You have nice thoughts & sentiments, and you express them well, but I still see the list as random and meaningless (as well as incorrect in the case of several of the listed schools); why not just use The Fiske Guide To Colleges so one at least understands why the 300+ schools are included ?
My best guess is that the author included the random list of schools from across the nation for two reasons; one, to encourage nationwide publicity for his book in an effort to increase sales, and, two, because people/readers like lists.