Surveys, surveys everywhere . . .
At the fancy-schmancy Aspen Ideas Festival this week (tip o’ the pixel: Politico Playbook), the Economist Intelligence Unit for Siemans released its U.S. and Canada Green City Index – and Boston made the Top Five:
San Francisco grabbed the mantle of “greenest” major city in the US and Canada Green City Index, with New York, Seattle, Denver and Boston rounding out the top five US cities.
Excellent!
Speaking of green, how about that New York Times piece, “What’s the Most Expensive College? The Least? Education Dept. Puts It All Online.”
According to the College Affordability and Transparency Center (a name only the government could love), here are the Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above with Highest Tuition.
The hardcounting staff tallies 64 colleges and Boston University nowhere in sight.
(Full disclosure: The hardworking staff is a hardteaching professor at BU.)
Still – great value!
Campaign Outsider 
Well, if you follow the link on the page to search for colleges, you can enter “Boston University” and find out that it cost $38,440 for 2009-2010. That put’s it just $200 below the cutoff of the top-64 list you reference.
Make that the hardly-working staff of Campaign Outsider!
For comparison, Boston College made the middle of the top-64 list at $39,130, while Harvard is below even BU at $37,012.
Frankly, I find these comparisons idiotic. There is only around 2% difference in cost between BU and either BC or Harvard. They’re just splitting hairs comparing those costs.
The real question is whether a public university, with its much lower costs, is a better investment over the long-term than a high-priced, private university.
Hey, Michael – the hardworking staff, please remember, is who dug this info up in the first place. That’s hardly hardly-working, no?