Columbia Still #8 in US News Rankings
Benjamin Franklin once famously said that the only things certain in life are death and taxes (a rather fatalistic saying for someone who got so much tail). In the world of college rankings, one might add, “And Harvard will always be first, and Penn will always be inexplicably overrated.” Yes, it’s this year’s edition of the US News and World Report college rankings, and Columbia’s held onto its #8 ranking, while ditching Duke to #10. Other movement from last year was minimal, with Princeton moving from 2nd to 1st, Penn moving into a tie for fourth with Stanford (huh?), and Cornell falling below Hopkins. Brown remains bottom among Ivy League schools. The top 20:
1. Harvard/Princeton
3. Yale
4. Caltech/MIT/Stanford/UPenn
8. Columbia/UChicago
10. Duke
11. Dartmouth
12. Northwestern/WashU
14. Johns Hopkins
15. Cornell
16. Brown
17. Emory/Rice/Vanderbilt
20. Notre Dame
Columbia administrators are probably rubbing their hands in anticipation of next year: because these rankings are based on 2008 data, the past year’s financial trouble for many top schools (which, comparatively, Columbia escaped) will only be taken into account next year. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to find a financially incompetent school on top again – US News has its ways.
Tags: but my ivy league education entitles me to this!, rankings, self-importance, the ivy league, what's good for the ego is good for the soul
20 August 2009 @ 9:17 AM · 60 comments
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