X. Discussion. Using the scheme of Exercise №9 discuss the categories of the US Higher Education System with your classmate (s).

XI. Write a summary of the article, see Appendix 2, Section II.

  XII. М ake the power point presentation about any college or university of the USA.

 

Text С.

College Ratings: How Helpful Are They?

September 07, 2019

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/college-ratings-how-helpful-are-they-/5073215.html

  Before reading:

I.  Brainstorm.

Work in pairs. The heading of the article you are going to read is “College Ratings: How Helpful Are They?” What do you think it gives information about? Share your ideas with the rest of the class.

Read the text

College Ratings: How Helpful Are They?

File -- Students walk on campus at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California in 2016.

Lists that rate colleges and universities are very popular among parents and students in the United States.

But are published lists the best way to choose the right school?

The best known ranking is probably by the magazine U.S. News & World Report. On top of the magazine’s list this year are schools known around the world. They include Princeton University in New Jersey, Harvard University in Massachusetts, Columbia University in New York City, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, The University of Chicago and Yale University in Connecticut.

U.S. News & World Report published its first “America’s Best Colleges” report in 1983. Since then, some educators have questioned the published rankings and how useful they are.

In this March 7, 2017 file photo, rowers paddle along the Charles River past the Harvard College campus in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Education a costly investment in the future

A number of magazines publish lists of college rankings once every year. High school students use the lists as reference guides when considering where to continue their education. There are plenty of schools to choose from. Across the country, more than 4,000 colleges and universities offer undergraduate degree programs.

Last month, Forbes published its college ratings for 2019. It listed 650 schools. That represents only about 15 percent of all U.S. institutions of higher learning.

 

The magazine’s top five are a little different from those of U.S. News & World Report. They are: Harvard University, Stanford University in California, Yale University, MIT and Princeton University.

Like other lists, Forbes considers things like student satisfaction, how successful college graduates are and how much money they make. The magazine adds another important piece of information: how much debt students will owe after they graduate.