The Most and Least Brainy Cities in America

[KamaAina]

No DC jokes, please: they ranked No. 3. Of course, all those new repuke staffers and interns coming in could knock them down a notch or two. :P

Full list:

http://www.portfolio.com/graphics/BrainiestBastions.pdf

California has two in the Top Ten, both in the Bay Area -- but an astonishing four in the Bottom Ten, all in the Central Valley, with a couple of others not far behind. Fortunately for Merced, it won't be in the DFL (Dead F'n Last) spot for long: it boasts the newest campus of the University of California.

[Poll_Blind]

1. Woo-hoo! Portland 27. Eugene 70th. We're just as smart as Portland, just high more often.n/t

PB

[OneGrassRoot]

29. LOL! Is that the town motto?

:P

[Poll_Blind]

30. When we can remember it, probably!

:rofl:

PB

[boppers]

35. muWAHAHAHHAHA *snorf*

It's okay, we love you like we love our little festie-going, college trying, dreadlocked hippie little sister... sure, you're a bit weird at times, and sometimes not all there, but you're family, and we love you to death, damnit!

[EFerrari]

2. Oh, yikes, they listed SF and Oakland as one.

That'll rile up people on both sides of the bay.

lol

[KamaAina]

6. It's considered one metropolitan area

for better or worse.

Note that SJ (#7) is not, which just goes to show you how far removed we are from the real Bay Area. :(

[Swamp Rat]

3. They must be counting degrees from diploma mills too.

Provo, Utah? Yeah, if you count DeVry 'graduates'.

[CreekDog]

18. Brigham Young University isn't a "diploma mill"

I had a terrific education there.

[Swamp Rat]

22. I'd take Univ. of Utah any day over the Mormon Factory.

I doubt I've ever met such a large grouping of narrow-minded, conservative, bigoted individuals who want to control your mind and sex organs (and I am from the DEEP SOUTH, and that's sayin' somethin'), which is one reason why I stayed in Salt Lake most of the time, unless I was camping or skiing.

On the other hand, I met a lot of nice people whenever I was down milling around Zion, Bryce, Lake Powell, or hiking in the Wasatch area, etc.

[CreekDog]

24. I would've preferred to be at The U too and in Salt Lake for that matter

but calling BYU a "diploma mill" or suggesting that the Provo doesn't have anything more than a "diploma mill", ignores both BYU and Utah Valley University and is wrong.

[Swamp Rat]

25. I trust you got a good education at BYU (great resources and lots of money),

but it IS a Mormon Factory, and I did not meet too many intellectuals whenever I hung out in Provo. If you want to talk about chewing tobacco, and shootin' mule deer, then Provo is great (I jest, but c'mon! This is Provo we're talking about).

On the other hand, it is beautiful country, and I met a lot of nice people, though rather limited, so to speak.

I still stand by my comment about a lot of DeVry grads. It seems they're EVERYWHERE in Utah.

[rug]

4. Fresno is #188.

[KamaAina]

12. And Stockton's way down there, too.

So that's six out of the Bottom Fifteen for the Valley -- in a state that strives (until recently :grr: ) to make higher education available to all.

[rug]

15. But if Fresno kicked out Free Rupublic it might reach the top100.

[KamaAina]

17. DUzy!

:rofl:

[DJ13]

5. an astonishing four in the Bottom Ten, all in the Central Valley

Yay, we're number...uh..uh...632!

Oh wait.......

[Angry Dragon]

7. Getting a degree does not prove intelligence

[Skittles]

10. CORRECT

something only stupid people do not understand

[pintobean]

16. Your killin' me

:rofl:

[demosincebirth]

39. You said a mouthful !

[spin]

45. Exactly right. Geting a degree today in many cases means having rich parents ..

or having the dedication and will and be in the right situation to work and also go to college.

Plus many successful people have never graduated from college. Two such people are Mary Kay Ash who founded Mary Kay and Richard Branson who owns the Virgin brand and its 360 companies including Virgin Airlines. He dropped out at age 16!



Here is a list of 100 successful people who never completed college. Some, like Ben Franklin, date from a time when a college education was a rarity, however it's obvious that Ben was quite intelligent.

