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Yeah, but they are still ranked lower than Bowdoin in their respective category.
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This is called comparing apples and oranges.
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Comparing colleges to sports teams is also comparing apples to oranges.
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<p>lol...sheesh...talk about missing the point! </p>
<p>ConfucianNemisis is of course absolutely right....you can't compare across categories like that....thats silly and your just trying to delude yourself. Maybe the basketball analogy was a bit over your head but it hits it on the nose perfectly. </p>
<p>I'm not saying that bowdwin is a bad school...i know absolutely nothing about it...nor am i saying that small liberal arts colleges are bad....but in my opinion its silly to try and compare their academic prowess to the big universities. there are few people who would turn down columbia to go to some small school in maine....for jobs and grad schools the prestige of your college matters....no matter which way you try to spin it ...so you would be passing up a huge opportunity by turning down columbia</p>
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but in my opinion its silly to try and compare their academic prowess to the big universities. there are few people who would turn down columbia to go to some small school in maine....for jobs and grad schools the prestige of your college matters....no matter which way you try to spin it ...so you would be passing up a huge opportunity by turning down columbia
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<p>I have to disagree with Shraf on this one. The top liberal arts colleges offer a fantastic education, and employers, grad schools, etc. generally know this. You can't compare Williams to Johns Hopkins by US News, but that doesn't mean Williams is inferior for grad school or employment.</p>
<p>Big University's aren't for everyone, and neither is NYC. As I said before those are the "big" gut-factors that differentiate Columbia from Bowdoin. Academically, I think Columbia's better, but not enough to make yourself miserable if you're the type of person who's better suited for a small new england college. Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>Hey, Shraf, Your feigned astonishment at my "missing" the point-- in other words your superior contempt for my views and thinking-- are more illustrative of a certain sort of atmosphere at certain schools than anything I might explicitly say about Columbia or Bowdoin. Or is this dimension of education "Above your head?"
BTW- I am not making a one to one comparison between a university and a LAC. Rather, I point out that Bowdoin ranks higher in its category- or performs better according to LAC criteria-- than the others do in theirs.YOU are the one who assumed as much, and then brought sports teams into the picture to boot. Finally, Bowdoin has a graduate school admissions rate equal to most Ivy League schools. Perhaps you might re-think what prepares people for high level training and performance. Maybe its not "the name" alone. Enjoy each other, you delightful titans of the IVY LEAGUE!</p>
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[quote] Rather, I point out that Bowdoin ranks higher in its category- or performs better according to LAC criteria-- than the others do in theirs. YOU are the one who assumed as much, and then brought sports teams into the picture to boot.
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<p>First off, I'm the one who made the sports team reference. And you still don't seem to grasp why Bowdoin ranking highly among LACs says nothing about how it compares to universities.</p>
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Your feigned astonishment at my "missing" the point
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<p>i'm not feigning astonishment, i'm actually literally astonished at the fact that you completely missed the point!</p>
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your **superior contempt **for my views
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<p>lol</p>
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illustrative of a certain sort of atmosphere at certain schools than anything I might explicitly say about Columbia or Bowdoin
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<p>what atmosphere...stop trying to make things up....there is no atmosphere....people at columbia are very open to the exchange of ideas and discussion however though we are quite enamored with logic and reasoning and that's why ConfucianNemisis and I had to call you out on your BS.</p>
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Bowdoin has a graduate school admissions rate equal to most Ivy League schools
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<p>i wont believe that until i see some proof...plus it doesn't matter how many get into grad school it matters where they go</p>
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Perhaps you might re-think what prepares people for high level training and performance. Maybe its not "the name" alone.
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<p>i certainly didn't say that the name translates into anything concrete BUT i did say that employers care about the name because of the connotations that come with it</p>
<p>btw, i find it very amusing that you find it necessary to go to the columbia and cornell board to talk up the school to which you applied ED</p>
<p>You continue to illustrate my points. Thanks for being true to my conceptions, and true to character. BTW I dont find you at all amusing, but hurtful and close minded.</p>
<p>also, I am not comparing Univs. to LACS per se, but rather I say that Bowdoin is among the very best of its kind. It is reasonable to compare other prominent schools of their kind in this way. I in fact am the first to say that big ivies are quite different than small LACs. What I am comparing is the over arching concept excellence. And what I am getting back is not surprising, although unpleasant. And what is wrong with applying ED?</p>
<p>"Thanks for being true to my conceptions, and true to character. BTW I dont find you at all amusing, but hurtful and close minded."</p>
<p>You like finding ways to be offended? even when they don't exist?</p>
<p>"What I am comparing is the over arching concept excellence"</p>
<p>I am phenomenal at sleeping for hours on end, it's quite diffcult at times. Incase anyone misses the point: There isn't an over arching concept of 'excellence', if there is, we're certainly not grasping it here. Hence the whole aspect of comparing apples to oranges.</p>
<p>Look, no-one here (neither shraf, nor confucian, nor I), is telling you Bowdoin is a bad school, on the contrary it's a great school, they were merely pointing to what they beleive are columbia's strengths, and strengths relative to bowdoin, a decision to choose one over the other has to be made afterall.</p>
<p>Everyone has already made the substantive points (aside from CN in post 22, where he argues that you can't compare across categories and then tries to use several metrics to do just that), so I'll avoid that.</p>
<p>What I do want to observe is:
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Finally, Bowdoin has a graduate school admissions rate equal to most Ivy League schools. Perhaps you might re-think what prepares people for high level training and performance. Maybe its not "the name" alone. Enjoy each other, you delightful titans of the IVY LEAGUE!
