According to Washington D.C.’s 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Georgetown University was the city’s largest employer in 2010. Howard University, which was the largest employer in 2009, fell to fifth on the list. Howard’s fall is attributed to financial trouble and the early retirement of some of its staff members.

At a jobs summit in December, then Mayor-elect Vincent Gray said that he wanted to sweep away obstacles, like campus plans that cap enrollment and employment, in order to make D.C. a more business friendly place.

American University ranks seventh on the list, while the Catholic University of America ranks ninth. Specific numbers of employees were not included in the report.

h/t: WBJBizBeat

Georgetown earned a B in overall sustainability this year, according to the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s annual College Sustainability Report Card.

The grade is the same that the University received last year.

SEI grades are based on nine categories, including climate change and energy, student involvement, green building, investment priorities, administration, and shareholder engagement.

According to the report card, which independently evaluates “campus and endowment sustainable activities,” the University improved in the areas of transportation, food and recycling. SEI specifically lauded the GUTS bus service, car-sharing options, tray-less dining, and the purchase of locally-produced food. However, a failing mark in endowment transparency—due to a lack of public information—dragged down the overall grade.

Of the 336 colleges graded, 56 percent received B grades.

The Princeton Review has released another set of lists, this time ranking Master of Business Administration programs. Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business was featured on the “Best Career Prospects” list as the nation’s fourth-best program.

The 300 school, 19,000 student survey placed the Penn’s Wharton School, Harvard University, and Stanford University as first, second, and third, respectively.

Respondents to the survey said that Georgetown’s MBA program offered a global perspective that makes it unique. Georgetown’s high number of speakers in the business field and active alumni also contributed to the high ranking. In addition, students praised the opportunity to take courses at the University’s Public Policy Institute and School of Foreign Service.

“Georgetown MBA is located in the center of the government, business and non-profit worlds,” one student testimonial reads. “Everyone contributes a unique perspective.”

h/t Huffington Post

U.S. News & World Report has contributed to the host of meaningful and equitable college rankings in the past, evaluating the best learning institutions in the country.

Looks like that wasn’t enough.

According to rankings published in late September, Georgetown is the 155th-best college in the world, sandwiched between University of Science and Technology of China and University of Sussex.

U.S. News’s methodology, which is based on QS World University Rankings, weighs academic peer review drawn from 15,050 surveys over a three-year period as its key indicator.

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According to “research” released by the Schick razor company, Georgetown’s male students have the fourth-scruffiest faces in the country.

Only 37.5 percent of men at Georgetown regularly shave, says the shameless ploy to sell razors, which is a number bested only by the University of South Florida, Harvard, and Rutgers.

Our fellow D.C. colleges—American, George Mason, and George Washington—rank fifth, 38th, and 54th hairiest, respectively.

Talk about an unfair disadvantage. CareChex, a division the Delta Group, a health services information company, ranked the District of Columbia as the state with the worst hospital care in the nation.

The reports on quality of care [PDF] and patient satisfaction [PDF] may rank our favorite non-voting American entity as dead last, but when ranked as a metropolitan area, D.C. fares significantly better: 32nd in cardiac care, 40th in orthopedic care, 19th in neurological care, 37th in cancer care, 32nd in pulmonary care, and 42nd in overall hospital care.

CareChex’s complied the rankings using a variety of public databases, including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Studies’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems database and the Health Quality Alliance’s Hospital Compare All Pay database.

If you’re looking for a bit of consolation, the Georgetown University Medical Center was ranked 13th in specialty areas by a 2001 US News and World Report‘s “Best Hospitals” issue, and was awarded magnet status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center back in 2004.

Let’s chalk one up for liberal education, folks. In a recent list of the strangest courses taught at D.C.-area schools, the Georgetown’s “Philosophy 194: Hallucinating” took the number one spot.

Taught by Dr. James Mattingly, the course asks some seriously profound questions, such as “How can we be sure that we’re not mistaken about everything?” and “What kinds of things can we know for sure?”

Other courses that made the Washington Post‘s list include “Ancient Egypt: Sex/Drugs/Rock” at Johns Hopkins, “Philosophy and Time Travel” at Maryland, and “Raising Chickens at Home” at Anne Arundel Community College.

While the Post‘s list made us chuckle, we think that they missed much odder courses. “Philosophy and Star Trek,” anyone?

Earlier this week, Newsweek named Georgetown as the 23rd-most diverse and 24th-most LGBT-friendly school in the country, despite last year’s slew of bias-related incidents against LGBTQ students and allies.

The University of Pennsylvania topped both lists.

To compile the rankings, Newsweek used statistics based on ethnicity, geographic diversity, economic background, gender, and sexual orientation. (The magazine also relied on lists of LGBTQ-friendly campuses published by The Advocate and InsideCollege.com.)

The magazine’s annual list of top colleges also placed Georgetown as one of the nation’s most desirable urban schools, a “school for brainiacs,” and a top “power-broker” college.

h/t GW Hatchet

Jack the Bulldog, our lovable, cuddly-looking mascot, was named one of “College’s Most Dangerous Mascots” by Fox News.

This dog? Dangerous?

We respectfully disagree.

h/t Fr. Christopher Steck

Despite being located in the capital of the United States and counting a significantly large number of former government officials, Georgetown is nowhere to be found on the Huffington Post’s list of the most political colleges.

As expected, American and George Washington University make the list due to their proximity to the Capitol and White House.

The justification for American includes a student’s opinion that “American is the best of both worlds. You get the opportunities of the nation’s capital along with the close-knit community of a small campus.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

In GW’s write-up, one student stated, “GW is the absolute no doubt best school for anyone who’s interested in a political career.” Vox agrees to disagree with this ill-informed GW student.

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