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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
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BLOG DAYS OF AUGUST Ho hum. What shall we speak of as August winds down and the new university year begins? What, for instance, can we say of this season’s school lists (US News and World Report, Princeton Review, Washington Monthly, etc.) that has not been said on this blog in the past? Just that, as they proliferate, these lists tell you more and more. They tell you which small Christian colleges in the upper midwest have the largest number of artificially inseminated Peace Corps volunteers on Pell grants. They tell you which schools have the highest and lowest graduation rates. Schools with low graduation rates boast that their rates are a function of a demanding intellectual atmosphere. Schools with high rates boast that their students are brilliant. High rate places scoff at low rate places and say their students are dumb. Low rate places scoff at high rate places and say their courses are guts. Although sodden SUNY Albany continues sloshing around near the top of the dread “party school” list, this year it’s Wisconsin Madison’s turn to issue a prissy rejection of its Number One ranking, along with some language about how fewer students than ever are being treated at the campus clinic for delirium tremens. The new Washington Monthly list focuses on the degree of student social mobility in various colleges and universities, with first-rate public schools like UCLA, packed with smart and ambitious lower-income students, shining brightly. Desiccated baronial Princeton makes a particularly bad showing. |