<p>
</p>
<p>While US News’ ranking is indisputably flawed in some respects, I question the blanket nature of your statement. Many students don’t have a better gauge of quality to turn to.</p>
<p>^And how much does USNWR really tell a prospective student about a college or university other than its numerical ranking? It’s a terrible way to choose a school. I think that you can discover a lot more about a college or university by doing the research yourself on the internet, at your local library, or a bookstore. And there’s no substitute for a campus visit. The USNWR rankings have a lot more to do with selling magazines than they do with giving useful advice to college applicants.</p>
<p>^ That’s not his point. It is the BEST ranking, not the PERFECT ranking. It has it’s flaws, but there aren’t any better to top it. Go and use Forbes if you want to feel good about having crappy schools first like a military school. USNEWS is the closest to a accurate ranking then many other (if not all) rankings. It’s used by millions of students, and they wouldn’t use it if it’s that bad. </p>
<p>People who base there decisions on rankings itself is misled and can lead to unhapiness, but I am sure nobody would ever base there decision on rankings themselves. </p>
<p>But they are the best, so just deal with it. A ranking isn’t supposed to give you everything you want to know, it’s basic academics, finance, selectivity. They tried to give a measure of student hapiness by Alumni donations, with them assuming plenty of Alumni donations mean that they must have liked the college. If you want to know about prospective student opinions go to the college website not USNEWS, you are just asking more then what a ranking can give.</p>
<p>There are MANY great schools in America. But these following schools are held in very high regard among Americans and these forums. </p>
<p>Ranked in what I see as “prestige” order</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Stanford
MIT
Princeton
Caltech / Columbia
UPenn / Duke / UChicago
Dartmouth / Brown
Cornell / Johns Hopkins / Northwestern
(Before you start jumping on me, I must make a note that the “prestige” factor is not always too different among these universities. I’m sure your ego will be satisfied if you tell anyone that you’ll be going to these universities. Also, the academic caliber is none too different among these universities. Yes, gasp* I believe Harvard ain’t too different from Cornell in academics. Shoot me.)</p>
<p>Among public schools, there are </p>
<p>Berkeley
UVA
UNC Chapel Hill </p>
<p>I think a lot of people will agree with me that these are the overall best/respected universities AT THE UNDERGRAD level overall</p>
<p>I disagree. Surprised?</p>
<p>
I’m not. My formula predicted you would.</p>
<p>He he he. Touche.</p>
<p>It’s currently undergoing rigorous scientific testing, but it is holding up famously.</p>
<p>I thought Saiyan’s list placed CalTech too low and MIT too high. </p>
<p>Also, UNC certainly doesn’t deserve to be on the Public’s list if Michigan isn’t. If it were up to me, I’d just omit UNC though.</p>
<p>^Yes, I forgot to add Michigan. UMichigan. And I believe Caltech is exactly where it should be (its a very niche school. Not for everyone at all).</p>
<p>MIT is just above Princeton. What’s wrong with that?</p>
<p>Revised List:
Ranked in what I see as “prestige” order</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Stanford
MIT
Princeton
Caltech / Columbia
UPenn / Duke / UChicago
Dartmouth / Brown
Cornell / Johns Hopkins / Northwestern
(Before you start jumping on me, I must make a note that the “prestige” factor is not always too different among these universities. I’m sure your ego will be satisfied if you tell anyone that you’ll be going to these universities. Also, the academic caliber is none too different among these universities. Yes, gasp* I believe Harvard ain’t too different from Cornell in academics. Shoot me.)</p>
<p>Among public schools, there are </p>
<p>Berkeley
UVA
UNC Chapel Hill (A suggestion to remove…?)
