A recent publication of Student Life has yet again illuminated an issue of ostensibly infinite concern for many Washington University students: rankings. A news report and a staff editorial brought to our attention the fact that the University’s international reputation does not seem to match its national reputation.

Citing its annual price tag of $56,930, Forbes.com ranked Washington University fourth in its 2011 list of America’s Most Expensive Colleges, released on its site earlier this week. According to Edward Macias, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, the cost is necessary to maintain the institution’s current quality.

I was very disappointed this past Monday when I read “The Real College Rankings” article in the most recent issue of StudLife. It should be an embarrassment to the publication, and I felt personally embarrassed for the school at large as a member of the Wash. U. community. To an outsider (e.g.

Washington University dropped to 14th place in this year’s U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of national universities, released online this Tuesday. Last year the University tied with Johns Hopkins for 13th. In an official statement, University officials said they are not worried about the drop.

Washington University was ranked 60th in the final report of the World University Rankings released on Oct. 9 by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a company that specializes in education, in conjunction with the Times Higher Education Supplement.

Thanks to records on roughly 35,000 engineers, Boeing, a major airplane producer, now has enough data to interpolate which universities have produced the best employees.

We’ve all been there—the wide-eyed prospective freshman stage, where all the colleges in the world are open to you and they all seem better than high school. After the initial elation wears off, most people sober up with the notion that they can only attend one school out of the dozens they’ve considered.