Far from encouraging their children to look at the rankings, 62 percent of parents did not even mention college rankings to their sons and daughters. In fact, only 9 percent of all respondents surveyed indicated that their parents had strongly encouraged them to look at the rankings.

When we asked students if their parents had strongly encouraged, somewhat encouraged, somewhat discouraged, strongly discouraged or not even mentioned the rankings to them, only a third indicated that their parents had mentioned rankings at all. Nine percent and 25 percent ,respectively, said their parents had strongly encouraged or somewhat encouraged them to look at rankings.

However, the findings show some important subgroup differences:

• Parents of students with household incomes of $75K and above were more likely to strongly encourage their children to consider the rankings (15 percent) compared to those from lower income families (7 percent of parents in the $50K-$75K income range and 6 percent with incomes of $50K or lower).
  
  
• Students attending private schools were more likely to report that their parents encouraged them to look at the rankings (52 percent) compared to those attending public high school (31 percent).