79 Colleges Just As Good As The Ivies

Applying to College
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This post is not for the type of people who believe that the Red Sox are tons better than the Yankees (or vice versa). The players don’t believe that and so why should the fans? The professors at Ivies don’t think that Ivies are tons better than Northwestern. (One very common complaint about Harvard is that the professors are so involved with research that they don’t care about the undergraduates.) I am not making this post so that people will compare Duke to WUSTL, but just to point out that the rush to only a few brand name schools is ridiculous. Anyone apply to an extremely selective school should read “Harvard Schmarvard” by Jay Mathews.

Schools just as good as the Ivies: Amherst, Berkeley, Caltech, UChicago, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, Pomona, Smith, Stanford, Swarthmore, Vassar, WUSTL, Wellesley, and Williams.

Schools just as good but slightly less so: Bard, Barnard, Bates, Bowdoin, Brandeis, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Carleton, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Colby, Colgate, Colorado College, Davidson, Denison, Dickinson, Emory, George Washington, Grinnell, Hamilton, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Holy Cross, Kenyon, Lafayette, Macalester, Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, Notre Dame, Oberlin, Occidental, Reed, Rice, Sarah Lawrence, Skidmore, Spelman, St. John’s of Annapolis, Trinity of Connecticut, Union, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, Washington and Lee, Wesleyan, Whitman, William and Mary.

Schools just as good but slightly less prestigious: Boston College, Case Western, Georgia Tech, Rochester, SUNY-Binghamton, Texas Christian, Tufts, University of Illinois – Champaign Urbana, UNC – Chapel Hill, UT – Austin, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin – Madison, UC – Davis, UC – Irvine, UC – Los Angeles, UC – San Diego.

I apologize if I left anyone out, but the point of this posting is that there are more. Hopefully, people will start looking around and think about where they want to go instead of just where they want to tell people they were accepted. Hopefully people won’t start ripping into the list to prove that college X is waaaaaay better than college Y.

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<p>lol the funny thing is, you just ranked them.</p>

<p>and i think you placed bc and ucla kinda low.</p>

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<p>I'm not actually taking issue with what you're saying, but I just don't really understand how Harvard professors being more interested in research than teaching shows that they don't think Harvard is better than Northwestern.</p>

<p>I think, to the contrary, it shows that they definitely think Harvard is better than Northwestern -- and they'd better do lots of research so they can get tenure at Harvard and not have to get a job at Northwestern!</p>

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<p>Great effort to promote what? NOT going to an Ivy School or what???</p>

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<p>An0nym0u5: I couldn't put Emory in the same category as Harvard. People would laugh at me. However, my criteria is "just as good". I don't think that anyone is going to get a better education or better life because they went to Harvard instead of Emory. </p>

<p>This is what I meant when I said that a common complaint about Harvard is that the professors are interested in research instead of undergraduate education. This is a criticism normally leveled at state schools. I think a student would be better off at a school that concentrated on undergraduates than Harvard does.</p>

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<p>such as princeton.</p>

<p>=)</p>

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<p>hazmat: I didn't say that going to an Ivy is a bad thing. It just isn't necessary with all of the good colleges out there. There are tremendous differences between the Ivies. People need to pick a college based on other considerations than prestige. Frankly, I think someone saying that they don't care where they go to college so long as it is an Ivy is kinda sick.</p>

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<p>This post doesn't make sense.</p>

<p>How can a school be just as good "but slightly less so"? It either is as good or it isn't.</p>

<p>And how can a school be just as good "but slightly less prestigious"? Isn't prestige a good thing? Doesn't it make a school better?</p>

<p>I agree that the Ivy League school are often over-rated, but the way you are trying to demonstrate this is confusing.</p>

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<p>I meant the "slightly less so" to be a little joke. Think as it as dating Lindsey Lohan is just as good as dating Britney Spears but slightly less so. By "just as good", I mean that it just doesn't matter.</p>

<p>Incidently, the order of the groupings is immaterial. They are all "just as good". Perhaps it would have been better to describe the groups as:</p>

<p>Just as good and same prestige level:
Just as good and slightly lower prestige level:
Just as good and maybe even slightly lower prestige level:</p>

<p>In reference to the statement that prestige makes a school better. I never thought of that. It is better in what way other than the ability to impress people?</p>

