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UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
There is nothing to do in Chico but float down the river on a raft while towing a keg. I guess that counts for something. Another school that showed up near the top of each of the last two Playboy polls was one I had never heard of: Rollins College. I found this description for Rollins College in the online Urban Dictionary: Rollins College: "A college, a.k.a country club, where the weather is hot and the students are hotter. A typical day for a Rollins student includes: waking up late, throwing on some designer clothes, maybe going to class, laying out by the pool, watching wakeboarders on the lake, eating on park ave., and eventually going down town or to a winter park hot spot and popping bottles like it's their job. Not that many students actually have jobs, thanks daddy."— August 19, 2010 12:43 p.m.
UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
#2. West Virginia Interestingly, the Huffington Post published this list, stating: "Each year, Playboy Magazine ranks its top ten party schools", but according to snopes.com Playboy has only compiled such a list 3 times (dating through 2008, they appear to have done it again in 2010), in 1987, 2002 and 2006. Notably, in 1968 Playboy listed the University of Wisconsin, Madison as the most permissive campus and labeled it "the party school" primarily because it served beer in the student union (Don???). In 1987: Chico St.(#1) and SDSU(#3). Wisconsin was not even listed, which deeply offended many a cheesehead. In 2002: ASU(#1), Chico St.(#2), Colorado(#6), Wisconsin(#7), SDSU(#10) 2006: Wisconsin-Madison(#1) http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/playboy.asp I found a secondary list of party schools ranked by earning potential, which had Colorado #3, after Union College of New York(#1) and UC Santa Barbara(#2).— August 18, 2010 7:09 p.m.
UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
Don, you seem to have your pulse on the party school scene! Just before your response I posted a link with this years top party schools according to Playboy. #1 Texas #3 Wisconsin— August 18, 2010 3:33 p.m.
UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
Response to #13: That all depends on what you are looking for. Here is another annual ranking of colleges: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/18/playboy-…— August 18, 2010 1:30 p.m.
UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
Response to post #8: "Gee, I didn't see Ashford. For that matter, the Ashford football team isn't in the top 25 for this upcoming season. Best, Don Bauder" ================================================================ If you do a Google search, you will find Ashford on quite a few college top 10 lists. The key is that they are "on" them, not "in" them. They advertise everywhere, and often appear in the margins on those lists. As for football, a careful eye will note that only 2 of the top 10 even play division I football, and those 2 were ranked 21st and 78th at the end of last season. There is largely in inverse proportion between good football and academics. In fact the highest academic rank in the football top 20 was Texas at #45 Here is the top 10 football powers at the end of last season, along with their US News rank: Alabama (79) Texas (45) Cincinnati (156) TCU (99) Florida (53) Boise St. (not listed) Oregon (111) Ohio State(56) Iowa (72) Virginia Tech (69) LSU (124) Penn State (47) BYU (75) Miami (47) West Virginia (176) Pittsburgh (64) Oregon State(139) Oklahoma State (132) Arizona (120)— August 18, 2010 7:40 a.m.
UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
Don and visduh, Some of the same factors that dropped Cal Tech and MIT would also have dropped the UCs. UCs can't be quite as selective in admissions, but they compensate by washing out those who can't hack it the first year. That hurts the selectivity and the graduation rate, especially relative to typical private schools, with their grade inflation and desire to keep people paying once they are accepted. Quickly eyeballing the list, it looks like Cal is still the top public university, followed by UCLA, Michigan, UNC, William and Mary, and then UCSD at number 6. Also, USC passed UCLA and sits right behind Berkeley, which begs the question whether all public universities are sinking, whether private universities are rising, or whether the ratings are becoming more skewed in favor of private universities (my vote).— August 17, 2010 5:12 p.m.
Late San Diegan Created Name of Market Disaster Omen
"But suppose there is not a September crash?" ================================================= In that case, tears of joy? Either way you are covered. Besides, the flying-pig flu season is just around the corner...— August 17, 2010 11:58 a.m.
UCSD 35th in USN&WR College Rankings
My education keeps improving on paper! These rankings are fun, but are always suspect. For instance, they changed the formula this year to increase the rating based on a high graduation rate. Caltech slid from a tie for 4th to a tie for 7th because they are extremely rigorous and have a relatively high dropout rate. They also don't appear as selective on paper as schools like Harvard, because Harvard accepts a lower percentage of applicants. That is misleading, though, because applicants to Caltech tend to more focused and many fewer unqualified students attempt an application to Caltech than to Harvard. The acceptance rate at Caltech is 15% while the acceptance rate at Harvard is 7%, yet Caltech has significantly higher SAT scores than Harvard. (I'm biased on the topic since my dad is a Caltech grad). It reminds me of the ranking of the Preuss High School. They achieved a top ten national ranking, but it was completely artificial. The ranking was relative to other public high schools. Major points were given for minority achievement, taking AP tests and going on to college. Well, Preuss is a magnate school that pre-screens for the best minority students with college potential from a huge school district and requires them to take as many AP tests as possible. Comparing that to a typical neighborhood high school is completely apples to oranges, a meaningless comparison.— August 17, 2010 10:37 a.m.
Council Votes to Put Tax Increase on Ballot
JW: "I suspect his analysis, as the Attorney representing the City, regarding the vesting rights just might carry some weight." Funny, but that is not the opinion you held two years ago.— August 4, 2010 10:54 p.m.
Council Votes to Put Tax Increase on Ballot
This post is more appropriate here, so I just copied it over =============================================================== This is one of the items on that ballot prop that has to be met for the tax to kick in: "8. Establish a pension plan with reduced benefits for new firefighters." Can JW (or anybody else) please explain why this is only for new employees? This subject drives me batty. Why in the world would you create a two-tiered system? Simply decrease the benefits uniformly for ALL firefighters going forward. This should be trivial to do, but they don't seem capable of doing it. I understand perfectly that you cannot roll back benefits that have been granted, so that if you have worked the last 15 years with a pension multiplier of 3%, then you are entitled to that 45% pension, whether I like it or not. Why can't you now change the multiplier to 2.5% going forward? Nothing has changed regarding the pension for existing or past employees. All that has changed is future pension contributions, and if you don't like them, then you can quit with exactly what you have currently accrued. Likewise the retirement age should be raised. You would be able to draw your currently accrued pension at your currently specified retirement age, but anything you accrue from this point forward wouldn't kick until you reached the new retirement age. That should be applied to all safety and non-safety city workers, and the pension problem becomes manageable. JW, please explain why this is not completely equitable.— August 4, 2010 5:03 p.m.