The College Rankings Racket - NYTimes.com

The College Rankings Racket - NYTimes.com: So universities that once served populations that were different from the Harvard or Yale student body now go after the same elite high school students with the highest SAT scores. And schools know that, if they want to get a better ranking, they need to spend money like mad — even though they will have to increase tuition that is already backbreaking. “If you figure out how to do the same service for less money, your U.S. News ranking will go down,” says Kevin Carey, the director of education policy at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan research group. The rankings encourage trends that ill-serve the country.

It's all true! And we at Williams know it: I actually regret the folks who come here for "the best" small college education but don't want to see the sunshine, the mountains, the isolation....

Musings

Today, after work, I played soccer for a few hours, then worked more, then got gas (giving some gas money to someone else - not sure why I did that), then saw movie. I think I need to get more sleep for days like these, though - I can function, but everything is a little duller, a little more vague. A whole bunch of thoughts about inequality and conservatism/liberalism have also bubbled up, but the upshot is that I think I want to surround myself with more INTJs. Now, where to find them....