<p>FWIW, I always found weekend update on SNL annoying. So I’m not sure my opinion matters much - it may actually be a negative barometer. Maybe my taste is a little low brow. </p>
<p>I think Dave Chappelle is far more clever.</p>
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<p>Dartmouth only has a handful of TA’s, and they don’t teach any course.</p>
<p>But in response to the OP, one thing the Ivies do have is “more” money, which they spend willingly on undergrads, starting with “more” need-based aid.</p>
<p>My D does not have any courses at Cornell taught by TA’s. She does have 1 credit “discussion group” classes that suppliment her lecture classes & these are led by GA’s.</p>
<p>To go back to the OP’s original question, “does an undergraduate Ivy offer more than other top schools” the answer is very regional in nature. Are you in a part of the country in which the Ivies are revered and all other top universities are sort of second-fiddle? (hint: where are the Ivies all located?) Or are you in a part of the country in which the Ivies are simply 8 of the top universities in this country - and are all great schools, but not elevated into some awe-inspiring place above any other highly selective schools? (hint: the rest of the country)</p>
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<p>Not sure if “very white” would describe the average kids in the top third of many of the high schools around here.</p>
<p>Onedown</p>
<p>Thanks so much for taking the time to post your thoughts. In my town, BC is “The School”…even more so than Harvard or so it seems to me. Your kid has “made it” if he/she gets into BC. That’s why I was interested in seeing how you perceived the differences in the two schools. Maybe Harvard just seems so unattainable that most people don’t consider it or maybe it represents a world that most people around here (catholics) don’t want to be a part of.</p>
<p>In response to PizzaGirls post, I wanted to add that even on the East Coast there are many towns/areas where people do NOT revere the IVY league.</p>
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<p>Except that ~90% of them are in the top decile of their high school… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Actually, I think precisely the opposite of Pizzagirl. I think the Ivy degree is more helpful outside of the Northeast.</p>
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<p>It may be more industry-specific. Some industries are more school-prestige-conscious than others. Given a choice between Dartmouth and San Jose State, the preferred recruiting grounds for the Wall Street finance industry and the Silicon Valley computer industry may differ.</p>
<p>^ son has two friends who graduated the same year with him - one concentrated in anthro, the other classics. Both are at Google . . .</p>
<p>^^^
I guess that proves it.</p>
<p>Bud Tribble graduated from my school in my major around the same time as me.</p>
<p>Only I was smarter. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, well Stephen Colbert graduated with me and that trumps all of that Silicon Valley stuff!</p>
<p>^^^
You win.</p>
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<p>This is a perfect description of my daughter’s friend who just started at Harvard. She had far from the highest “stats” in their high school class, but the Harvard interviewer was so wowed by her that he said he would make sure she was admitted. I guess they know what they’re looking for and they know it when they see it.</p>
<p>Rice is also famed for its residential college system. Any others? </p>
<p>Given onedown’s description of the huge positives of the res college system at Harvard, I’m wondering why the model isn’t more widespread. There are certain requirements for setting up the system: the school needs to have enough on-campus housing to guarantee (and possibly require) housing for four years of undergrad. There needs to be money to pay for the expenses of having live-in professors and/or grad students or postdocs. Right away this knocks many schools out of contention. Ideally, housing for the live-in academics offers more privacy and luxury, and is well soundproofed. </p>
<p>Small LACs might not see the need for setting up a res college community. If there are under 2000 students in the entire school, that’s already a small cohesive community (or at least that’s supposed to be the case).</p>
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<p>^^^^ U Chicago? Vassar?</p>
<p>Or there’s Deep Springs . . . now there’s an interesting residential system!</p>
<p>Holy cow…I was in a meeting all morning and I now see that this thread has kept rolling - cool.</p>
<p>Regarding SEWHAPPYs comment above regarding their recent H grad…“He went off to Harvard pretty full of himself, came home first winter break with self-esteem in the basement, then gradually came to terms with the reality that he was going to be pretty average there. Just that experience, I think, is what made going to Harvard invaluable. It humbles you . . . and it gives you tremendous confidence…”
Oh boy, that first part sounds like my kid. He entered Harvard an already skinny 511 140 lbs. and by the end of his freshman year he weighed 115 lbs. he looked like an Auschwitz survivor.</p>
<p>That last phrase in the above quote is more important, it resonates with me and is one of the things that Ivies offer that other school can offer only to differing degrees.
It is sort of like kids who go off to the US Marine Corp, they come back different from the kids who come back from the Air Force. The Marines come back humble yet with tremendous confidence. My son had his face ground into the dirt for four years at Harvard, that experience definitely humbled him yet it also has given him confidence (and unfortunately a bit of arrogance).</p>
<p>All good schools (Boston College, Harvard, etc.) offer more to a student than a student can reasonably be expected to handle but the Ivies do offer even more (almost to an absurd degree) because part of their mission is to make sure that the top 1% of their already stellar student body becomes absurdly accomplished. And frankly I think they sometimes do that to the detriment of some of the less capable students within their ranks. Ivies tolerate an unfortunately high suicide rate.</p>
<p>Regarding the On Harvard Time video link that I provided earlier in this thread .yeah, the production quality is not at Hollywood levels but these are 18, 19, 20, 21 year old kids putting these videos together in the basement of a dorm and none of them are theater or communication majors as those majors dont exist at H. The videos ( [OnHarvardTime's</a> Channel - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/user/OnHarvardTime]OnHarvardTime’s”>http://www.youtube.com/user/OnHarvardTime) ) sometimes make me cringe but they also make me laugh. My point in linking the video was to show the personality of the students theyre confident, creative people. But, theyll wear other kids out.</p>
<p>Rice not only doesn’t guarantee housing, despite the res college system, you can pretty much plan on at least a year off-campus. Fortunately, there are lots of good off-campus options.</p>
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The folks on that video would annoy me to death. That’s about it.</p>
<p>But please post one that makes you laugh. I’m always up for something that is actually humorous.</p>
<p>Truthfully, I thought the one that sewhappy posted in another thread about admissions was mildly amusing.</p>