Many of you no doubt perked up in late August when the U.S. News & World Report college rankings were released. Others pretended they were too cool for those rankings, and then snuck in a peek anyways.

Well, now, the Times of London has released its own rankings, and, unlike the America-only U.S. News rankings, this version includes universities from all over the world. The Times ranks Columbia 10th overall, and 6th among American universities (behind Harvard, Yale, Caltech, MIT and UChicago).

Overall, Harvard remained in first for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Yale. The rest of the Ivy League is ranked as follows: Penn 11th, Princeton 12th, Cornell 15th, Brown 27th, and Dartmouth bringing up the rear at 54th.

Payscale.com has just released a ranking of the best Ivy League Schools in terms of post-Bachelors salaries. Let's see how Columbia stacked up. Why look, it's last, dead last. Topping the list is Dartmouth (fraternities), followed by Princeton (eating clubs) and Yale (collective ennui?).

As one Bwog staffer points out: "This says a lot more about the profile of students who go to these schools than how much the schools help them.

People like me who aren't going to make a lot of money are gonna drag the average down even though people from Columbia can still make that cash if they go into a profitable field."

See how SEAS and Barnard stack up after the jump.

So this article has been making the rounds for about a month, but even un-breaking news is sometimes worth a read. Writing in the American Scholar, William Deresiewicz argues that this "elite" education we're getting actually kind of sucks.

Roughly, he posits: the Ivies a) make it impossible for you to talk to people who aren't like you; b) give you an inflated sense of your own self-worth; and c) narrow our definition of success to "achievement" and "leadership" rather than asking the "big questions."

I guess you could characterize the piece as "controversial" -- it probably served as something of a parting shot when Deresiewicz left Yale this year (although his earlier defense of professor-student erotic tension had already raised some eyebrows). But it's nothing new. The complaints that ring true -- the collapse of solitude, the tyranny of specialization -- have been hashed over before, and this time come infused with the self-righteousness of a defector condemning his former regime.

Gather round Columbia, it's time to re-welcome IvyGate into our browsers and into our hearts. Naturally, it has returned dressed to the nines, with a new WordPress redesign and fresh-faced summer editors. Bwogger Justin Vlasits favors the mouse over chalk-underlines in the new masthead (see above), while a Yalie friend of Bwog noticed that clicking on the chalky names re-directs readers to posts about that school.

Now let's meet the man and woman behind the summer incarnation of IvyGate 2.0. Why look, it's hometown favorite Nina Shield (BC '07), and some rising sophomore from Harvard. After introducing herself, Shield puts together a nice little wrap-up of all Vag-related happenings. She is the first Columbian to helm the good ship IvyGate since the legendary days of Chris Beam and Nick Summers. (Oh, and Andrew Nusca, a former summer editor, was a J-Schooler.) Go Lions.

Even though Bwog has midterms too, it's still trudging along. No QuickSpec today, but perhaps these Ivy League-related stories will brighten up your stay in Butler.

Look on the bright side, Carman may be infested with Natty Ice cans, but at least there's no scabies.

To be fair, professor housing is really nice.

Nudity- not just a Brown phenomenon.

How-to eat out... Wait, didn't the Belle Jar cover this already?

Maybe a facebook poke will be more seductive than an e-mail.

The first Ivy League fees for next year have been set: Princeton has ra ised total fees to $43,980 while keeping tuition at $33,000. Interesting tidbit: currently, Columbia is the most expensive Ivy ($45,444, as your parents likely know), followed by Penn and Harvard. Columbia will announce next year's tuition in June, last of all the Ivies; stay tuned to see just how much Alma Mater will cut into your cigarettes-and-Pinnacle budget for '07-'08.