<p>I'd say Harvard, Yale, and MIT have the most "WOW" with the general public. Everyone know those three. Outside of those it can get hazy.</p>
<p>4feynman: Ah thanks for the clarification. Also how do you know my name?</p>
<p>I'd say Harvard, Yale, and Stanford have the biggest wow factor. Tech schools are not as well known by the average layman on the street. Princeton's not as well known to the general public as one would think because of its relatively tiny graduate program and lack of professional schools. Nevertheless, it still arguably provides the best undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>Stanford does have quite a bit of WOW, but even though MIT is a tech school, I personally think it is more known to the layman. I didn't even know Stanford existed until a few years ago but I had always heard of HYM</p>
<p>To all the Penn bashers, lets just get one thing clear here. In terms of academic strength across the board, Penn is definitely superior to half the ivies. If you doubt this, you haven't done your research. In terms of selectivity however, Penn's non-Wharton divisions are near the bottom of the ivy league barrel. However, equating selectivity with prestige is just sophistry. You have to take a more holistic point of view to understand the big picture of the university. </p>
<p>Also, I agree that rankings underscore faculty reputation as opposed to faculty's teaching ability. However, I'm pretty sure any differences in teaching ability are minimal. I mean cmon, if you need professors standing up on desks and screaming "call me oh captain, my captain" in order to motivate you to learn, you might rethink your inclination to attend the ivy league. And if you are going to do any type of research or field experience in your major of interest, faculty reputation and departmental strength becomes quite relevant.</p>
<p>That said, I'm not trying to put any other school down or insinuating other ivies are not as "good." I'm simply trying to dispel the notion that Penn is simply a school for jocks and business majors. Penn gets ragged on so much, and that definitely should not be the case - it has its strengths too.</p>
<p>Well said. I will be attending Penn's SAS. So what if it isn't Wharton. I'm grateful enough to be able to attend an Ivy. MOST people can't say that. 1000 of qualified applicants are turned down every year because there is just not enough spaces available. Every who attends an Ivy should be proud that we are an a sense, an elite brotherhood/sisterhood. I don't mean that in a pretentious way, I just ,mean we can all be proud of ourselves for the rest of our lives. I assure you...NOT everyone cares to attend Wharton and be a business major.</p>
<p>The average layman on the street will give you a dirty grin when he finds out you went to Yale or Harvard.</p>
<p>omg, enough of this ivy league nonsense, it's like ivy league has consumed our daily presence and our perception of everything. I will be honest, I am happy to be attending one (Cornell), but I never will put down another school if it isn't. I mean, Stanford, MIT, and Duke could be ivy league schools, but they aren't. It is an elusive bunch of schools, but something that should not be taken out of contex. You guys are like my dad, he is like ivy league is ivy league, and nothing can touch it, like it's invisible. To my dad, since Cornell was an ivy, that was the place to be and that was the place that i ultimately chose for other personal reasons....</p>
<p>The best of the best university's to the general public here in Saint Louis would be Harvard, Yale, Stanford and LOL Washington University. Penn is not really big here, when I first heard of it I thought it was Penn State. Also alot of people know what MIT is, but the rest like Brown, Dartmouth, and so on, NO one knows what the hell those are. UC-Berkeley and UCLA are well knowed though.</p>
<p>But, the people in our society, who matter, WILL know these schools, I promise. As humans, we are all fixated on brand names. To be honest, I wish Penn had a more recognized name like Harvard/Yale/Stanford, but that doesn't mean I not extremely thrilled to be going. It's still an IVY league. Of course, tons of people have no freaking clue which schools are Ivies. Some say Duke, Georgetown, Rice, Stanford, etc are Ivy League. I have to admit, when I was a kid, I thought Rice was an Ivy.</p>
<p>WUSTL doesn't seem to be that well known on the west coast, even though it should be better known. Everybody here knows about MIT, even though MIT is on the opposite coast. Here Stanford seems to the school, heck it is way more popular than HYP etc is. In fact, I bet from my area its slightly easier to get into HYP etc than Stanford due to numbers in apps from the region.</p>
<p>The other week a friend of mine was waiting for the bus to go home in Jersey City, NJ. He sees some people drinking in a bar, and they invite him in. He declines their offer of a drink, saying he is only 18, and finds out they are coworkers for this company called Pershing. They ask him what his plans are, and he says that he is going to Penn to study business. They are very impressed, and one of them, who happens to be a VP, hands him her card and offers him a job on the spot.</p>
<p>Just goes to show that Penn will open doors in places that matter.</p>
<p>^ Well, I don't know about you, but getting a job offer straight out of high school in a bar in Jersey City seems kinda shady to me :)</p>
<p>lollerskate</p>
<p>Wharton is the most recognized business school in the world. In France it measured at on the same scale as Insead; In England Wharton is known as the US finance academy. Harvard is well known; however, in " the City" -- London financial district, people don't care about CASE they want to know if you understand finance, economics, and accounting. Harvard MBA's are lacking. When one has completed an MBA but still does not understand a simple comprehensive income statement that is definitely a problem.
Although, Harvard is the best management school on earth, many companies around the world want MBAs with superior quantitative skills.</p>
<p>Can we all just admit that no one heree can speak for France or England? I mean its one thing to say such and such a school is "better" than another one, thats ridiculous enough. But to speak for an entire country? Man, you must have conducted a lot of interviews.</p>
<p>Penn is the most prestigious university in my household....and that's all that matters. :D</p>
<p>I dont know what your talking about but Helsinki School of Economics is the best business school in the world. LOL. Lets just get it straight. The best school to most people in anything is nerdy old Harvard.</p>
<p>someone made this post earlier, and i find it to be completely true...my apologies to the poster who originally said this b/c i can't remember your name and hence give you credit for it, but this is what he/she said...</p>
<p>at most schools, if you ask random students walking to class if they like the school, they'll say something along the lines of "yeah, it's awesome!"...but at Penn, if you ask them if they like their school, they'll stop and give you a ten minute description of everything that rocks about Penn and why it's the absolute best place to be</p>
<p>ddddddddddd</p>
<p>i want to post on the top of the page</p>