Counselors ranking colleges by prestige

<p>Its interesting that they put Annapolis over West Point. You could debate that one for years. But they got it right when they put them both way above the Zoomies!</p>

<p>i think middlebury's too low.</p>

<p>"think middlebury's too low."</p>

<p>Ordering prestige is even more difficult than identifying it. </p>

<p>I think the most important part of this list is not which school is number five and which one is number ten, but that degrees from these schools carry a prestige that extends beyond their geographic regions.</p>

<p>Again, MOM speaks of wisdom.</p>

<p>Other than few schools like HYPSM etc, the prestige (p), associated with a school name, is inversely proportional to the distance (d) away from the school.</p>

<p>I agree with mom too. Only 6 or 7 universities have global prestige. They are, to nobody's surprise, Cal, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Yale and maybe Columbia. After that, it really depends on which circles you are travelling. For example, if one is in the South, Duke is very prestigious. If one is an Engineer, Georgia Tech or Purdue are considered very prestigious. If one is in Germany or Japan, Cornell and Michigan are very highly regarded. Etc...</p>

<p>You guys have a good guidance counselor. My guidance counselor spells counselor wrong and spells Yale with a 6.</p>

<p>JohnWesley, while high prestige and high selectivity often coincide, I don't think they go hand in hand. Some factors might include:</p>

<p>Odd name: Places like Harvey Mudd, Carnegie Mellon, and Tufts are apparently really good and quite selective, but since their names don't easily roll off the elitiest Anglo-Saxon tongue, it's hard to imagine them being widely embraced as prestigious.</p>

<p>Religion: Because places like Brandeis, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame are so closely identified with specific religions, one can imagine that they aren't given the prestige they deserve among people of other religions.</p>

<p>The name makes it sound better than it is: A lot of people, (especially foreigners) assume a place called New York University must be great and prestigious--even though there a tons of obscure colleges that are tougher to get into. Same with University of Massachusetts.</p>

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Odd name: Places like Harvey Mudd, Carnegie Mellon, and Tufts are apparently really good and quite selective, but since their names don't easily roll off the elitiest Anglo-Saxon tongue, it's hard to imagine them being widely embraced as prestigious.

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<p>Uh, I hardly see how that is the case. Schools with names like the 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology' don't exactly roll off the tongue either, in fact, it's considered so long to actually say that people generally shorten it to "M.I.T.", but even that doesn't exactly glide off the tongue either. Let's face it. When a school is known primarily by its 3-letter initials, you know that its name isn't exactly easy to enunciate. It's certainly easy to say a monosyllabic name like 'Tufts'. But I think there is little dispute about which school is more prestigious. </p>

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The name makes it sound better than it is: A lot of people, (especially foreigners) assume a place called New York University must be great and prestigious--even though there a tons of obscure colleges that are tougher to get into. Same with University of Massachusetts.

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<p>Oh, I don't know. I think this cuts both ways. For example, I find it almost ludicrous to see how many people think that the University of Pennsylvania is just a crappy no-name state school. Even some of my high school teachers did not know that the University of Chicago was a top school, and just assumed that it was some low-end city college.</p>

<p>Some posters are confusing prestige with name recognition. Ivy_Grad describes the difference pretty well.</p>

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I always like bringing this back to my "hamburger" analogy to illuminate this point:</p>

<p>99.9% of the American public will readily recognize Micky D's Big Mac or Quarter Pounder (over a billion served!) vs., say, the "21" burger at the 21 Club (New York)... but does that Ronald McDonald more prestigious? Hardly. </p>

<p>Many people know (shop) at Wal-Mart vs. Bergdorf Goodman, but that hardly qualifies Wal-Mart to be categorized as "prestigious".</p>

<p>Simply put, not anyone can afford to shop at Bergdorf or eat at the 21 Club, and conversely, nearly everyone "can" shop at Wal-Mart or eat at McDonald's.</p>

<p>Similarly, not anyone can enroll into Harvard, but nearly anyone can enroll into a Community College - that's what makes Harvard prestigious - and, more importantly, why it remains so. In other words, if Harvard increased its class size to 500,000 per year admitting nearly anyone who applied - its "prestige" would drop like a stone overnight - people from Joe Blow Community College would be transferring to Harvard.</p>

<p>This is what happens to certain "luxury" or "prestige" goods all the time - dilution of a brand which gets oversold, over-licensed or discounted at department stores. </p>

<p>Now to be certain, some brands have both "familiarity" AND "prestige" (e.g. Harvard, Yale, Princeton) and some have "prestige" and less "familiarity (Dartmouth, Brown) - but don't confuse the two terms - less familiarity doesn't = less prestige. Just because your neighbor hasn't heard of Chateau Margaux doesn't mean it isn't prestigious - less familiar? Perhaps, but not less prestigious.

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<p>^^^ I agree, very well put - couldn't have said it better myself :)</p>

<p>LOL! By the way, did you get to see the movie? I must say I was not very impressed. I like Nolan and I really like Bale and Jackman, but I was just not that impressed by the movie.</p>

<p>As an overall list (meaning some will always quibble here and there) - that's about as accurate as I've seen</p>

<p>Alex, i've been meaning to catch it but have been too busy - i've also heard mixed reviews, i'm sorry to hear that you didn't like it...</p>

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Simply put, not anyone can afford to shop at Bergdorf or eat at the 21 Club, and conversely, nearly everyone "can" shop at Wal-Mart or eat at McDonald's.

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<p>But not everyone who can afford to shop at Bergdorf's or eat at 21 would necessarily choose to do so.</p>

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But not everyone who can afford to shop at Bergdorf's or eat at 21 would necessarily choose to do so.

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<p>True, however, the main point still stands:</p>

<p>Only a relatively small percentage of the American public has the luxury of having the choice of eating at 21 as a regular dining venue...whereas nearly every American (rich, poor, middle) has the option of grabbing a cheap meal at McD's.</p>

<p>Besides, the best burgers in NY are served at DB Bistro. Where else can you have a burger with foie gras and black truffle!</p>

<p>Sakky: I agree with you about Penn and Chicago...but that doesn't conflict with what I said about NYU and UMass. Since I didn't use Penn and Chicago as examples, it's a little odd that you'd try to use them against me.</p>

<p>I also disagree with your assertion that "Tufts" rolls off the tongue easily...4 distinct consonant sounds in one syllable? That's why even the locals tend to mis-pronounce it "Tuffs."</p>

<p>And schools are known by their abbreviations usually because the name is long, not because it's hard to pronounce or non-prestigious sounding. Nothing difficult about New York University (7 syllables tougher than NYU) or Boston University (7 syllables tougher than BU) or University of Southern California (13 syllables tougher than USC).</p>

<p>Ok, I think we all get the point: you guys hang around overpriced joints in NYC. We're all very impressed. I hope you'll forgive me if I stick with the Detroit-area sports bar called Lions and Tigers and Beers.</p>

<p>I can rough it sometimes. Hell, I| cook most nights of the week! I am told my personal fries are better than McDs. Now are you impressed? Hehe!!!</p>

<p>I heard that your home cooking is very popular with philosophy students in Toronto.</p>