Learning What You Pay For?

The chart below shows the top 30 colleges according to US News rankings and their respective tuition and fees. Schools below the linear regression are theoretically a better than average deal relative to the group, while those above the line might be supposed to be a worse than average deal. (This assumes a uniform distribution in quality, e.g. the difference between the first and second rank is the same as the difference between the second and third, etc.) Five of the top ranked schools are public: University of Michigan - Anne Arbor, University of Virginia, and the Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara campuses of the University of California. For these schools the out-of-state tuition rates were used. In some cases two or more colleges tied for a rank. It would appear that Princeton is the best deal at $56,010, while Tufts is the most overpriced of the group at $63,000. 

 

Crime in Minneapolis and Crime in the Nation

Has crime in Minneapolis gotten out of control? One side of this debate cites crime statistics that are far greater than (recent) historical averages, while the other side argues that crime has increased throughout the country and that attention to local policy is therefore unfounded. The chart below shows the change in homicide rates from 2010 to 2020 using 2010 as the baseline. Overall, the national rate increased by 35% over this period, while the Minneapolis rate increased by 102%. The Minneapolis chart shows more volatility, but the change from 2019 to 2020 still appears to be a divergence. Comparing Minneapolis to other cities may also be useful.

Figures for United States Data:

0.00%
-2.08%
-2.08%
-6.25%
-8.33%
2.08%
12.50%
10.42%
4.17%
6.25%
35.42%

Figures for Minneapolis Data:

0.00%
-6.70%
10.78%
5.74%
-17.03%
27.83%
-8.90%
12.18%
-20.37%
13.86%
102.01%