Lists of lists of lists.

It’s that time of year again. As we bid a happy farewell to this odd odd year, the ‘best of’ lists are cropping up all over the damn place. Here in Austin the Chronicle Best of 2005 awards both a readers and a critics poll (Don’t get me started on the crap restaurants that make the readers poll…you people have eaten a places off Barton Springs before right ?)

Anyway, one the lists that interested me most was the top universities for the year. The curious thing here is how much emphasis these schools put on these rankings. I know of universities that have entire plans geared towards putting them in the top 20. Are they provided poor education ? No, not really. From what i can tell, it’s a marketing thing, the higher up the list you are, the more you can charge for your tuition, a sad thing to see when traditionally rural ag schools are pushing so damn hard at this.

The other interesting thing is the geography of it. East cost, west coast, Chicago seem to make up most of your top 20. What happened to the middle of the country ? It’s almost a redstate/bluestate thing.

Wait, does this mean that hateful right wing republicans are less well educated, and don’t fund their education systems as well as the Dems do ?

Curious indeed.