Awesomeness

Here's a new standard on how I want to live my life:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=val-patterson&pid=158526785

Here's the reaction to the awesome link above:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54505245-78/patterson-val-jane-mary.html.csp

Amen to that.

JanPlan at Colby Memes

Hey guys,

So Kate (she is trying to go by that now, for professionalism) Unsworth sent this site to me and its ridiculously navel-gazing, but look at this: http://inthecac.com/2012/01/10/know-your-meme-janplan-at-colby/

God? (Sorry Gwen that Dickinson is left out :( )

-Elise (as posted between meetings at the Connecticut Legislative Office Building...oh the life of pretending-to-work-really-hard-for-progressive-change.....but-actually-getting-something-done-sometimes)

Christmas gift ideas/Good causes!

Below is a message from Andrew, since he evidently finds himself too cool to post upon this blog :)

If 200 people pay $10, each donor's choose participant receives $50 towards their cause!! Feel free to donate directly to his donor's choose cause (the second link listed below) at any amount you can spare, if you'd like to do that instead.



Hello!

Sorry to spam you with this stuff, but there's a great deal with GroupOn where you pay $10 and can spend $50 on a donor's choose project (hopefully mine, but they are all deserving).

http://www.groupon.com/ch/grouponicus/deals/gx-gt-donorschooseorg

If you want to forward this out or participate, I'd be thankful.

My project's link is http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=652467&verify=158483976

Hope all is well,

Andrew

IT'S OFFICIAL

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00397911.2010.523921#preview

col-by coll-ege

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/college-rankings/2011/happiest.all.html


:)


Has anyone else noticed how high Yale keeps showing up on these random lists?

Exit Here

Colby Rejects...

I'm looking at you, Bates and Bowdoin.

20!

http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/



Below is an excerpt from the Forbes article that explains how the think tank that produced this list decided ranking order:

"Our annual ranking of the 650 best undergraduate institutions focuses on the things that matter the most to students: quality of teaching, great career prospects, graduation rates and low levels of debt. Unlike other lists, we pointedly ignore ephemeral measures such as school “reputation” and ill-conceived metrics that reward wasteful spending. We try and evaluate the college purchase as a consumer would:  Is it worth spending as much as a quarter of a million dollars for this degree?

...The rankings are based on five general categories: Post Graduate success (30%), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence, Student Satisfaction (27.5%), which includes professor evaluations and freshman to sophomore year retention rates, Debt (17.5%), which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates, Four Year Graduation Rate (17.5%) and Competitive Awards (7.5%), which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships like the Rhodes, the Marshall and the Fulbright."

I perhaps shouldn't put a ton of stock in these lists, but I do. They give me more reasons to be proud to say I'm a Colby alumna. It makes me happy to know that Colby fares well (20th in the country, 17th among private institutions, 10th in the northeast) against many other excellent schools in our country.

After looking at the picture above for a few minutes, I got extremely nostalgic. Miss that place, miss and love you all.