Here… • Pope Francis: first Latin American pope and first non-European pope since the 8th century; but also the first pope named Francis and the first Jesuit pope. (Maybe one more on this subject on Monday…) • Discussion of Pietism continues to spread: in the pages of the denominational magazine of the Brethren in Christ … Continue reading
Spending too much time thinking or worrying about college rankings seems like a clear path to insanity, so I’ll make this my last of three posts (plus one re-post) on the subject for this season… In previous posts I’ve joined, well, almost everyone who looks at these things and criticized U.S. News for basing as … Continue reading
Yesterday U.S. News released its annual college rankings, and I summarized an alternative model utilized by the magazine Washington Monthly. While U.S. News continues to rely on factors like reputation, entrance exam scores, and alumni giving (and, as its growing chorus of critics complains, on data supplied by the colleges themselves — data already manipulated … Continue reading
Today is the day that the annual U.S. News rankings of America’s best colleges are published. (Here’s the summary — note that the rankings I’ll discuss below are from last year’s report.) I already reposted my September 2011 take on the U.S. News survey, assuming that my response probably wouldn’t change much from 2011 to 2012 … Continue reading
U.S. News’ “Best Colleges” rankings aren’t scheduled to be released until a week from today, but since I’m 99% sure that my opinion of them won’t have changed drastically since this time last year, let me preemptively address them with this “best of” post from last September. (I’ve actually got another post in development that … Continue reading
On Wednesday I noted that the new Newsweek/Daily Beast college rankings included a dozen members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities on their list of the Top 25 Most [Politically] Conservative schools (referring to the student bodies and not to faculty, staff, administrators, curriculum, assigned readings, guest speakers, etc., though all that might … Continue reading
For once, I thought I’d take some common blogging advice to heart and write a headline for a title instead of anything remotely clever. Some context before we get to the lede: Newsweek/Daily Beast have joined the college rankings racket frenzy, though thankfully they’re taking a slightly quirkier tack than U.S. News and issuing a variety of … Continue reading
That collective exhaling you heard this morning came from the chancellors, presidents, provosts, and other leaders of the 1378 colleges and universities that participate in the U.S. News Best Colleges ranking process, results of which were released today. As someone who indirectly participates in this process (by teaching at one of those institutions and so … Continue reading
Our series on models of Christian higher education inspired by a “usable past” is treading water a bit this week while I gear up for classes. In the most recent post, I surveyed American denominations with roots in Pietism, plus the colleges and universities that they founded. Next week I hope to have a more … Continue reading