new evidence
True, in the end, we awarded the
Most Annoying Liberal Arts College crown to Wesleyan, in no small part because we had it on good authority that
Sarah Lawrence was trying to rig the voting. The
nerve. But there's another ranking that they want no part of: the
US News annual list of the country's best colleges. Since the school doesn't even accept SAT or ACT scores (apparently the other schools that don't require them will look at them if you submit them),
US News decided to place them in a special "unranked" category. This will undoubtedly lead to all sorts of self-congratulatory back-thumping. Maybe even a T-shirt! Wesleyan, we are sorry to say that Sarah Lawrence seems to be nipping at your heels. Quick, throw a naked party or something!
Refusing to Rank [Inside Higher Ed]
kids today
Hello there, liberal arts college grad! Until we started doing
this monumental search for annoying colleges, we had no idea so many of you lurked among us, spreading your pansexual, drug-experimenting, free-thinking ways so insidiously! When this all began, we were just looking for a college we could generically insert into posts that made fun of Williamsburg residents, since Oberlin was getting tired. In our search, early favorites Bard, Vassar, and surprise write-in Swarthmore (general impression: everyone's really smart, but still really annoying)
all soon fell to the towering giants of Liberal Arts College Annoyingness: Wesleyan and
Sarah Lawrence. And that's where our death match came in, and why we've finally decided to bestow an honorary degree on one, very special, Liberal Arts College. It's one that is near and dear to all of your hearts, we're sure. And that college is...
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rankings
We've consulted our
poll standings—thank you for voting!—and as of this writing, the top two vote-getters for the highly coveted title of America's Most Annoying Liberal Arts College are...
Sarah Lawrence and Wesleyan! And it's
very close; last time we checked, Sarah Lawrence had 599 votes, or 15.5 percent of the total, while Wesleyan had 536 votes, or 13.9 percent of the total. So we decided to have a SLC vs. Wes DEATH MATCH. Sadly, neither Oberlin nor Bard, two of our personal favorites, will be in the running; neither will surprise high-vote-getter Swarthmore, which overcame its write-in-candidate status to finish in a strong third place. (Congrats, Swarthmore: You're
really annoying!) To help you determine once and for all which is the most annoying liberal arts college in America, we've marshalled some more of our favorite comments about each school. This will be the final poll! Cast your vote carefully!
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rankings
It's time to cast your vote! Yesterday we
proposed an initial list of America's most annoying liberal arts colleges. After perusing all your comments and emails, we've come up with a much-refined initial group of contenders for you to vote on. We've also selected the best description of each college from the voluminous correspondence we received on this endlessly fascinating subject. No more write-ins please—sorry, Skidmore!—this is our list and we're sticking to it. To get you started, we turn to the
immortal words of commenter LOLCait, who helpfully defined liberal arts colleges for us: "In the form it's being used here, it's a four-year liberal leaning, usually in a small town, college with no grad programs, that rich kids go to feel free and take peyote and wander around campus barefoot and shrieking into the night "I'm a real person!" and then graduate and abandon it all for a good job, only to relive it on screened in porches years later when they find an old joint pressed into a copy of the Stranger, so they toke it even though it's stale and they remember a little bit but then go to bed and wake up just the same as they were the day before." All right then! To the colleges!
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rankings
After much discussion, we have come to the conclusion that it
might be possible that Oberlin is not, in fact, the most annoying liberal arts college in the world. (Though there's some
pretty strong evidence in its favor.) So we've come up with a list of contenders. We acknowledge that most people probably don't have first-hand experience with each of these schools, but we'd like you to think long and hard about your experiences with their
graduates, which should be enough to allow you to make blanket generalizations about the nature of the colleges. Also, consider this your introduction; there will be a poll, and later a crowning of the Most Annoying Liberal Arts College In The World. Maybe they'll get a diploma from us!
Write-in candidates will also be considered.
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