[burger]

Whatever the rankings say, is there a more desirable school than Stanford right now?  Is there a school that gets more positive mentions in the press and in Hollywood?  I can't even recall the number of times in the last few years that I've seen movies or tv shows that have a young, smart character heading to Stanford or a smart person who's an alum.  It must be in the dozens.  (The latest that comes to mind is HBO's terrific Silicon Valley, where the lead character is a Stanford grad).

Also, graduating high school seniors are voting with their feet.  This article (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...&abg=1#s=3) showed that seniors admitted to Stanford and <insert name of any top school here> picked Stanford over that school.  That includes Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Yale and a bunch of others.

BTW, is US News even a magazine anymore?  Why does anyone pay attention to these rankings?  A bunch of schools have been caught juicing their numbers or lying outright to up their stats.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14...1891.html  (and there are others)

[burger]

Whatever the rankings say, is there a more desirable school than Stanford right now?  Is there a school that gets more positive mentions in the press and in Hollywood?  I can't even recall the number of times in the last few years that I've seen movies or tv shows that have a young, smart character heading to Stanford or a smart person who's an alum.  It must be in the dozens.  (The latest that comes to mind is HBO's terrific Silicon Valley, where the lead character is a Stanford grad).

Also, graduating high school seniors are voting with their feet.  This article (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...&abg=1#s=3) showed that seniors admitted to Stanford and <insert name of any top school here> picked Stanford over that school.  That includes Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Yale and a bunch of others.

BTW, is US News even a magazine anymore?  Why does anyone pay attention to these rankings?  A bunch of schools have been caught juicing their numbers or lying outright to up their stats.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14...1891.html  (and there are others)