<p>If people really care about rankings and comparative social perceptions so much, let’s just all find ways to raise Cornell’s ranking in USNWR. Currently, its 7th in the Ivies in front of Brown, so let’s try to raise its endowment by donating all of our money. Let’s email other universities to raise its peer assessment score, let’s tell every single person we know to apply and do their essays for them so they’d be willing to, so we can lower Cornell’s admission percentages, and (this is for those already at Cornell) be sure not to enroll in too many classes: let’s keep our percentage of classes with less than 20 students high!</p>
<p>We’ll do it just like UPenn did. About a decade ago, UPenn and Cornell were always believed to be the worst of the Ivy league, not even that great of national universities. Now, UPenn is 5th in the nation. It doesn’t look like it’s going back in rankings any time soon.</p>
<p>[/sarcasm]</p>