Numerous magazines have made an industry out of ranking colleges and universities using criteria including peer assessment, high school counselor ratings, and faculty compensation. These rankings, however, fail to take into account what students actually learn.

In response, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has created an online college guide that evaluates schools based on their commitment to teaching what it deems are essential skills and knowledge, including academic areas like expository writing, American history, and natural science.

The ACTA guide, called What Will They Learn (whatwilltheylearn.com), examined every major four-year college and university in America (1,098 schools), and Wayne State University is one of only two public universities in Michigan to receive a grade of B or higher. 

Schools were given a grade of A through F based on whether they require college-level courses in seven core subjects: composition, literature, language, government/history, economics, math, and science.

“Employers often tell us that Wayne State graduates are well-rounded and ready to hit the ground running more so than graduates from other institutions,” said WSU President M. Roy Wilson. “This strong ranking underscores that praise.” 

ACTA believes it’s important that institutions require a strong core curriculum to prepare students for the workforce. Schools that don’t, the guide states, will jeopardize their graduates’ long-term employment prospects because their coursework is too focused on one area of employment. 

The skills and knowledge needed to be good citizens in the 21st century constitute a second, equally important reason for the required courses, according to ACTA. The organization reasons that citizens who do not know the fundamentals of history and civics are effectively disempowered.