The Supreme Court focused attention on the makeup of college classrooms this week when it ruled that sometimes it's OK to use race as a consideration in selecting students.
That's good. What's not good is that too many of us think about race only when it comes to classroom diversity. These are the varied student factors we actually should consider in scoring schools:

• Race

• Sex

• Intelligence levels

• Financial status

• Philosophy

• Geography

It's the mix that matters. Campus environments should be as varied as the world in which young people later must make their way.

That rules out schools of a single sex or one race. Intellectual geniuses should be present, but balanced with some dullards who can block and tackle. Students with rich dads or moms, but also those who need financial aid. Independent thinkers, along with stereotypical conservatives and liberals. Some students and faculty from around the world.

Most medium-size colleges and universities in Middle America now generally provide the best all-around diversity. The South is gaining. The West ranges from best to worst.

The environment on most Northeastern Ivy League campuses remains artificial, especially among faculties. They, and some other snobbish schools elsewhere, still weigh alumni "legacy" too heavily in admissions. Because most of their alums are well-to-do whites, that skews the balance.

Most parents, of course, want the best possible education for their children. But it makes no sense to shelter college or university students in an unreal world. What they see and hear and learn and do inside and outside classrooms there is a key to their life thereafter. For real.