<p>Read CC for even a short time and it becomes clear that there are significant differences in:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>how Americans and non-American view the American college landscape (IMO, this is heavily the result of the high prestige that American graduate programs have and which non-US observers are often most familiar with)</p></li>
<li><p>how Americans from different sections of the country see the relative quality and prestige of various institutions (IMO, this is not well appreciated by many, particularly defenders or historical or regional favorites who would prefer a constancy to the college pecking order that is out of line with the evolution of the American economy and life) </p></li>
<li><p>how many demographic groups prioritize in their collegiate selections (IMO, 1st generation Americans are among the most prestige-obsessed as they seek status within their communities and/or acceptance into American society)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As a result, consensus is difficult to achieve and endless debates over the relative standing of various colleges ensue. </p>
<p>To be clear, I don't think that there is anything wrong with this. Debate informs of competing perspectives and perhaps provides the opportunity for individual intellectual growth as more knowledge is gained about how others view the qualities of American colleges. </p>
<p>My personal conclusion is that most declarative statements about US colleges that we see on CC (especially for undergrad) are too strongly made as there are literally dozens of terrific colleges and terrific student bodies around the USA and such statements don't fully appreciate this reality nor respect this broad quality. </p>
<p>I also believe that the undergrad experience is distinctly different from the graduate student experience and that commingling of the two in assessing a college badly misses the reality of the average undergraduate student experience.</p>
<p>I generally agree with your post, except for the last paragraph. In my experience, whether or not the undergraduate experience is distinctly different from the the graduate experience varies a lot by institution. Take, for example, Johns Hopkins–a place where I and both of my children graduated. Speaking generally, the first two undergraduate years at Hopkins are distinctly different from graduate school in that students are all in residence on campus, are mostly taking a mixture of large lecture classes and smaller seminars, are seldom tied strongly to one or two faculty members or to a particular department. In fact, the experience of the first two years at Hopkins is not all that different from that which a student would experience at a LAC. </p>
<p>But the last two undergraduate years at Hopkins are, in fact, very comparable to being a graduate student. Most of your classes will be in one department (or affiliated departments, depending upon major and/or program). Most students, like graduate students, are mentored by one or two faculty members with who the student is doing research. Most upperclassmen live off campus (although in the surrounding area) where graduate students live and most find that their social lives become dominated by their department. Upperclassmen are often taking the same courses as newer graduate students and, as often as not, socialize with graduate students. </p>
<p>Perhaps because Hopkins has never had an separate undergraduate college (i.e., both the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering have undergraduate and graduate programs but they are in the same school and have the same faculty and courses), the experience of being an upperclassmen undergraduate at Hopkins is in fact almost the same as being a graduate student (on occasion, very qualified upperclassmen even act as TA’s). Because of this, I counsel students to consider the quality of the department’s graduate program (for which there is usually much more information) a great deal when the student has a pretty good idea what they want to major in. </p>
<p>I understand that the situation I just described at Hopkins is probably the exception, not the rule. But Hopkins is certainly not alone in offering advanced undergraduates an experience which is comparable to that of graduate students. </p>
<p>By the way, both of my kids are currently graduate students (not at Hopkins) and I know that they agree with my above assessment because we have discussed this issue before.</p>