面包会有的，爱情也会有的。恋爱中的物质与精神就犹如鱼与熊掌，虽不能绝对地说无法兼得，但机会着实少之又少。那么选大学呢？你希望学校能给你带来物质上的丰富，还是精神上的满足？当学校的“爱情与面包”摆在你面前时，你会选什么？
正文
Which universities deliver the best “feelgood” experience?
哪所大学更能满足你的“精神世界”？
THERE is no shortage of college rankings, nor rankings that tell you what you already know. Ivy League colleges are prestigious and selective. Graduates of business schools tend to do well, and skilled engineers are in high demand. For college applicants trying to make a choice between attending multiple colleges, such rankings have one critical shortcoming: they draw no distinction between the quality of a university’s institutions versus the quality of its student body. The fact that Harvard graduates tend to do well on the job market doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve received a superior education—it simply may be the case that Harvard graduates are successful because their alma mater is very good at attracting bright students.
大学排名可谓是多种多样，所提供的信息也大都是老生常谈。常青藤联校享有盛名，百里挑一，商学院毕业生往往都能有好的就业出路，技术娴熟的工程师则市场需求量大。对于那些试图在多所学校中做出抉择的考生们来说，这些排名最大的不足便在于无法确定排名结果到底是因为大学机构本身的办学水平高还是因为他们的生源好。事实上，哈佛毕业生在就业市场上表现出色并不一定意味着他们接受的教育就一定非常优质——哈佛毕业生之所以成功，可能仅仅只是因为哈佛更擅长于吸引优秀学生。
For students trying to decide between multiple colleges, perhaps the most important question to ask is not how a university is perceived by others but rather how much they personally will benefit from attending. Last October, The Economist attempted to answer this very question by creating a value-added college ranking. To do so we first built a model predicted how much graduates of particular colleges could be expected to earn based on factors like student ability (SAT scores), family incomes, where the college was located and what subjects the students studied. We then ranked every college in our database by the difference between their graduates’ actual earnings minus their expected earnings. The colleges whose graduates most outperformed expectations were ranked highest.
对于“择校难”的报考生们而言，别人怎么评价这所学校或许并不重要，重要的是他们自己能从这所学校里收获多少。去年10月，《经济学人》试图回答这个难题，根据学生的增值量做了一份大学排名。我们首先建立了一个模型，根据各个学校毕业生的能力（SAT成绩），家庭收入，学校所在地以及所学专业来预测其未来收入。随后，我们再根据他们实际收入与预期收入的差值大小对数据库中的每所大学进行排序。差值越大，则学校排名越高。
While we believe that our value-added ranking is a useful guide for college applicants trying to maximise their earnings potential, they certainly don’t address the needs of everyone. Contrary to the views of some miserly economists, a college education is about far more than just money; what about those who want to maximise their ‘spiritual’ returns?
尽管我们认为这种增值排名能够为那些追求潜在收入最大化的报考生们提供择校帮助，但它肯定无法满足每个人的需求。和某些视财如命的经济学家们的观点相反，大学教育不应仅仅是为了赚钱。对于那些想要实现“精神”回报最大化的人来说，他们该如何择校？
This April 1st, in the interest of open-mindedness we present our first-ever Feelgood college rankings. Unlike an earnings-based ranking, the methodology for ranking colleges by their intangible benefits is not obvious, since intangible benefits are well, intangible. We believe we have a way of doing so, though it requires us to make two fairly standard economic assumptions and push them to unreasonable extremes.
出于对不同需求的考虑，今年4月1日我们推出了世界首个以精神满足为标准的大学排名。不同于其它以收入为标准的大学排名，这种基于无形效益来给大学排名的方法其思路并不那么显而易见，因为无形效益本身就难以理解。这迫使我们提出两个标准的经济假设，并将这些假设推向超出常理的极端。即使如此，我们仍相信我们能做出这样一份大学排名。
First, we assume that college applicants have perfect information—that is, every 18-year-old across America knows everything there is to know about the earnings potential of every degree from every college in the country. We also assume that college applicants are perfectly rational. Consequently, any differences in the average earnings between graduates of different colleges of the same calibre can be explained by differences in the lifestyle preferences. Viewed from this perspective, Harvard graduates make more than their Yalie counterparts not because they are better educated but because they have to be paid more because they choose to work less fulfilling jobs.
