Smith’s piece of wisdom is one of over 120,000 comments compiled by the Princeton Review in the latest edition of the group’s “Best Colleges” series.
“I used to be smart,” said Clemson University student C.C. Smith. “I used to sleep. Then I majored in chemical engineering.”
Smith’s piece of wisdom is one of over 120,000 comments compiled by the Princeton Review in the latest edition of the group’s “Best Colleges” series. While being a refreshing resource for prospective college students and their parents, “366 Best Colleges” is also a captivating snapshot into student culture. Just how insane are today’s youth?
Releasing new editions every August, the Review chooses school known for academic rigor and achievements in clubs, sports, financial aid and overall quality of life. Rather than whip up PR-caliber quotes of their own, Review scouts look instead for student input, opening their Web site and performing interviews rounds through colleges on a rotating basis.
It’s nice to know that complaints usually limited to dorm room chatter can be elevated to mass publication. That chatter is even compiled into top 20 lists, ordered by category to feature the best and worst of each qualified school.
I love it, for example, when my alma mater annually places in the worst food list each year. In the new edition, my great former cafeteria placed second-to-last, just below the United States Naval Academy. The food director insists that people complain too much, but try explaining that to the girl who found a long strand of black hair baked into her pizza. Yum!
Through the book, alumni can get a report on what has changed, through a format more appealing than a newsletter about who donated a brick to the patio. In the Clemson profile, for example, students noted a significant increase in diversity over the past few years, as evident in the effort to be a “top 20” public school.
But you really need to check out this book for the freak shows in the back, loaded with quotes of hipster irony that capture what smart-asses we’ve all become. “I have a really big booger in my nose that I can’t quite handle,” said a Brown University student. “What do I do? Pick it in public and look like a typical Brown freak, or just deal with it?”
