Tag Archive: Rankings

  1. YLS does not rank first on list

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    Yale Law School is the top law school in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. But when it comes to sending alumni to the nation’s top 250 law firms, YLS fell below its peers, according to a new ranking by the National Law Journal.

    YLS landed at 15th on the list, with 31 percent of its class of 2011 entering one of the 250 biggest firms. Yale placed below all other schools in the U.S. News’ top 10 on the National Law Journal’s rankings. The University of Pennsylvania Law School, number seven in the nation according to U.S. News, topped the National Law Journal’s list, sending 57 percent of its 2011 graduates to a large law firm.

    But Yale Law students will probably turn out OK, anyway — according to the American Bar Association Journal, top law schools tend to send many of their alumni to prestigious clerkships instead of law firms.

  2. Connecticut named worst place to retire

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    Though our pleasantly temperate January might have seemed perfect for retirees, the website “TopRetirements” is out with a list calling Connecticut the worst state in the nation for retirees.

    The list ranks states on the basis of their fiscal health, their property taxes, income taxes, cost of living and climate, each of which is worth up to 1 negative point depending on severity. Connecticut got 4.05 out of five possible bad points.

    “Connecticut won the tie-breaker [with second-worst state Illinois] because it has much higher property taxes, income taxes and cost of living,” the site states. The ranking ends with a snide comment about wealthy towns like Stonington and Madison, ignoring New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport and Stamford.

    New England and the Midwest generally did poorly, the site noted. Disagree? Take your dissatisfied selves to a page where the site helps you calculate your very own list of states to hate.

    Sounds like Connecticut really needed a new marketing campaign, after all.

  3. Cross Campus Presents: Quotes of 2011

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    A lot has happened in 2011, more than our weary brains remember. Inspired by the annual list from Yale law librarian Fred Shapiro, we at Cross Campus thought it appropriate to turn our gaze back to look at some of the most significant and telling quotes of the year from Yale and New Haven. We begin in January:

    1) “As I trudge through the snowy wastes of the Lawn Club parking lot, down Hillhouse, past the Beinecke and finally between JE and Branford [colleges], I’ll think about Balto the sled dog on his glorious run to Nome.” -Toni Dorfman, theater studies professor, “No stopping for snow,” Jan. 12.

    2) “I think back to when I was at Yale in 1961, which was the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu, and remember feeling somewhat embarrassed that the artifacts were still at Yale. We had all known in the family that they were supposed to be returned to Peru.” -John H.L. Bingham ’61, Hiram Bingham III’s 1898 grandson, “Digging into Peru deliberations,” Feb. 15.

    3) “After all the incidents of blatant sexual harassment and threatening behavior on Yale’s campus, why must it take an investigation by [the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights] to convince Yale that there is a serious problem on campus?” -16 Yale students and alumni filing a Title IX complaint, “DOE’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate Yale for ‘hostile sexual environment,'” March 31.

    4) “People at Yale need to understand that Mandi is a giant among people. She’s just this enormous spirit, and we’re all so lucky to have been touched by her.” -Harry Rosenholtz, former Yale women’s hockey coach who recruited Mandi Schwartz ’11, “A giant among people,” April 4.

    5) “Yale has lost a shining star. The universe has lost a rising one.” -Yale College Dean Mary Miller, “Campus mourns ‘rising star’ Dufault ’11,” April 13.

    6) “These streets belong to the people of New Haven. I don’t want the institution I care so much about to use its power and influence to get special treatment from the city. The city should not give its streets away for free.” -Ben Crosby ’13, “Town and gown dispute closed streets,” May 4.

    7) “I don’t understand why that needs to be said, but I will say it again, and I will continue saying it — at parties, in class and into my pillow — until people who claim that rape is a figment of our hysterical imaginations wake the hell up. Rape happens. Victims are silenced. And the complex web of factors that not only allow but encourage those two things to occur in tandem is rape culture.” -Kate Orazem ’12, “Rape is real at Yale,” Sept. 22

    8) “I’m so glad people like the vibe here. Sure people love loud music and dancing, but they also like socializing and drinking their face off in a fun environment… Not that I condone binge drinking.” -Bethany Thompson, Box 63 marketing manager, “Boxing out Toad’s,” Sept. 30.

    9) “25 percent is too much talent spent!” -Occupy protesters, “Elis Occupy Morgan Stanley info session,” Nov. 15.

    10) “Some people were crying, some people were in such shock they didn’t move anywhere, but most people went to the other side to get into the tailgate,” -Angela Ramirez ’12, “Investigation continues into fatal crash,” Nov. 20.

  4. Occupiers top Yale librarian’s quotes of 2011

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    What do Rick Perry, Charlie Sheen, Gloria Allred and the Occupiers all have in common? Their utterances landed among the top 10 quotes of the 2011, according to an annual list compiled by associate law librarian Fred Shapiro.

    Shapiro released his sixth annual list of the most notable quotations of the year on Sunday. Whereas the conservative tea party movement made a big showing in 2010, the Occupy movement’s distaste for the wealthiest Americans colored the top quotes of 2011, Shapiro told the Associated Press.

    “The tea party quotes are very strongly anti-government,” he said. “The Occupy quotes and the other more liberal quotes that you see at the top of the list this year are directed more at Wall Street and the upper 1 percent economically of the country rather than focus squarely on government.”

    Shapiro has been making the list each year since he originally published the Yale Book of Quotations in 2006. He picks quotes that are “famous, important or revealing of the spirit of the times, not necessarily ones that are the most eloquent or admirable,” according to the AP. Each year’s top 10 quotes are added to the newest edition of the Yale Book of Quotations.

