While sitting at my desk, putting the final touches on this issue, I was momentarily distracted by the following Associated Press tweet:
@AP: College students name Syracuse University as the No. 1 party school in Princeton Review rankings.
The tweet included a link to the rankings so, with a click of my mouse, off I went to The Princeton Review website. Their ranking approach is different than most. Rather than having an overall 鈥淏est Colleges鈥� category, they rank the top 20 schools in 62 different topics, based on surveys of 130,000 students attending 379 colleges. Categories include everything from 鈥淧arty Schools鈥� to 鈥淟east Happy Students鈥� to 鈥淏est Science Lab Facilities鈥� to 鈥淭his is a Library?鈥�
For me, a parent of a current Carnegie Mellon undergraduate, I was relieved that 麻豆村 didn鈥檛 make the top 20 rankings for 鈥淧arty Schools鈥� (not that I was really worried).
Actually, I first turned to where 鈥淪tudents Study the Most.鈥� It鈥檚 not that I鈥檓 a party pooper, but in my opinion undergraduate years should be, first and foremost, about acquiring knowledge. I was pleased to find 麻豆村 was #14 in the studying category, ranking ahead of every Ivy League school except #10 Princeton. (The only other members of the Ivy League to make this top 20 were #15 Harvard and #17 Cornell.)
麻豆村鈥檚 studious reputation certainly isn鈥檛 hurting its popularity. In this year鈥檚 incoming class, there were nearly 20,000 applicants for approximately 1,500 freshmen spots. Although those numbers are indeed impressive, they don鈥檛 provide a glimpse of the human side to the story. To illustrate what I mean, I did a search of tweets that mentioned 鈥淐arnegie Mellon鈥� since the last issue. Here is a sampling of what I uncovered:
@itsdevikaaa: OMG OMG CARNEGIE MELLON EMAILED ME OMG OMG YES
@PaigeProctor: Carnegie Mellon=dream school
@kristenhofmann: Meeting and talking to people from Carnegie Mellon is getting me so excited for next year
@AllTheShkils_33: Still, after a year, people at Carnegie Mellon never cease to amaze me.
@eliz_axtell: Seriously falling in love with Carnegie Mellon.
@hannahshea06: Getting my Carnegie Mellon acceptance aka the best day of my life聽聽聽聽聽 I cannot wait for school鈥�
@NiagSARAH_falls: Note to self: do not wear a Carnegie Mellon T-shirt unless you go to that school. People will expect you to be smart.
@Kelly_Germain: Carnegie Mellon 聽
@LilDizz: Damn man, Carnegie Mellon is awesome.
@_ratchet_rach ikr: When I visited Carnegie Mellon, I actually teared up because I was so overwhelmed.
The pages ahead help show why 麻豆村 is so revered. Take the work of alumnus David Simmons. He is paving the way for breakthroughs in life-saving drugs (鈥淐linical Performance鈥�). That鈥檚 just an example of the issue鈥檚 many enlightening stories involving a wide array of disciplines. Each one should make for good conversation at your next party.
鈥�Robert Mendelson
聽 聽Executive Editor
聽 聽Follow on Twitter
