AGORA

Agora debate ·

MIT dethrones Princeton as No. 1 school in U.S. News rankings

The question

Should graduate earnings be used to rank universities?

Yes 84%No 16%

44 players picked a side before playing.

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The best arguments

Written by Agora players and ranked by Agora's AI reasoning score. Shown without names.

  • Realistically, a plurality of degrees should lead to careers. Research studies have shown a majority of graduates seek careers in the fields they studied. Now, some people pursue education in fields that are low paying and/or have low demand, which is a problem, as they are often saddled with mountains of college debt they can’t pay off. By prioritizing degrees and colleges that maximize financial security post-graduation, we are helping students be put on the best path for success.

    A player · strong argument

  • No, strong companies want to hire capable, strongly educated, well-rounded candidates. These are the candidates who will eventually make the highest salaries. Therefore, colleges who produce capable, strongly educated, well-rounded students will score high in the new “earning by major” category. Therefore, education quality is directly correlated to future graduate earnings. This new category is relevant.

    A player · decent argument

  • However it is being collected today. Schools are collecting these data points one person at a time as it stands now. It could be provided at that level of detail to US news. If schools are reluctant to share that for privacy reasons, then the formula that US News uses could be shared with the schools directly and audited at a later date if necessary.

    A player · decent argument

  • Because salary is a metric of success - because a higher salary denotes that person is more valuable. Furthermore graduate salary is likely directly correlated to university as it is your first job - I don’t believe future salaries should count but first salary is an important metric of how valuable that graduate is to companies.

    A player · decent argument

  • The primary purpose of a university is to prepare its alumni for the best jobs possible. So factoring in earnings is a good indicator of the quality at which university is doing its job

    A player · decent argument

  • They reward graduating. They may value other aspects such as being leaders in a club or extracurricular but they are mainly looking at your degree. If they see that you graduated from MIT, they will consider the education you got and how long it took. The specific outcome the employers reward is graduation form a top university. The students wouldn’t be getting waited as much if they didn’t graduate from a top university which is based off of education quality.

    A player · decent argument

  • Universities ranked by learning outcomes give students a better chance at ending up in a proper educational institute where they could learn and grow.

    A player · decent argument

In this game

  1. What state is MIT in?
  2. Why did MIT overtake Princeton?
  3. MIT graduates now earn more than Princeton graduates.
  4. Immersive Command Mode
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