Posted on 08/07/2009 5:57:15 PM PDT by Notwithstanding
...Forbes Magazine in its second annual college rankings issue has just awarded its top spot to an institution that doesnt tend to win such beauty contests: the United States Military Academy at West Point. As Forbes sees things, West Point tops Princeton (No. 2), the California Institute of Technology (No. 3), Williams College (No. 4) and Harvard (No. 5.)
(Excerpt) Read more at thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Assuming you don't want to work in academia.
Schools like Princeton and Harvard, certainly at the undergraduate level, are mediocre cribs for the privileged and politically connected. For example, if you think the likes of Henry Gates is an "eminent scholar," you have pretty low faculty standards.
These days Hollywood celebs join Harvard or Princeton mainly to brag about having a brain. That’s all the Ivy Leagues are, bragging rights.
Academia requires GRADUATE degrees - so your point seems less than convincing.
Graduate schools compete hard against one another to enroll West Point alums who apply.
West Point is strictly undergrad, which is one reason why it remains focused on that task, rather than on the whimsies, pet projects, and egos of academics who rarely even interact with undergraduates.
Comes to mind the maxim “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
To the extent that I perceive a problem, it’s with academia, not West Point, an island of sanity in an ocean of lunacy.
Duty, Honor, Country.
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