首先，我们假设考生们掌握一切信息——也就是说，美国所有18岁青少年都清楚地知道全国每所大学各个学位所能带来的潜在收入是多少。同时，我们还假设报考生们都十分理智。因此，同一水准的不同学校毕业的学生在平均收入方面存在的差异就可以归因于生活偏好的不同。由此看来，哈佛毕业生的收入之所以比耶鲁毕业生高，并不是因为他们所接受的教育更好，而是因为他们选择了更为辛苦的工作，付出的更多。
Next, we build a slightly-modified version of our graduate earnings model, and once again compare those results with college graduates’ actual earning. This time around however, we rank the colleges whose graduates earn less than expected at the top as it’s clear that they’re the ones whose graduates are experiencing the most joy out of life. For leisure-minded students trying to decide between colleges, our Feelgood rankings can offer some immediate lessons. Graduates from liberal-arts and bible colleges tend to fair the best by our metrics, enjoying thousands of dollars a year worth of spiritual fulfilment. Sitting in first place is Reed, a liberal-arts college in Oregon, whose students are known for both their intellectual curiosity and relaxed social attitudes.
随后，我们对毕业生收入模型稍微进行修改，并再次将所得结果同大学毕业生的实际收入进行比较。但这一次，实际收入与预期收入的差值越小，学校就排得越靠前，因为这些学校的学生显然过得更快乐。对于那些追求舒适生活的报考生而言，我们的排名能够提供第一手的择校指南。以我们的标准来看，毕业于文理学院和神学院的学生表现最好，每年收入在几千美金，同时也得到了精神上的满足。排名第一的是位于俄勒冈州的一所文理学院——里德学院，那里的学生素来以求知欲旺盛与处世态度随性闻名。
Business-oriented schools are to be avoided. Georgetown and Penn, two universities known for producing disproportionate numbers of bankers and lawyers, fair especially poorly in our rankings. According to our model, their graduates have to be paid an extra $17,000 a year on average to cope with the indignities of working on Wall Street. Sitting at the very bottom of our rankings is none other than Harvard University, which cruelly sends a third of its graduating class into finance and consulting.
以精神满足为标准的话，考生们就不应该选择商学院。乔治城大学和宾夕法尼亚大学因培育出大量银行家和律师而闻名于世，但却在此次排名中表现极差。根据我们的模型，毕业于这两所大学的学生平均每年要额外花费1.7万美元来确保自己能够得体地在华尔街工作。位于排名末端的不是其他大学而是闻名世界的哈佛，它每年都会“惨无人道”地将三分之一的毕业生送往金融与咨询行业。
Both students at both our top-ranked college, Reed, and our bottom-ranked college, Harvard, tend to have stellar academic credentials, yet they experience radically different job-market outcomes. According to data from College Scorecard, 28-year-old Harvard graduates can expect to make $87,000 a year, while compared to just $36,000 a year for Reed graduates. For an 18-year-old college applicant, a decision between the two college can equate to a difference of some $2.4m in lifetime earnings, or $700,000 in present-value terms. A life of leisure, though priceless, can certainly be costly.
来自榜首里德学院的学生和来自榜尾哈佛大学的学生往往都拥有优异的学历，但他们的就业情况却大相径庭。据美国高校记分卡（College Scorecard）称，28岁的哈佛毕业生预期收入为8.7万美元每年，相比之下里德毕业生的预期收入仅为3.6万美元每年。对于18岁的考生们来说，在这两所学校之间作抉择，就相当于在总收入相差约240万美元的两种人生中作抉择（以现值计算约为70万美元）。舒适的人生虽然是无价之宝，但也确实代价不小。
外媒简介
《经济学人》是一份由伦敦经济学人报纸有限公司出版的杂志，风格机智，幽默，有力度，严肃又不失诙谐，并且注重于如何在最小的篇幅内告诉读者最多的信息。
杂志关注的新闻广泛涉及政治、商业、金融、科技和艺术等领域。杂志中所有文章都不署名，但又处处用事实说话。相比较于其他国内外语报纸，它的态度更客观，视角更宽，在全球范围内的精英人士中享有独一无二的地位。
学习笔记
【重点词汇】
【alma mater】母校
The fact that Harvard graduates tend to do well on the job market doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve received a superior education—it simply may be the case that Harvard graduates are successful because their alma mater is very good at attracting bright students.
事实上，哈佛毕业生在就业市场上表现出色并不一定意味着他们接受的教育就一定非常优质——哈佛毕业生之所以成功，可能仅仅只是因为哈佛（母校）更擅长于吸引优秀学生。
【miserly】adj. 吝啬的，贪婪的
Contrary to the views of some miserly economists, a college education is about far more than just money; what about those who want to maximise their ‘spiritual’ returns?
和某些视财如命的经济学家们的观点相反，大学教育不应仅仅是为了赚钱。对于那些想要实现“精神”回报最大化的人来说，他们该如何择校？
【calibre】n. 才干，水准
Consequently, any differences in the average earnings between graduates of different colleges of the same calibre can be explained by differences in the lifestyle preferences.
因此，同一水准的不同学校毕业的学生在平均收入方面存在的差异就可以归因于生活偏好的不同。
翻译：刘 蕊
校对：倪凌晖
策划：谢晓羽
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