<p>in your opinion, what are the strongest undergraduate majors at each ivy league university?</p>
<p>from what i've known,</p>
<p>brown = applied math, math, comp. sci
columbia = financial engineering, business
cornell = engineering, hotel admin.
dartmouth = econ
harvard = med, comp. sci, business
princeton = engineering
upenn = business, med
yale = drama, history, politics</p>
<p>any ideas?</p>
<p>see this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/171420-ivies-best-subjects.html?highlight=ivies[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/171420-ivies-best-subjects.html?highlight=ivies</a></p>
<p>Based purely off of my superficial impressions:</p>
<p>Brown: Applied mathematics, computer science, neuroscience, cognitive science
Columbia: Economics, international relations
Cornell: Engineering
Dartmouth: Foreign languages, economics
Harvard: Government, economics, history, mathematics (pretty much everything)
Princeton: Engineering, physics, economics, mathematics
UPenn: Wharton economics
Yale: History, drama</p>
<p>What about English? I know Yale has a fantastic grad school for English…but what about undergrad? I assume Yale would be among the top in the nation…but how do the other Ivies compare?</p>
<p>Yes, Yale is strong in English; it’s ranked 3rd in graduate programs by U.S. News. With private schools, the quality of the graduate program tends to trickle down.</p>
<p>for Cornell i hear the engineering program is really difficult and overall as a university they have a decent amount of grade deflation. Hotel admin is one of the easier majors. Columbia has an engineering program (Fu) which is popular.</p>
<p>Yale for politics? Is this a joke? Harvard and Princeton, hands down.</p>
<p>Brown
— Classics or Hispanic Studies (top 5)</p>
<p>Columbia
— Art History or Geology (top 5)</p>
<p>Cornell
— Agriculture or Architecture (generally #1)</p>
<p>Dartmouth
— Unsure, but Native American Studies is its most unique!</p>
<p>Harvard
— Folklore (#1)</p>
<p>Princeton
— Math or Philosophy (#1)</p>
<p>Penn
— Business (#1)</p>
<p>Yale
— English</p>
<p>“harvard = med, comp. sci, business”</p>
<p>COMP SCI? lol no for comp sci it would be Cornell then Princeton</p>
<p>^For CS, I’d say Cornell or Brown, but both have very different programs with Cornell’s being much more engineering-based.</p>
<p>You could just look at these schools graduate rankings in certain areas to have a rough sketch.</p>
<p>Penn’s English department is tied with Harvard’s and outranks all the others. And yet not a single person mentions Penn as a great place for English…</p>
<p>Stereotype FAIL.</p>
<p>It’s Yale’s Graduate Drama program that’s well-known and renowned.</p>
<p>
Not really. I took a different approach and purposefully chose majors for each university that were undeniably ahead of their counterparts at other Ivies (except Brown, which doesn’t have any).</p>
<p>You said it yourself – the English department at Penn is tied with Harvard’s. Its undergraduate business program, however, is undeniably #1 among the Ivies.</p>
<p>If we simply list all the strong programs for each, the list would be a mile long.</p>
<p>hmmm…
Penn’s bioengineering major is the best in the ivy league.
