Question: What do Harvard, Finland, and the State of Massachusetts have in common?
Answer: They each topped their respective “Best of” lists this week.
Harvard led U.S. News and World Report‘s “Best National Universities” list, though Yale won its “Great Schools, Great Prices” contest with a net cost (total price minus the average need-based grant) of only $13,631.
What a deal.
Actually, it’s not so bad when you consider that Northwestern would cost the same student $27,167 annually, and Carnegie Melon would set our collegian back a whopping $30,369. (In truth, they all sound sort of whopping to me, but then; I remember when cookies at the student union — surely a worthy gauge of collegiate excellence — were three for 10 cents.)
Still feel young? Then take a look at Beloit College’s Annual Mindset List for the Class of 2014, referenced in High School Soup, the new blog of the Alliance for Excellent Education.
My three favorite “mindsets”:
#1 Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
#4 Al Gore was always animated.
# 46 Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
But back to our “Best of” lists — and to, yes, Finland, the best place to buy a house, get a great education, eat cabbage rolls, etc., according to Newsweek. (Again, courtesy of the folks at Alliance.) The United States ranked 11th.
Unfortunately, 11th wouldn’t have cut it for the second round of Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top contest, which awarded grants to just 10 entrants: nine states (mostly in the East) and the District of Columbia. Massachusetts got the top score — so now it has Harvard, Michael Dukakis, and an RttT victory.
One lucky winner: Georgia, and gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal who, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s Get Schooled blog, was “darn near delirious with joy.” What a difference a day makes. At a candidates’ forum the day before the announcement, Deal was seriously hesitant about whether Georgia should accept such tainted, strings-attached federal money. His campaign spokesman went even further, likening the nationwide contest to being lured into drug addiction by the local pusher: “The first one’s free, and then they’ve got you hooked and you play by their rules.”
However, after hearing that his state had been selected, Deal called the whole thing “a victory for Georgia.” Strings and all.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
