manage to get in but find the burden of additional competition just too much to bear, while less-publicized colleges turn out to be powerfully positive places for young people we know. Each year, especially in the selective, college-preparatory, tuition-conscious schools where we work, we see students and parents who are vulnerable to the rankings-driven reasoning that they must matriculate at a certain set of places; otherwise, goes the conventional wisdom, they will have failed at someone else"s notion of what constitutes early adult success. We understand the desire to simplify the complex, to quantify the qualitative, to post a Top 10 or a ranking to satisfy the market-driven need to sell ad space an publications. But we reject doing so when it comes to colleges and schools. We who counsel young people and their parents would urge that such ratings and rankings concern matters of entertainment, not the educations of individual human beings who need more real help from the adults in their lives.

单选题 The author believes that ranking schools and colleges helps publications become more______.

单选题 The author points out that the choice of a college for an applicant is______.

单选题 It is true that______.

单选题 According to the text, highly ranked colleges______.

单选题 The author asserts that the ranking of schools and colleges should______.