Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Caroline Hoxby is a Rock Star

every quarter, i take approximately one (1) class in which i actually learn something. this quarter, that class is Economics of Education.

today, we learned about Professor Hoxby's top two problems with U.S. News and World Report's College Rankings:
1) the difference between any two adjacent rankings are not statistically significant
2) the things that go into the rankings (endowment per student, faculty/student ratio, number of books in library,etc) don't really change from year to year. the only thing that produces a difference in the rankings is what U.S. News and World Report decides should be the weight of each factor. They change the weights around every year so that schools move up or down...so that you'll buy their report! If they kept the weights the same from year to year, people would catch on and stop buying magazines.

in other news, i have finished watching the entire series of sabrina, the teenage witch, with the exception of some episodes in the middle of the seventh season. Because the seventh season blows.

Complaints I Have about the Seventh Season of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch:
-So it took Sabrina [at least] five years to finish high school, but she only needs two years in college? [the five years is assuming the show started with her turning 16 and going into 10th grade, even though that is a little late. I'm assuming she's in 10th grade because in one of the episodes Jenny is running for sophomore class president. And seasons 1-4 are Sabrina in high school]
-Where are Hilda and Zelda?!? I know Hilda got married and Zelda "gave up her adult years", but they don't actually explain where they are, only that Sabrina "doesn't like to talk about them"
-Why is Sabrina marrying someone she's only known for 7 episodes?
-Why are two MORTALS living with Sabrina in her Aunts' house, with a PORTAL TO THE OTHER REALM. That is just asking for trouble.
-Why are they all living in Hilda and Zelda's house?!?

and then there's some deal with soul stones, and everything is right again.

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