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I will never cease to be astonished by the sheer quantity of "moms", and the vitriolic bile they come in and pour on us, for making rather basic qualitative comparisons of our school, on our school's board, when posed a direct question on the subject. They come in, take quick offense, make sarcastic, condescending and broad statements about the "IVY LEAGUE", call us arrogant, and then check out.</p>
<p>I notice that while occasionally it is the students or prospective students who do this, the vast majority of the time it is the parents.</p>
<p>We're not members of some "exclusive club", clownshoes. We're active or recent students trying to get an education. </p>
<p>The Mom Pitchfork Brigade just seems to thrive on being easily insulted and then lashing out with ten times the amount of hatred they think they received. I just wish they'd give it a rest. At least when JohnnyK came in here to bug us about Penn for a few months, he was entertaining and witty even when exasperating.</p>
<p>From now on I will just label this type of ad hominem rant an "MPB" just to help everyone sort it out quickly.</p>
<p>nothing...i got into columbia ED way back when...i'm just pointing out your bias to others who might not be aware</p>
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I will never cease to be astonished by the sheer quantity of "moms", and the vitriolic bile they come in and pour on us
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<p>though i agree with this statement wholeheartedly, it doesnt seem that ekmom is a parent if you look at her other posts and observe the amateurish writing style. sorry to sortof crap on your rant :-)</p>
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though i agree with this statement wholeheartedly, it doesnt seem that ekmom is a parent if you look at her other posts and observe the amateurish writing style. sorry to sortof crap on your rant :-)
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well, then he hijacked his mom's CollegeConfidential account in order to post to his internet friends. I suppose he's the one who'll have to live with that, too.</p>
<p>Den, just to clarify, my point in post 22 was that there are underlying statistics you can look to in order to compare schools. ekmom's egregious assertion was that since Bowdoin is ranked #7 among LAC's, and WUStL and Dartmouth are ranked lower in their category, this says something about Bowdoin vis a vis those schools.</p>
<p>Also, I got a laugh out of the MPB rant. I have visions of Barnard threads dancing in my head... >.<</p>
<p>The defenders of schools with less quality are the most rabid, trying to convince themselves that theyâre not inferior. Well let me just say that youâre not inferior. Youâre school is.</p>
<p>Reading this thread feels like revisiting the senseless murder of ekmom that has occured three years ago. I am disgusted by how poorly you Columbia graduates write and how close-minded you all are. Colleges are colleges. Columbia and Bowdoin both grant undergraduate degrees, and as such they are comparable.</p>
<p>Wow, the ignorance on this Board about how good the top LACs are is hard to believe. </p>
<p>Bowdoin accepted 12% of applicants last year, and has class rank and SAT averages that are on par with half the Ivy Schools. </p>
<p>I graduated from Bowdoin and then went to an Ivy law school. (In fact, the vast majority of my Bowdoin classmates who went to law school attended Ivy or equivalent law schools. Like the WSJ report describes, graduate school placement from the very top LACâs is ridiculously good.)</p>
<p>Given the choice, I would chose Bowdoin over Columbia for undergrad all day long. But, they are very different places.</p>
<p>As someone who wanted to play an NCAA sport in college (Div. III), live on a beautiful campus and be near the coast, the choice was clear. On the other hand, for those students who prefer to live in a city, a place like Columbia or Penn would be the better choice. I can tell you that there are many, many students at Bowdoin who passed on Ivy schools to go there). Iâm certain the same is true for places like Amherest, Midd, Pomona and SwarthmoreâŠ</p>
<p>One other point of information about the top LACs. They are very, very wealthy and their endowments on a per student basis stack up quite favorably against almost all of the Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>For example, Bowdoinâs endowment is in excess of $1 Billion FOR ONLY 1700 students (or about $600,000 per student). By comparison, Columbiaâs $7.5 Billion endowment works out to about $270,000 per student. This translates into incredible resources for the undergraduate student at a top LAC. Those who went to one of these schools, or are truly familiar with them, know exactly what I mean.</p>
<p>Iâm just pointing this out as another factor why these top LACs shouldnât be under-estimated relative to their Ivy counterparts, as many on this thread seem to have done.</p>