Going to MIT Is Your Patriotic Duty?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Bolduc <bolduc () austin rr com>
Date: August 22, 2005 10:15:15 AM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
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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