Comments on: U.S. News and World Report College Rankings Are Bogus, Important (As Usual)

By: Timothy Gellasch

Timothy Gellasch — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:04:47 +0000

Since when does having a strong athletic program, with a leading graduation rate amongst its peers, led by a Hall of Fame coach and Olympic champion, been considered a moral deficit? Admittedly I am a Duke graduate, but I fail to recognize the correlation and wonder why a web link to a columnist’s subjective perspective on the Duke-Butler championship game serves as supporting evidence of this claim. Perhaps it is my top 10 education that disables my logic. I guess kids like Nolan Smith, an unassuming student who played in honor of his deceased father, are just indecent humans worthy of scorn. If so, I am happy and privileged to be joining this class of folks on the receiving end of your vitriol.

By: Austin Taylor

Austin Taylor — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:04:00 +0000

@Jamie: I think, being that the ranking is subjective, in all fairness, the columnist should be able to make other subjective approaches to ranking NYU. Why not have a ranking of “the colleges with the best winters” or “the colleges with the most saturatingly fanatic basketball fans” ? And posting a comment accusing someone of being bitter is quite harsh… This is, in fact, a student newspaper, not the Wall Street Journal. We are allowed to laugh a bit at the columns, and snicker at other colleges for our own wellbeing. It is called “having a little fun.” I am sure that other colleges do the same to NYU, calling us “overrated” or something like that, just because they failed to make the cut. What’s the big deal? Relax, Jeez.

By: Kaitlin Kelly

Kaitlin Kelly — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:02:55 +0000

@Jamie: Since when is NYU not a top university in certain arenas, and since when is US News the complete deciding factor in college ranking? It doesn’t take into account the many majors and facets of a university. Yeah, attending NYU for a general history major might not get you a top-ranked spot, but for something like film or the arts, yeah, you are getting top university status.

By: Jamie Miller

Jamie Miller — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:58:44 +0000

So your logic here is that since Chicago’s winters are colder than New York’s, NYU provides a better education than UChicago? And that since Duke has a good basketball program, it provides an inferior education to NYU’s? Watch what you say — when you make asinine statements like these you discredit your whole column and sound bitter that you don’t attend a top university.