Two recent lists have the U of C at #7 and #8, respectively.

The 2010 U.S. News and World Report puts us at 8 on its list of national universities, tied with Columbia for the coveted spot below Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, and some good-for-nothing Ivies. The top 10 below:

1. Harvard

Princeton

3. Yale

4. Cal Tech

MIT

Stanford

Penn

8. Columbia

University of Chicago

10. Duke

Eight (is great!) is nothing new for the U of C – we garnered the same spot last year. Both the 2007 and 2008 lists had the University in 9th, and way back on the 2006 list we made 15th. (That last jump explained here and analyzed here and here by former Viewpoints editor Alec Brandon.) Time just published an interview with Robert Morse, the man behind the list, and he was profiled in 2001 by the University of Chicago Magazine. The Magazine story is worth reading if only for the quotes from bitter U of C administrators.

The #7 ranking, meanwhile, is on Forbes’ list of billionaire-producing universities. Seriously. They made a list for that.

But lest we forget, College Crunch had us at #1! Sniff….

In other U of C-related news, Rose Friedman, the widow and occasional co-author of Milton Friedman, passed away yesterday. She won’t get to see the MFI in all its glory, but the spirit of her and her husband’s research will certainly live on for quite some time.

And I’m not sure what it means, but Esquire has published a list of 1,892 “cover songs men could listen to.” I have no idea why they would do this, but I can only assume that the number is a reference to the year of the University’s (and the Maroon‘s!) birth. Theories are welcome.