A more recent success is Bill Gates started Microsoft after dropping out of Harvard. He did get an honorary degree from Harvard in 2007. In fact Bill Gates predicts the internet will replace college in the future. ref:http://www.dailytech.com/Bill+Gates+Who+Needs+a+College+Education+When+You+Have+the+Web/article19294.htm


Bill Gates says a college education is plunging in value and that true "self-motivated" learners are flocking to the web, instead. (Source: YouTube)

[martymar64]

8. Austin made 22! Yay!

[Skittles]

9. ridiculous

equates intelligence with education which is a huge mistake

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. +1 n/t

[pintobean]

13. Indeed

I know several educated idiots.

[laconicsax]

14. As you noted above, a certain type of person makes that mistake. n/t

[Lucian]

33. Excellent point.

I've met a lot of idiots with college degrees.

[fizzgig]

19. my city is number five

there might be a lot of degrees here, but i'm surrounded by some stupid, stupid assholes

[NuclearDem]

20. Lincoln is #24?

Something is flawed here.

And Bloomington's not even on the list at all.

RAEG

[hlthe2b]

21. Coloradoans, take a bow...four in top 25, including #1 Boulder

and # 5 Fort Collins. And our largest city, Denver is #21. Not bad my fellow "mile highers"? ;)

[Warpy]

23. Abluquerque is 69, Santa Fe is too small to be rated

but I'm surprised 'burky is that high.

I've lived in 5 out of the top 15 and none of the bottom 15.

[provis99]

26. looks like they only counted cities over 100,000 population

Otherwise, Bloomington Indiana and Palo Alto, California should have been on the list.

[NuclearDem]

28. That must be it I guess

My first guess was that I'd see B-town on that list somewhere...

[taterguy]

43. PDF is metropolitan areas with populations greater than 207,000

You suck at the whole brain power thing.

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. The top twenty is filled with University Towns

Of course they're going to have a high percentage of people with graduate degrees. They are areas of concentration for just such people. I mean, Champaign, IL? Come on.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

31. #20 - Santa Cruz, Calif. Oh yeah!

Burn and learn, baby :hippie:

[Lucian]

32. Minnesota doesn't come in until 18th with Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Ouch. But not surprising since we're now almost a red state.

[TheDebbieDee]

34. I'm from Kansas City and we're SMARTER than St Louis!

[boppers]

36. Least motivated graduates in the country!

The more educated people you can get to stay in your college town after school, the higher you rank!

[Hannah Bell]

37. no offense to the poster, but this is the kind of list the ptb love to flog to the people.

it's all about invidious comparison, everything they do.

the list has nothing to do with peoples' brains or braininess.

[KamaAina]

42. I'm looking at it more along the lines of a sociological divide

what John Edwards called "two Americas".

For instance, both California's Central Valley and Texas' Rio Grande Valley, which virtually monopolize the bottom of the list, are heavily Spanish-speaking. Clearly there are barriers to educational attainment there.

[asdjrocky]

38. Stockton at 190 is no suprise to me.

There are no jobs here, and have been none for years. People turn to crime, or just turn off. We have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Ca, if not the highest and I can say they same thing about the dropout rate.

I'm not joking when I say it's hard to find people to talk to around here without having to explain the big words.

[undeterred]

40. Madison WI comes in at #9!

But I knew that.

[elleng]

41. Gotta get outta here!

#180!

[whistler162]

44. We know it is wrong since no. 7 is obviously incorrect ;)

[Mimosa]

46. I figured Atlanta would be at bottom (and it was.)

ATL is the most soulless place. And the education system sucks. Libraries here are a JOKE compared to the pre-Katrina libraries in the metro New Orleans areas. The Jeff Parish main library beat the heck out of any library in the ATL area!

[kgnu_fan]

47. Ha! We are number ONE!!! That is why we do have www.kgnu.org

for the last 33 years!!!! Great and Smart!

[kgnu_fan]

48. kick for my town!

[Blue_In_AK]

49. 51 for Anchorage - could be worse, I guess.

They have overestimated our population by about 100,000 though. I don't know where they got that 374,000 figure unless someone made a typo.