THE QUAD—Following a series of substantial changes to her rankings methodology, College Freshman Claire now finds herself in seventh place, consistent with the 2012 rankings of herself.
This year marked a notable shift from years past in its focus on outcome measures from peers as opposed to personal development. Claire reduced the weight given to emotional maturity from 6 percent to 3.25 percent, and put more weight on what others think of her, increasing its weight from 20 percent to 22.5 percent.
Claire, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, takes solace in letting arbitrary ordinal rankings determine her morale.
“It just feels like a seventh–place year, doesn’t it?” she said. “Things are looking up.”
Other students, however, are more skeptical of such a system. Wharton sophomore Brian, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, finds such determinations to be pointless.
“How did she even get that number? It’s ridiculous,” he said. “Your self–esteem should be ranked by making value judgments on other people. Ask yourself: am I better than this person? If you’re anything like me, the answer is going to be ‘yes,’ so go ahead and rank yourself above that person.”
Still, some students think how you feel about yourself shouldn’t be decided by external factors. College senior Rachel, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, advocated finding your sense of self–worth from within. “Who cares what other people think? At the end of the day, you can only control so many things, and those are the things you should care about the most. Like your G.P.A.”
At press time, everybody was joining the rat race.
