<p>Hi, I just simply wanted to narrow down my college choices and thus am asking which programs Yale is strong/weak at.</p>
<p>I've always thought that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton had weak engineering programs and were generally weak in the science fields. Is this just a myth?</p>
<p>How about economics?</p>
<p>Sorry I just posted my field of interest. You can basically post any of knowledge you have about the strengths and weaknesses of Yale in any way, not limited to its programs and courses.</p>
<p>PS: This post might be spammed thruout some of the CC boards. I apologise in beforehand for making such mess :D</p>
<p>Harvard's ec program is really popular. I don't know whether popular = good.
My impression as a non-science concentrator is that the sciences here tend to be theoretical rather than applied. I know that computer science is supposed to be a strong department, and I think physics as well. I don't know too much about the other sciences. Math, if you consider that a science, is one of the best programs out there.</p>
<p>yep. Math 55; very well known and also notorious for its sheer brilliance. Physics, to my surprise was also very strong. In contrast, engineering is ranked somewhere in the tweenties (rank doesnt tell anything but it does give you a picture of somewhere it stands).</p>
<p>so more theory than applied. sorry but what does 'ec' stand for in the ec program?</p>
<p>"ec" in post #2 must mean "economics," don't you agree? Harvard is definitely a strong school in economics, although I don't know what the current supposed rankings are. It's the kind of school where the main first-year economics course lectures are delivered by a former member (chairman, wasn't he?) of the President's council of economic advisors.</p>
<p>I've always thought that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton had weak engineering programs and were generally weak in the science fields. Is this just a myth?</p>
<br>
<p>Well, "weak" is a relative term. All of them are "weak" in engineering compared to MIT.</p>
<p>I can primarily speak about science at Harvard, but any weakness you've heard about is a total myth; physics, chem, biochem, neuroscience, many fields of biology and the pre-med sequence are all extremely strong at Harvard. It also has excellent programs in math and less popular fields such as astronomy and earth & planetary science.</p>
<p>It's an economics powerhouse; that's usually the #1 concentration there.</p>
<p>Can someone shed light and let us know who is Number one in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, & COmputer Sciences. I was of the opinion Harvard was number one. Thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>From Byerly:
According to the 2006 departmental rankings for all schools nationally:</p>
<p>And once again I remind the gentleman from Princeton that engineering groups who have tolerated the new rating of engineering schools and their faculties have nevertheless taken great exception to the undergrad rankings, and the fact that engineers have not been consulted in assembling them! On the contrary, the new ranking of engineering schools is - praise the Lord! - based on the views of "engineering school department heads!"</p>
<p>As I informed you, with at least one supporting link, representatives of these groups and of USNews have met on numerous occasions in the last few years to recast the out-of-date "undergrad" rankings. It is very likely that there will be new, more carefully vetted, undergrad engineering rankings in next fall's edition of America's Best Colleges. In the meantime, even USNews would urge applicants to take them with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I can certainly understand your distress in this regard, since Princeton finishes #2 among the Ivies - behind Cornell - in the undergrad rankings, and it does rather less well in the general ranking of engineering schools.</p>
<p>Harvard has more faculty members in the national academy of science than any other school. For research science, I think Harvard is probably the best school. It also has the highest research grant of any school from NIH.</p>
<p>However, that's more applicable to its graduate programs than undergraduate.</p>
<p>i prefer the undergraduate engineering rankings to the graduate rankings not because they are more flattering to princeton (which stands at #2 among the ivies in both) but because they are significantly more germane to an UNDERGRADUATE message board, frequented primarily by prospective UNDERGRADUATE students. for this reason, i think it is highly disingenuous of you to continue to cite the graduate rankings when the undergraduate ones exist. (although i certainly understand YOUR distress on this point, given that the undergrad rankings are substantially less flattering to harvard, placing it in the 30's and 40's, with less distinguished company, in recent years.)</p>
<p>Harvard is #20 on one list and #29 on the other - essentially the same - given the number of ties involved. Third among the 8 Ivies in each case. Not shabby, but nothing to brag about.</p>
<p>Princeton is #2 behind Cornell among the Ivies in each case. At #17 among schools of engineering - just ahead of #20 Harvard, Again, not shabby, but nothing to boast about. </p>
<p>Lets put this all in persepective: NOBODY to speak of who is a hardcore engineer -type will choose either Princeton or Harvard - or any other Ivy with the possible exception of Cornell or SEAS at Columbia - if they are planning to end their education at that point. </p>
<p>In FACT - most of the minor fraction of Princeton grads who major in engineering - and the even MORE minor fraction of Harvard grads who major in engineering - will NOT end their education at that stage: rather, they will go on to get a graduate degree.</p>
<p>So lets end this silly talk about the dubious ranking of engineering "undergraduate programs" at these schools (dubious in the view of professional engineering groups, and now seen as lacking in significance by USNews itself).</p>