August 2006 Archives

Recently, the Princeton Review (not affiliated with Princeton University) updated its college rankings lists. This means changes in lists such as “Happiest Students�, “Dorms Like Dungeons�, “Professors Make Themselves Accessible�, and “Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid.� http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/regional/methodology.asp

One of the functions of the Princeton Review is to help high school students find the right college. The Princeton Review’s website contains profiles of hundreds of colleges in the U.S. The “Rankings and Lists� and the “Students Say� section of each profile are based on college students’ opinions of their college.

The result is, as the Princeton Review says, “that which a college admissions viewbook by its very nature can never really achieve—an uncensored view of life at a particular college.� And they’re right. I’m a senior in high school, and I’ll be applying to colleges this fall. The Princeton Review has been an important aid to my college search.

Early in my search, I considered a certain college that had a good physics program. But the college is on the lists “Professors Make Themselves Scarce,� “Campus Is Tiny, Unsightly, or Both,� “Least Happy Students� and “Long Lines and Red Tape.� That collage of bad qualities decided for me: I wasn’t applying there.

For a while, I planned on applying to Swarthmore. According to the Princeton Review’s profile, Swarthmore’s student body is very liberal – it’s on the “Students Most Nostalgic for Bill Clinton� list. I thought that wouldn’t be a big deal. But when I remembered that I’m the person who wants FDR off of dimes, I dropped Swarthmore from my college list. Of course, I had another reason: the distributional requirements at Swarthmore wouldn’t allow me to study physics in depth.

Sometimes I ignore the lists: I’m applying to Johns Hopkins, and I don’t care that it’s fourth on “Is It Food?�. I attended Johns Hopkins’s pre-college program last summer, and I thought the food was good.

These lists have affected my college choices. Warning to colleges on the bad lists: students and parents will use the lists. Parents whose children are considering Warren Wilson University will want to know that it’s number one on the “Reefer Madness� list.

Somehow, a few schools are on all the bad lists: Penn State is second on “Party Schools�, third on “Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid�, third on “Lots of Hard Liquor�, sixth on “Lots of Beer�, and ninth on “Their Students (Almost) Never Study.� State University of New York at Albany has horrible rankings. The top colleges tend to be on all the good lists. The lists say all sorts of great things about Princeton, which is part of why I’m applying there. Go online and look at the lists; they’re worth seeing.

If the Princeton Review’s lists become as well known as I expect – they were a topic in the national news – then colleges on the bad lists might soon be unpopular. Maybe good will result. The colleges could try to improve themselves. Some colleges take the lists seriously: Johns Hopkins is changing its food service in an attempt to get off of the “Is It Food?� list and onto the “Best Campus Food� list. http://www.jhunewsletter.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/04/06/44382ad03b221?in_archive=1

I wonder what would happen if the Princeton Review ranked high schools.

By JAKE
MOKRIS

I have finally been convinced: I now know that public schooling is better than home-schooling. According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey on public school spending in 2003-2004, the state of Pennsylvania spent more than $9,900 on each public school student in Pennsylvania. With all that money going into their education, public school students must be way smarter than I am.

By TONY McCLURE

It is a common occurrence in many school districts today that when a school cannot balance a budget, it looks to drop a program. This program serves as a scapegoat for the school’s problems, sometimes falling on the music department. Basically, music is the reason for American public school failures. Instead of dropping gym or other worthless curriculums, music programs are deemed nonessential. There are several reasons why this happens and why this needs to be stopped.

By JAKE
MOKRIS

According to a recent poll, 36 percent of Americans believe it is “somewhat likely� that the government either allowed or carried out the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11.

I don’t know if that many people actually believe 9/11 was an “inside job.� But there are people who believe in conspiracy theories like this. It’s not a good idea to trust such theories, because they generally don’t make any sense.

JAKE
MOKRIS

Back-to-school shopping lists consist of two major types of items: supplies and clothes. I’m home-schooled, so I don’t have to worry about any big shopping trips. The supplies part of back-to-school shopping I can understand; the clothes part is a mystery to me.

Again, I’m home-schooled, so maybe I don’t understand the world of fashion or the social conventions on acceptable school clothing. But home-schoolers wear clothes, too. I thought that the goal of clothes-shopping was to find something decent to wear. At least, that’s my aim when I go clothes shopping. That aim is becoming harder for me to carry out:

JESSICA GRIMM, West York Area High School
Teen Takeover staff

“Teenagers should stick to writing about iPods or computer games, things they know about, and leave the political commentary to those of us who are old enough to have some perspective on the situation.�
The above quotation is taken from a letter-to-the-editor that was in a June edition of the York Daily Record/Sunday News. It was written by Turk Pierce in response to an article by Teen Takeover writer Jake Mokris. The rest of Pierce’s letter was written just like any other letter by someone who disagrees with a writer’s opinion, but that final sentence disappointed me.