Why, The Daily Beast, why? Last October, you told us that we’re the “Most Stressful College” of 2011. Now, you’re telling us that we’re also the “Most Rigorous School” of 2012. At least we’ve become less stressful, dropping from #1 last year to #3 this year. I’m surprised the Universty of Chicago - a.k.a. “where fun goes to die” university - isn’t ranked higher up on either list. And I’m relieved to be a recent graduate - and not an incoming freshman or rising sophomore still deep in the bowels of the Morningside Heights stress machine.

The three critieria for the “Most Rigorous Schools” list, assigned equal weight, are 1) student apptitude (acceptance rate, SAT and ACT scores); 2) class toughness (student-to-faculty ratio); and 3) workload manageability (College Prowler score, out of 10 points). ”In other words, these are the colleges where accepted students find the workload most difficult when normalized by the aptitude of the student body.” The figures for Columbia University are:

• Percent of applicants admitted: 10%
• Median SAT Critical Reading and Math score: 1480
• Median ACT composite score: 32.5
• Student-to-faculty ratio: 6
• College Prowler workload manageability score: 4.3