Princeton Review College Rankings: Author Rob Franek Dishes On The Lists (WATCH)

The Princeton Review's 2010 college rankings were released yesterday to much fanfare. Believe it or not, there's a human behind the 62 lists, which canvassed 122,000 college students -- Rob Franek, the author of The Best 373 Colleges. He appeared on the Early Show this morning to discuss the Review's findings.

WATCH:

Comments

[Drew2248]

05:03 PM on 08/03/2010

List, lists, lists . . . what a wonderful way not to have to think. These lists do perform some useful service in that they give you college suggestions you might not have thought about. That's good. But, along with the U.S. News college rankings, there's a kind of mindlessness to them as if "best library" or "best food" was of some significance in and of itself. It's a little like that embarrassing and immature thing you used to see in high school yearbooks -- "best eyes," "best smile," and so on. No one actually thinks this way: "Gee, I want to apply only to schools with the most beautiful campuses." So, what this is is a way tor these publications to make a buck by providing information of little real value which the lazy media then falls all over themselves to talk about. Without the lazy media who ought to have more important things to think about, these lists would be a footnote of moderate interest at best.