The ol' alma mater

The recent release of the latest US News & World Report ranking of colleges has apparently caused some excitement for USC students, as it is the first time USC has outranked UCLA in the history of the report (by one rung). The LA Times article on this fact has interviews with crowing USC students and crestfallen UCLA students. Honestly, people who care that much about a ranking system and a rivalry they think is worth losing an eye over should maybe try focusing on more important things like, say...academia.

Case in point: I was walking through USC on Friday for a meeting when I beheld a young USC student leading a group of prospective students on a campus tour. They paused in front of the library and the tour guide began to explain the huge array of graduate programs at USC, and that the graduate students undertook extensive research projects to earn their degree. Then this happened:

Guidette: Does anybody know what research is?
Prospective students: [crickets]
Guidette: I didn't know what research was either when I first started here!

Oh...my Lord. Is it really possible that sixteen and seventeen-year-olds who believe they are accomplished enough to get into a school tied-ranked 24th in the nation when they don't know what research is, much less done a little of their own?? No concept of research, at all. Not read about it, know about it in any capacity. Nothing from science class, social studies. Nothin. What's worse, the guide is telling them that it's okay not to know anything about research, because she didn't either! I think we have more to worry about than how football is going to do this year people.