UMichigan</p>
<p>I would replace UNC with UCLA.</p>
<p>I agree with his list. I don’t know the problem with Caltechs prestige. I never heard of it until I came to CC. If it was that prestigious, I think I would have known.</p>
<p>That’s it! My formula has emerged fully proven from testing. I would like to thank my scientific team, as well as the posters here, on College Confidential, for going so far to prove my theory of college preference subjectivity. I’d venture to say that it could be extended to all opinions. I’m calling it, this is now The Law of Opinion Subjectivity. Or Billy’s Law, for short. I know, everyone must be shocked. Who knew? Who knew, I say, that college preference or prestige might actually be subjective?! Dare to dream!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of the 1900 or so 4-year colleges/universities, at least 125 are great in that they offer excellent educational opportunities for their students. If you get past the fetishizing of the top-20 and start looking seriously 1) the quality of the faculty 2) academic programs 3) library/technology/facilities, you will find plenty of outstanding institutions in this country. And if you ask successful people in all different lines of work where they attended college, you will find a lot of universities come up.</p>
<p>We could debate what counts as great and discuss how some places offer more than others and how some schools open certain doors to elite settings, but in general if you are considering excellence in education there are a lot of options. A lot of people in the United States and in other countries would love the opportunity to attend any of the dozens of great colleges and universities.</p>
<p>^Yes, very true. However, some people are blinded by egos. I too am myself a little, I can’t help it. But I admire those have none. To some it matters very much to impress the common folk. A sense of misguided superiority perhaps. But its a valid sense of accomplishment to belong to a part of an established group.</p>
<p>I simply listed universities that have that “ego boosting” factor. People among these forums in CC seem very interested in these:
Revised list:</p>
<p>Ranked in what I see as “prestige” order</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Stanford
MIT
Princeton
Caltech / Columbia
UPenn / Duke / UChicago
Dartmouth / Brown
Cornell / Johns Hopkins / Northwestern
(Before you start jumping on me, I must make a note that the “prestige” factor is not always too different among these universities. I’m sure your ego will be satisfied if you tell anyone that you’ll be going to these universities. Also, the academic caliber is none too different among these universities. Yes, gasp* I believe Harvard ain’t too different from Cornell in academics. Shoot me.)</p>
<p>Among public schools, there are </p>
<p>Berkeley
UVA
UMichigan</p>
<p>Those who are mind-bogglingly ambitious stick with the term
“HYPSM” to even further boost their egos to the extreme. I condemn such people.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I feel like there are more public schools considered “great” schools…in my opinion, the list would be:
Berkeley, UVA, Michigan, UNC, UCLA, Georgia Tech, William and Mary</p>
<p>As others have said, the criteria that make a school “great” vary from student to student. I didn’t know what USNWR was before my sophomore year of high school. Before that, I had a college list of schools I thought were “great” because they had programs I liked and were in areas I wanted to explore. </p>
<p>A few weeks before the end of the last school year, I was sitting around with one of my teachers and a few classmates, and we had a whole discussion about college. Each one of the students involved had a different opinion of what made a school “great.” One girl wanted a liberal arts college that was in a different part of the country. Another guy wanted a school with lots of opportunities for science. One of my friends just wants to be intellectually stimulated in college. Everyone’s got a different opinion!</p>
<p>I’m looking over this list of great schools that’s been posted a few times in this thread-those are all great schools, but they aren’t the only ones! In my opinion, a great school is one where:
a) students are challenged
b) students are happy
c) students can find programs that they find interesting</p>
<p>because
a) I don’t think I need to explain the importance of challenge in academics. At the same time, “challenging” is another term whose definition changes depending upon the student.
b) Unhappy students aren’t going to do well. And not everyone is going to be happy at the same schools. This is where “fit” comes in-location, size, climate, etc. And even then, not every student is going to apply those the same way.
c) I just had this discussion with someone. I guess it sort of applies to point b, but if a student hates his/her academic options, the school isn’t a “great” school for that person, now is it? </p>
<p>So I guess the purpose of this long-winded post is to say that it’s all relative. A “great” school for me and a “great” school for someone else are probably two completely different schools, and we probably have two completely different reasons for picking our “great” schools.</p>
<p>It also depends on what you are doing. Are you in something productive like engineering or economics. Or something not like liberal arts. lol. </p>
<p>Really though i think it depends on what you are doing</p>
<p>Another CC bias is the focus on universities, while ignoring the LACs; a bias which is apparent in the discussion above. Although the LACs may be lesser known amongst the general public, their graduates are highly regarded (perhaps even more so than those from the top universities) by hiring managers at the best companies, and admissions staff at graduate, and professional schools. The OP asked about schools, not universities. How about Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Wellesley, Bowdoin?</p>
<p>i second pbleic. i actually got into an argument with someone at school about that yesterday.</p>