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<p>University of Miami is a great school with excellent advising and great professors. Plus, you get to meet so many students from other cultures and countries around the world. I was pleasantly surprised at the intelligence of the students having come from a very competitive high school up north. The students down here are not only smart, but friendly too!</p>

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<p>U of Miami is a great school of course when you are comparing it to the 2000 schools out there. But top 10-15 material, NO.</p>

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<p>An african american girl from my school turned down Yale this year to go to Spelman. She told us that in the black community it is one of the most prestigious schools, she would have a better chance to shine (she enrolled in the honors college I think), would get lots of merit aid, and to top it all off, graduating seniors from that school are <em>heavily</em> recruited. We were all scratching our heads about her decision until she told us that, and then we realized, 'hey! ivys aren't everything'. I'm fairly confident that she'll have many career options graduating from there.</p>

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<p>As you said, Spelman is a historically black women's college. Morehouse is a historically black men's college. Both are in Atlanta and are excellent schools. This is an example of picking a school that fits you personally instead of just the most prestigious name possible.</p>

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<p>Dating Lindsay Lohan is just as good as dating Britney Spears? Maybe if you'e blind.</p>

<p>A more accurate analogy would be from Animal Farm:</p>

<p>"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."</p>

<p>Which is to say, they are not equal at all. And the same goes for colleges. Some colleges are indeed better than others - it depends on what you want to study, and what factors in a college are most important to you, e.g: Academics, sports, social scene, location, prestige, etc.</p>

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<p>You are using one of the most famous sarcastic statements in all of English literature and using it as a statement of truth. If I try to answer using the analogy, I would say that which animal is better depends on what you want. If you are hungry, a cow is better than a horse. If you want to go somewhere, a horse is better than a cow. Whether a college is the best one for you depends on what you want in a college, and I assume you have some other criteria other than just prestige.</p>

<p>However, my OP was about the phrase "just as good". I don't think that anyone graduating from any of those 79 colleges is better situated in life than anyone else graduating from one of the other colleges in the list.</p>

<p>Give me a poll here: Lindsay or Britney??????????</p>

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<p>pre kevin britney or current britney?
pre anorexic lindsay or healthy lindsay.
lol, there's a lot to consider.</p>

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<p>When I wrote that, I was really trying to come up with some hot young girl and I could not think of anybody. The entertainment industry is currently in a dry period when it comes to hot young girls.</p>

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<p>Well, depending on your career area, going to an IVY as opposed to even a non-IVY top 15, can really help get you to a top-level position. I know for finance, this is especially true. Wharton graduates, for example, have a MUCH (and I mean much) easier time getting a well-paying job right after graduation. Job recruitment plays a major role in terms of people wanting to go to Ivies. I'm not so sure about other careers, whether going Ivy would be significantly better than some of the other schools you named, but for finance it definitely is much better.</p>

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<p>In the way that I think you mean it, finance probably requires grad school. There were a lot of posts last year when people were deciding where to go after being accepted (and looking at the price tags) about how much an prestigious undergraduate degree would help you get into grad school. If you become an attorney, medical doctor, prestigious MBA, or doctorate; where you received your undergraduate degree doesn't really matter that much. It is your graduate degree that matters. I completely agree that a Harvard law degree, a medical degree from Hopkins, or a Wharton MBA is a ticket to ride. </p>

<p>If you don't go to grad school or a professional program, a prestigious undergrad degree will help you get your first job, but after that they care more about job performance. The CEO's, Senators, newspaper editors and other leaders are not particularly from Ivies.</p>

<p>I am not against going to Ivies or any of the other schools on the above list. Last year, the phrase continuously used was "HYPSM" instead of "Ivies". That does make more sense since Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Northwestern and UChicago are indisputably in the same class as the best Ivies; but that really isn't my point.</p>

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<p>I get what you're trying to say, and I agree. Personally, I'd much rather go to a decent school that will give me a good education without putting me $100000's of dollars in debt and that isn't so selective I'll be freaking out my entire senior year wondering if I have high enough SAT's and enough EC's and that crud to get in. Plus, I would think you'd meet a greater variety of people at, say, a good state school than at Harvard. Well, ok, it depends on the state, but still...</p>