    Check out the full list below, via the AP:

    1) “We are the 99 percent.” — slogan of Occupy movement.

    2) “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” — U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August.

    3) “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.” — Billionaire Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15.

    4) “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” — Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman in an Aug. 18 tweet.

    5) “Oops.” — Presidential candidate Rick Perry after unsuccessfully attempting to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate during a Nov. 9 debate.

    6) “When they ask me, ‘Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?’ I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?'” — Then-presidential candidate Herman Cain in an interview by Christian Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7.

    7) “I am on a drug. It’s called ‘Charlie Sheen.’ It’s not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” — Actor Charlie Sheen in a February interview with ABC News.

    8) “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ last words on Oct. 5, as reported by his sister Mona Simpson in her eulogy.

    9) “I can’t say with certitude.” — Then-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner on June 1 when he was asked whether a lewd photograph was in fact him.

    10) “Instead of receiving the help that she had hoped for, Mr. Cain instead decided to provide her with his idea of a stimulus package.” — Lawyer Gloria Allred on Nov. 7 discussing Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment of her client.

  5. Beinecke among world’s most beautiful college libraries

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    The next time you want to study beautifully, you might want to skip Sterling’s towering stacks and the lowly study carrels of Bass and head to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

    A set of rankings out this week from Flavorwire ranks the Beinecke the most beautiful college library in America and the second most beautiful in the world, after only the General Library at the University of Coimbra in Coimbra, Portugal.

    Three other Ivy League libraries made the list: the Cornell Law School Library, the Widener Library at Harvard and the Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania, placing 18th, 22nd, and 23rd, respectively.

    See the full list below, with American universities in bold:

    1) The University of Coimbra General Library. Coimbra, Portugal.

    2) Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Yale University. New Haven, Conn.

    3) University of Salamanca Library. Salamanca, Spain.

    4) The Trinity College Library. Dublin, Ireland.

    5) Old Library, St. John’s College. Cambridge University. Cambridge, United Kingdom.

    6) Philological Library of the Free University. Berlin, Germany.

    7) Central Library. University of Technology. Delft, Netherlands.

    8) The Harper Library Reading Room. University of Chicago. Chicago.

    9) Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library. Vassar College. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

    10) George Peabody Library. Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore.

    11) Queen’s College Library. Oxford University. Oxford, United Kingdom.

    12) Wren Library. Trinity College, Cambridge University. Cambridge, United Kingdom.

    13) Duke Humfrey’s Library. Bodleian Library, Oxford University. Oxford, United Kingdom.

    14) Suzzallo Library’s Graduate Reading Room. The University of Washington. Seattle.

    15) The North Reading Room in Doe Library. University of California at Berkeley. Berkeley, Calif.

    16) La Sorbonne Reading Room. Paris.

    17) Codrington Library. All Soul’s College, Oxford University. Oxford, United Kingdom.

    18) Cornell Law School Library. Ithaca, N.Y.

    19) University of Michigan Law Library. Ann Arbor, Mich.

    20) Pontifical Lateran University library. Rome.

    21) Powell Library. University of California at Los Angeles.

    22) Widener Library. Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.

    23) Fisher Fine Arts Library. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia.

    24) Pitts Theology Library. Emory University. Atlanta.

    25) Bapst Library. Boston College. Boston.

  6. College Rankings: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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    The Good: We’re the Happiest College in America

    Newsweek and The Daily Beast recently released a group of college rankings, ranging from “Best Food” to “Best Party School.” Yale placed highly in several categories, including top rankings in “Best for Brainiacs” and “Happiest Colleges.”

    The Happiest College ranking was based off of several different factors that included Yale’s 6:1 student to faculty ratio and it’s high rankings for housing, nightlife, and dining on CollegeProwler.

    Yale’s Best for Brainiacs ranking was based on SAT scores, admissions selectivity, and Rhodes Scholar recipients, among other factors.

    Other Yale rankings included Horniest (2),
Future Politicans (2),
For Foreign Students (2),
Greenest (3),
Future CEOS (5),
For Computer Geeks (13), and Most Rigorous (23).

    The Bad: We’re 39th in “Contribution to the Public Good”

    The Washington Monthly published its own college rankings, which were created as an alternative to mainstream rankings such as those of Newsweek or the US News & World Report. The Monthly’s rankings only consider a school’s “contribution to the public good,” based on three equally weighted categories: social mobility, research, and service.

    The University of California at San Diego placed first on the list, and UC schools accounted for five of the top ten. Yale was ranked a distant 39th.

    According to the Monthly’s introduction to the rankings, many other publications focus too much on wealth, fame, and selectivity, allowing schools like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton to consistently receive high rankings.

    “Yes, Yale might educate a disproportionate number of future hedge fund managers,” the introduction reads, “but is it laying the foundation for the kind of nation we want to become?”

    Or, as James Marshall Crotty of Forbes.com put it: “Every smart Ivy League history major who went to work for a Wall Street hedge fund is an immoral destroyer of jobs, lives, and the greater economy.”

    The Ugly: We’re Ugly? Really?

    Yale was not ranked on Newsweek’s Most Beautiful, Most Athletic, or Best Party Schools lists. As the second-ranked Horniest School in America, this is sure to be crushing news for most Yalies.

    Other lists that Yale missed out on were Healthiest, Best Return on Investment, and Service-Oriented.

    As IvyGate noted, this should be expected, since “the Ivy League is made-up entirely of feeble-bodied, slovenly, self-centered, terminally indebted, seasonally affected, future CEOs.”

    Somehow we think the Washington Monthly would agree.

    The Ugliest: We can’t stop reading college rankings. Help.