Love ’em or hate ’em the annual U.S. Rankings of the country’s universities have been revealed. Though many accuse the rankings of being an outdated system where the same schools always rise to the top, they can be an interesting way to compare some of the many institutions of higher education in the country.

Though you really can’t narrow the college experience down to a few measurable data points, the people behind the U.S. News rankings try their best to determine what combination of factors creates the nation’s top schools. Factors considered include student retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rates.

Based on those factors and more, here are the top 10 American universities for 2015.

10. California Institute of Technology
Tuition and fees (2014-2015): $43,362
Enrollment: 977
The student-to-faculty ratio at the California Institute of Technology is 3:1. Its students are actively involved in research projects with NASA, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Many medical schools use monkeys every year as test subjects in their labs as part of an effort to advance medical knowledge. The Department of Agriculture inspects these facilities every year to prevent problems from occurring, and when problems do occur, they have to power to take action.

One school that seems to be having a lot of interventions from the Department of Agriculture is the University of Washington. Within the past five years, one monkey has died of malnutrition and two others were kept in cages that were too small for them. A scientist at the school was also fined because he performed too many surgeries on the same monkeys. In total, the school had to pay $10,893 in fines this year, and if there are repeat violations, the school will face much stricter fines.

“[The Department of Agriculture] finally got along to levying a fine which is $10,000 and the University gets millions of dollars in research money, so this is just a little drop in their bucket,” said Rachel Bjork of the Northwest Animal Rights Network. “They like to say they are doing groundbreaking research. They like to say they’re saving lives but I’m trying to understand the connection between sticking coils in a monkey’s eyes and saving a human life.”

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In September 2006, Harvard and Princeton decided to no longer allow students to apply for early college admission, starting in the Fall 2008 semester. They made this decision in order to help students who needed to compare financial aid offers from different schools compete with wealthier students who applied earlier and did not need to wait for financial aid offers.

“In eliminating our early program four years ago, we hoped other colleges and universities would do the same, and they haven’t,” said Shirley Tilghman, the president of Princeton. “One consequence is that some students who really want ot make their college decision as early as possible in their senior year apply to other schools early, even if their first choice is Princeton.”

To combat this problem, both schools are reinstating their early-admissions programs. This will allow high school seniors who apply by November 15, 2011 to know if they have been accepted by December 15, 2011, without having to commit to the school if they are accepted. This will also allow the early-accepted students to wait for financial offers before committing to attend the schools.

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Christopher Reeve was born on the September 25, 1952 to Franklin and Barbara Reeve in New York City. After his parents divorced when he was four, his mother moved Christopher and his brother to Princeton, New Jersey.

Reeve was a student at Nassau Street School for a time and later moved to Princeton Country Day School where he excelled as a student academically and athletically.

Reeve landed his first acting job when he was just nine years old. He  wanted to head to New York City and start his acting career immediately but his mother made him apply to numerous colleges such as Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Princeton and even Harvard. Reeve decided to attend Cornell, because it was the closest to New York.

Later he enrolled at Julliard, the prestigious school for the arts. After his first year at Julliard, he graduated from Cornell and his acting career took off. The role that made him a household name was  Clark Kent in the Superman series. Read the rest of this entry »

Before the die-hard Apple fans get their wireless devices in a tizzy, hear them out. The universities actually make a somewhat fair point. While some universities are embracing the newest Apple gadget with free iPads for students, other schools say they are not welcome.

Princeton and George Washington University announced that they are banning the iPad from their campuses. Princeton and GWU cite security risks. A third university, Cornell, voices concern that students will monopolize the bandwidth available on the university’s network and is looking in to the issue.

Hmm, what about the laptops they are already using? It seems that the iPad is not compatible with security features on Cornell’s and GWU’s networks, and it’s not an issue they face with standard laptops which run operating systems like Windows or OS X. Read the rest of this entry »

In a pilot program at Princeton to assess the value of Amazon’s Kindle DX for students, it seems the class has graded the gadget as a no pass.

Fifty students were given the digital e-reader in the test, and after a mere two weeks of being used in three classes, students are “dissatisfied and uncomfortable.” One student made his case by saying it’s “a poor excuse of an academic tool.”

The greatest criticism is coming from the lack of ability to highlight, mark pages, or make notes in margins. Additionally, anyone trying to cite a page number is out of luck, with one student calling it “meaningless.”

It’s entirely likely that the Kindle DX won’t see the light of day in the spring semester.

Just like Blair on Gossip Girl has dreamed of going to Yale since childhood, many students simply won’t be happy unless they are accepted to an Ivy League school. Some are driven since birth to maintain a perfect educational reputation, and some will do whatever it takes to attend the school of their dreams. In the end, is it worth the extreme hard work and dedication? After all, what’s in a name, as long as you get a top education and don’t owe more than what your parent’s house is worth when it is all said and done.

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In the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about the college records of the presidential candidates, VP candidates, and our current president and VP.  But it seems like the brainiest one out of the whole bunch may be prospective First Lady Michelle Obama.

Check out Michelle Obama’s educational background.  According to the Chicago Sun Times, Obama (whose maiden name was Michelle LaVaughn Robinson) was a brilliant and curious child who pulled herself out of her poverty-stricken childhood through hard work and academic talent.  She could read by the time she was four and skipped the second grade.

After attending a prestigious Chicago magnet school, to which she had been handpicked, Obama was accepted to Princeton University, where she was one of only a few African American students.  At Princeton, she majored in sociology and African American studies.  She found her minority status to be a challenge, and wrote an honor’s thesis about that experience.  Despite the challenge, Obama graduated cum laude from Princeton.  Immediately afterward, she attended and graduated from Harvard University School of Law.

Now that sounds like a role model!

Read more about the college records of Cindy McCain, Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney.