[IP] Going to MIT Is Your Patriotic Duty?
Begin forwarded message:
From: David Bolduc <bolduc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 22, 2005 10:15:15 AM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: For IP - Going to MIT Is Your Patriotic Duty?
For IP, if you like - full piece on rankings is at:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.collegeguide.html
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006956.php
THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY COLLEGE RANKINGS....In what college ranking
does UCLA come out ahead of Harvard? Texas A&M over Yale?
No, football has nothing to do with it. The difference between other
rankings and the Washington Monthly College Rankings is that ours are
dedicated not to which universities are best for you, but which
universities are best for the country.
All of the existing college rankings have the same aim — to help
overwhelmed parents and students sift through the thousands of
colleges and universities in this country by giving them some
yardstick for judging the “best” schools....Parents who will shell
out tens of thousands of dollars to put their teenagers through
college need to know they are spending their money wisely.
<snip graphic of top 8 ranking: MIT, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Cornell,
Stanford, Penn State, Yexas A&M, UC San Diego>
How much more important, then, is it for taxpayers to know that their
money — in the form of billions of dollars of research grants and
student aid — is being put to good use? These are institutions, after
all, that produce most of the country's cutting-edge scientific
research and are therefore indirectly responsible for much of our
national wealth and prosperity. They are the path to the American
dream, the surest route for hard-working poor kids to achieve a
better life in a changing economy. And they shape, in profound and
subtle ways, students' ideas about American society and their place
in it. It seemed obvious to us that these heavily subsidized
institutions ought to be graded on how well they perform in these
roles, so we set out to create the first annual Washington Monthly
College Rankings.
So how did your alma mater do? Click the link to to see how we came
up with our rankings, plus previews of the top 30 national
universities and the top 30 liberal arts colleges. The full list of
445 rankings is in the print magazine, coming soon to a newsstand
near you!
UPDATE: Jay Mathews of the Washington Post comments here.
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