Come and major in overkill!

It's November, Boy has already sent in his college applications (and gotten one acceptance), yet still the deluge continues. I can't stop reviewing the brochures now, though; how else will I discover who won the "most persistent" award? The "furthest away" award? The "????" award? So without further ado, the latest and not-greatest in recruiting literature.

The Michigan also-rans: Grand Valley State (MI, 3), U of M Dearborn (6-8), U-M Flint (3), Oakland U (3), Wayne State U (4-6), Davenport U (3), Central MU (6-8), Western MU (1-4, welcome to the club!), Eastern MU (4-6), U of Detroit Mercy (3), Aquinas (3), Lawrence Tech, Albion (3-4)

The techies: Rose-Hulman Tech (IN, 2-3): Nation's #1 engineering school you haven't heard of; MIT (4-5): Local meeting and how-to-apply brochure. Sigh. Never mind; MO Science & Tech (5); Michigan Tech (3); NYU Polytechnic: Never mind New York City, we rank high in graduates' salaries!

Small schools, small chance: U of Evansville (IN, 2), Manchester College (IN, 3-6): Indiana now trying to vie for most colleges ignored. Northeastern (MA, 2), U of Dayton (OH, 2), Miami (OH, 3), U of Toledo (3), wait, Ohio still pulling ahead.

Last-minute pushes: U of Pittsburgh (3-7)

B1G Ten? Really only about the one: U of Michigan (3-4). Sorry, THE Ohio State U (5-6): we still don't like you or your love of articles; U of Illinois (2): Dept of Science & Engineering, I love the dot-matrix, non-graphic return address!!; Northwestern (2-3): purple!

Ignoring the Ivies: Yale (4), Penn (2), Columbia (2)

Etc.: DePaul U (3), Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt (TN, 3-4), Case Western Reserve (OH, 3), Washington & Lee (VA, 2), the Army and Marines (eep!)

The diehards: U of Chicago (17-18), U of Kentucky (16-21): Since you ignored our first 19 letters, we're sending a paper application in letter #20.

We're hoping we'll have a final answer and maybe an actual decision by the end of the year, so we're also hoping the mail will stop. That seems unlikely, however, so I'll be back with a last assessment sometime in the (hopefully not-too-far) future.