currently ranked 6th on usnews though…
<em>first post :D</em></p>
<p>Below are top departments/programs at the Ivies…not relatively speaking but in absolute terms. In other words, Computer Science and Mathematics are considered strengths at Brown, but on an absolute sense, there are easily 10 CS or Mathematics departments that are better than Brown. That is not to say that Brown is not excellent in CS or Mathematics, but it is now a powerhouse in either department.</p>
<p>BROWN UNIVERSITY
Well rounded Liberal Arts education</p>
<p>COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Arts and Sciences: Chemistry, English, Geology, History, Mathematics, Political Science</p>
<p>CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Arts and Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, English, History, Physics
Agriculture
Architecture
Business
Engineering: Civil, Electrical, Materials, Mechanical
Hotel Management
Industrial and Labor Relations</p>
<p>DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Well rounded Liberal Arts education</p>
<p>HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Arts and Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English, History, Mathematics, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology</p>
<p>PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Arts and Sciences: Biology, Computer Science, Economics, English, History, Mathematics, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Socilogy
Engineering: Aerospace, Chemical, Mechanical
International Relations</p>
<p>UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Arts and Sciences: Economics, English, History
Business
Engineering: Biomedical Engineering
Nursing</p>
<p>YALE UNIVERSITY
Arts and Sciences: Biology, Economics, English, History, Mathematics, Political Science, Psychology</p>
<p>Alexandre: About Cornell, Operations Research (or whatever they call it now) and Applied & Engineering Physics most definitely belong on that list too FWIW. And I imagine several programs in Human Ecology (Human Development? Nutrition? Textiles?) are among the best of their kind but I am not at all versed in these areas.</p>
<p>The thread asks specifically about undergrad majors, of which there are no reliable metrics that I’m aware of. But if one is willing to posit a “trickle down” effect, I can offer the following regarding graduate programs:</p>
<p>“In a comprehensive national study of research doctorate programs sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC), almost half the participating Cornell University Graduate School and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences graduate fields were included within the top 10 range of rankings on an overall measure, and more than 75 percent are included in the top 20 range”. “Sixty-one Cornell research doctorate programs were ranked in the study, more than any other private institution.”</p>
<p>Cornell fields whose ranking ranges overlap the top 10 range:
Aerospace Engineering, Animal Science, Applied Economics and Management, Applied Mathematics, Astronomy and Space Sciences, Biometry, Classics, Communication, Comparative Literature, Computer Science, English Language and Literature, Entomology, Food Science and Technology, Genetics and Development, Germanic Studies, Horticulture, Linguistics, Medical Science: Cell Biology and Genetics, Medical Science: Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis, Medical Science: Molecular Biology, Medical Science: Pharmacology, Medical Science: Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology, Music, Nutrition, Operations Research, Philosophy, Physics, Plant Biology, Plant Breeding, Romance Studies:Spanish, Statistics. </p>
<p>For this purpose you can take out the “Medical Science” ones, those are at the Med School in NYC most likely.</p>
<p>Another “trickle down” area would be creative writing; it has a highly regarded Master’s program and offers great courses for undergrads.</p>
<p>Regarding Brown having a “well rounded Liberal arts education” :</p>
<p>Does Brown even have any distribution requirements?
What makes its program any more “well rounded” than a program having traditional distribution requirements in the various Arts & sciences areas, such as Cornell’s Arts & Sciences has, and many other schools have? Wouldn’t Coluimbia College have a better claim to having a “well rounded” program, by virtue of The Core?</p>
<p>A school with few or no requirements can lead some of its students towards the opposite of “well rounded” if they so choose. And there is nothing about it that inherently makes them choose any particular way so far as I know, is there?</p>
<p>I’m not really familiar with Dartmouth’s program, what about it makes it more “well rounded” than the curriculum at Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences, or at Columbia College?</p>
<p>Trickle down does not really happen as much as people would love it to happen</p>
<p>Oh I don’t know about that. In my masters program there were undergrad seniors taking some of the same classes with me, from the same professors. The selection of courses available to upperclassmen can be broader where there is a strong department. Given a university which has TAs, it’s better to have smart TAs than idiot TAs. And for those doing research, a rec letter from someone prominent in the field can be helpful, or so I’ve read here.</p>
<p>For example, this was posted on CC by a Humanities Professor:</p>
<p>“If you are an ambitious humanities student, it is a big advantage to attend a school with excellent PhD and MFA programs. Faculty at such institutions are required to publish/go to conferences in their field/establish national or international reputations, so they are likely to be interesting for serious students. They are used to mentoring and evaluating grad students so they will be able to give you an accurate assessment of your prospects in the field, which may not be true in a smaller LAC. As you get into your junior and senior years, the graduate students (and possibly, graduate courses) will become more and more interesting to you–you will never be the most “advanced” person around. There will be a ton of visiting scholars coming through to give talks and enrich the mix.”</p>