Last month, UT ranked 56th in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities, with a global score of 73.6. It is the only Texas university in the top 100 — but that does not mean that a UT degree will guarantee students a successful future. In reality, prestige is not the most important thing students should consider when choosing a school.
Even though institutional reputation can boost your resume when entering the job market, individual accomplishments and market-aligned skills are safer bets. Students who want to maximize their employability should not base their school decision solely on rankings, but rather look for programs that offer the best value for money.
A 2023 study found that applicants who graduated from elite institutions were about 40% more likely to receive callbacks from recruiters, suggesting institutional bias. So, students anxious about their job prospects should not discard school rankings completely.
Gerardo Blanco, academic director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, explained that there are at least three dimensions of employability, and school prestige is only one of them. Components — like the individual and the field of study — matter just as much, if not more.
“You could go to Harvard, a very highly regarded institution, well-recognized in the global rankings, but you majored in something that maybe doesn’t lead to a lot of employment possibilities,” Blanco said.
Without good grades or skills in a high-demand field, a school’s name won’t get you far.
“The name of a school only matters if you can afford it,” said Denis Herrera, a second-year master’s student in higher education leadership and policy.
Herrera chose UT because it was more affordable than other schools to which he was admitted. He recommends prioritizing schools that offer work opportunities like graduate or teaching assistantships.
A study by Georgiana Mihut, an associate professor at the University of Warwick, found that human capital actually carries more weight than university prestige in the hiring process. Applicants whose resumes best met job requirements had a 79% higher callback rate.
Moreover, an applicant’s specific field and individual achievements are a much more reliable employment metric than the subjective criteria global rankings use to define prestige.
According to Blanco, about 60% of the ranking weight is based on subjective reputation surveys sent to academics, rather than actual teaching quality or student outcomes. These respondents tend to reinforce bias by selecting the same elite institutions, because they often have little knowledge of other programs.
“Rankings, or the organizations behind the rankings, are not neutral referees in a fair competition,” Blanco said.
Global university rankings are computed by subscription-based media organizations, whose business models depend on generating attention. Increasingly, these entities sell data back to universities and offer customized analysis about how they measure up against specific competitors, which creates a conflict of interest.
Beyond methodology flaws, prestige also comes at a price. Highly ranked institutions usually have expensive programs. With the uncertainty of today’s job market, entering into student debt just to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities is quite risky.
When choosing schools, students should consider programs that offer the best value for money and strong graduate outcomes in their field. Not graduating from a top school doesn’t mean you can’t achieve your greatest ambitions. It may not be the best path to success anyway.
Doat is a journalism and media master’s student from Versailles, France.