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  3. Every year, various organizations and magazines publish college rankings issues in their countries. These rankings often get a l

Every year, various organizations and magazines publish college rankings issues in their countries. These rankings often get a l

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问题         Every year, various organizations and magazines publish college rankings issues in their countries. These rankings often get a lot of attention from the media, colleges and college-bound students and their parents. But are these rankings actually a good thing? The following excerpts are opinions from two American experts on this issue.
        Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
        1. summarize both opinions, and then
        2. express your opinion towards college rankings.
Excerpt 1
        Philip Altbac, Research Professor in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College
        College and university rankings are ubiquitous worldwide. Big decisions are made on the basis of rankings. Students and their families use them for deciding where to study, governments sometimes allocate funds on the basis of rankings and the academic community obsesses over its current score.
        In today’s world of mass and competitive higher education, rankings are probably and unfortunately inevitable. But what do the rankings measure? Everything and nothing.
        They claim to provide in a single score the essence of quality. But quality cannot be measured easily, and some aspects of educational performance cannot be accurately assessed at all. Research performance is most easily assessed; it is possible to count articles, grants, books and to measure the impact of work in the sciences.
        Most rankings rely a lot on measures of reputation, such as asking administrators and academics what they think about various universities. These are notoriously inaccurate. No one has wide knowledge of a range of schools, particularly if asked about institutions in other countries, and subjectivity reigns supreme. Other key variables cannot be accurately gauged. Teaching quality and learning outcomes are among the most problematical—and most important.
        Further, one size does not fit all in higher education. Harvard University differs immensely from Bunker Hill Community College, just a few miles away. Rankings generally measure the research universities and neglect the rest. Some of the rankings change their criteria from year to year, thus making it difficult to trace trends over time.
Excerpt 2
        Paul Glastris, American journalist and political columnist
        I like rankings. So do most students and parents. Rankings provide a quick and easy way for normal, busy people to visually grasp the results of assessments that are often quite complex. We rely on rankings—Zagat for restaurants, Angle’s List for contractors, Consumer Reports for just about everything else—to be our arbiters of quality and value because we don’t have the time or ability to reliably figure out all the products and services in the marketplace on our own.
        This is especially true of colleges. Higher education is the biggest investment many people will ever make, and often the most fateful. College is also what economists call an "experience good"— that is, a good or service whose quality isn’t readily apparent until after you’ve consumed it. It’s almost impossible to buy an experience good intelligently without some reliable third party assessment.
        Though certainly not perfect, popular college rankings are a great way to sift through thousands of universities and find college options that are most in tune with an individual’s wants and needs. In the broadest sense, rankings provide a list of top colleges. This allows prospective students to identify and expand the list of potential 4-year or online schools based on quality of degree programs, majors available, career opportunities and more. For example, if a small school is your priority, you can find a list of the top ten small schools. If you’re primarily looking for a social experience, you can check out the top ten party schools.
选项
答案 College Ranking Is a Blessing The college rankings published annually by various organizations and magazines attract a lot of eyeballs. Whether such conduct is good or not? Supporters, like Mr. Glastris, take it as a beneficial information as it can help students to choose colleges that accord with their preferences conveniently, while professor Altbac attacks the rankings on their criteria which aren’t scientific enough, leading to an inaccurate evaluation of colleges. And the criteria of some rankings vary each year, making it very difficult to follow the change of rankings. Moreover, all the current rankings generally give priority to research universities and neglect others. As far as I’m concerned, college ranking is a blessing based on the following three reasons. Firstly, college rankings give people a direct and fast way of distinguishing thousands of universities around the world. As going to college is a major investment for most families, college rankings published in major media will make more data available to people who are intended to make sensible and efficient choices. Secondly, in response to the attack on the validity of the rankings, i.e. the criteria chosen, I believe that different rankings must have considered different criteria which will provide a relatively comprehensive picture on the strengths and weakness of universities. For example, there are also specialized rankings on universities such as rankings based on a specific major, employment and student satisfaction rate. As most rankings have already published their measuring criteria, people can choose which ranking to believe based on what they consider the most important factor. Thirdly, rankings at universities around the world also reveal a distribution of quality education resources around the globe. Taking a closer look at these data is crucial and helpful when the public is considering to improve global issues such as education equality and north-south gap. Armed with the three reasons above, I believe universities ranking is a blessing regardless of the uncertain criteria the rankings are conducted by. It’s advantageous to both individuals who are faced with the choice of college and the interest of the public.
解析         材料围绕“大学排名是否是好事”进行了探讨，两个选段正好是相反的观点。
        选段一是反对的观点，指出这些大学排名的评估方式并不准确。首先，一所学校的教学质量并不能简单评估出来（quality cannot be measured easily）；其次，这些排名大多依赖学校的声誉做判断，众所周知这是不可靠的（notoriously inaccurate）。而且这些排名多关注研究型大学而忽略其他学校，标准（criteria）也每年都不同，这些都说明排名不可靠。
        选段二则是支持的观点，指出排名能够让人们迅速便捷地了解信息，而大学可以被看作是“体验式商品”，没有可靠第三方的评估（reliable third party assessment），人们很难作出选择。这些排名还能让学生根据自己的需要选择合适的大学。
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