NYC Ranked #10 For Brains

According to a new study, New York City ranks 10th in the country for metro areas with the highest percentage of college graduates, with 35.6% of the population having earned degrees. Washington D.C. won "brainiest" city, with 47.3% of the population earning college degrees, which John Schmitt of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in D.C. attributes to "a very high share of federal government employees here." CNN says the "creative class" is attracted to New York, as most of the degrees here are in things like journalism and art. Wait, we thought New York was closed to artists?

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By Jaya Saxena in News on October 5, 2010 12:39 PM

Comments [rss]

random transplant

Garbage. If NYC could count small college towns or cities like Princeton or New Paltz the way DC counted Georgetown, we'd probably be #1. Likewise if SF could count all the workers commuting from Oakland & other area's.

Seems much more a study on segregated metro area's than college grads.

John L

There's certainly a lot of brainless people around here.

jaycjay

"NYC Ranked #10 For Brains"

It seems like we'd rank higher than that, but apparently they didn't count the ones left laying around the M.E.s office for months.

dr zippy

That's some brainy, insightful, analysis by Mr. John Schmitt!

Actually, percent of population that has an undergraduate degree doesn't say all that much about braininess of a city. It is not all that difficult to get a bachelor's degree and most of those degree holders aren't making great intellectual contributions to their city.

jaycjay

There's no reason from the article to attribute any of that "braininess" stuff to John Schmitt, who apparently simply reported the percentage of the population with college degrees, and offered some explanations for some of the disparities.

The "brainiest" and "smartest" labels are the result of the CNN writer's analysis of the report -- and then dutifully repeated on Gothamist.

The Great Bandini

The study never tested the intelligence of people who believe every study they see. Hmmm...

http://wanderingbrooklyn.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/old-brooklyn-photos/