Press Release August 21, 2008 College Ranking Service Annual Announcement 2008 For the eighth straight year, the College Ranking Service (CRS, rankyourcollege.com), has found that prestige in colleges and universities correlates with the size of endowment. The richest schools are the most prestigious. For the eighth straight year, the CRS has found no difference between the prestige of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, and Stanford. They are all incredibly prestigious and wealthy. In fact, they are so wealthy that the CRS wonders why anyone continues to donate money to them. They don’t need your money folks. They have billions upon billions of dollars. By continuing to solicit money from you, they are just being greedy. For the eighth straight year, the CRS has found no difference between the prestige of Northwestern, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Penn and about a dozen or so universities that aren’t quite as wealthy as Harvard et al. While they don’t have endowments in the 10 plus billion range, they do have endowments in the 5 billion dollar range. They too are wealthy enough. They don’t need your money either. For the eighth straight year, the CRS has found no correlation between the prestige of a university and the quality of its education. For the eighth straight year, the CRS has found that state universities continue to be squeezed by state governments. They will never be as prestigious as the universities above because they don’t have their wealth. But they are the engines that provide this country with its educated workforce. Without Harvard et al., this country would still do well. Without UCLA et al., this country would be in real trouble. The CRS suggests that you take the money that you would normally give to your prestigious and already wealthy alma mater (if you perhaps went to one of those schools) and give it to your state university instead. For the eighth straight year, the CRS has found that US News' college ranking: 1) Tries to make quantitative distinctions between universities on the basis of statistically insignificant differences; 2) Jiggles its methodology every year to make sure the rankings change in order to generate public interest. About us: The College Ranking Service (CRS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing rankings of colleges in a manner suitable for students, university leaders, and tuition paying parents. We take our rankings seriously. Each college is painstakingly analyzed, as if under a microscope, for its flaws and degree of polish. The rankings found on www.rankyourcollege.com represent thousands of hours of research, and are updated annually or at the discretion of the Director. The Board of the College Ranking Service, composed of Nobel Prize Winners and Captains of Industry, remains anonymous to ensure the integrity of the rankings. The Director is also anonymous, however, rest assured that he is a prominent member of the academy and a professor of the highest regard at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. The Boston Globe says, "The most piercing rankings are found on rankyourcollege.com." The French newspaper Le Monde says that our service provides "satisfaction garantie." The College Ranking Service is the acknowledged world leader in college evaluation. Disclaimer