Academia, Explained

• An explanation of the Ph.D. I should send this to all the people who express surprise that earning my Ph.D. will take more than a year or two. (I was reminded that this needs a h/t, well two of them actually—to Written Pyramids and to he who does not have a blog. Consider my hat tipped.)

• In the 2011 U.S. News and World Report college rankings, USC moves up to 23 (beating UCLA) and Columbia moves up to 4 (beating Stanford and Penn). It's a good day for my institutions of higher education.

• Gambling on grades? Somehow, this seems like a bad idea.