<p>Best:
brown
cornell
dartmouth
columbia
upenn
yale
princeton
harvard
:Worst</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Slipper was saying that peer assessment is not a good indicator of undergraduate education, not that the two things are mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>Of course they're not mutually exclusive, but that doesn't mean that there exists a strong causal relationship.</p>
<p>Here's my list:</p>
<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton
Penn/Columbia/Dartmouth/Brown
Cornell</p>
<p>That's in terms of undergraduate student quality. This ranking is, in my opinion, non-negotiable.</p>
<p>Now, in terms of research quality:
Harvard/Columbia/Penn
Yale
Princeton
Brown
Dartmouth</p>
<p>And finally, in terms of the quality of undergraduate education:</p>
<p>Dartmouth
Yale
Princeton
Brown
Penn
Cornell
Columbia
Harvard</p>
<p>if they were cars:</p>
<p>Brown: Toyota Prius/Smart Car (long wait list for the socially conscious, eco-chic)
Columbia: Mercedes Limousine (urban luxury)
Cornell: Cadillac Escalade (big, semi-prestigious, luxurious, good in the snow)
Dartmouth: Range Rover (outdoor luxury)
Harvard: Rolls Royce (big, prestigious, yet unimaginitive)
Princeton: Aston Martin (sexy, exclusive)
Penn: Lexus
Yale: Bentley (For those who want all the prestige of RR, but a little less obvious of a choice)</p>
<p>^ honestly, I think of Penn more along the lines of an Audi A6</p>
<p>Penn Wharton is along the lines of a Ferrari.
U Penn CAS and in general is along the lines of a BMW 3 series.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the Brown hippie/oozing liberalness Toyoto hybrid.
Columbia would be more like a Mercedes S-Class. Those things are sweeeeeet.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? If Columbia is an S-Class, Penn-CAS is at least a BMW 7-series.</p>
<p>Regardless, Columbia is more like a C-class. It's definitely a luxury car, but not a contender for the highest levels. Harvard would be the S-Class.</p>
<p>Why do we still care about UG focus when comparing top 15 private universities?</p>
<p>Because most of these people are asking about top universities for undergraduates, not for earning their Ph.D. where there really is no such thing as a top university since your preparation is entirely unique to the department, and really, your area within that discipline, and really, your advisor and your own work ethic.</p>
<p>Princeton
Yale
Penn
Brown
Columbia
Harvard
Dartmouth
Cornell</p>
<p>
[quote]
Because most of these people are asking about top universities for undergraduates, not for earning their Ph.D. where there really is no such thing as a top university since your preparation is entirely unique to the department, and really, your area within that discipline, and really, your advisor and your own work ethic.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What does any of this have to do with one school being more UG focused than another?</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia College(the hot school right now with Obama, close to a peer of Princeton now)
Wharton of Penn
Dartmouth
Brown
Columbia Engineering
Penn Liberal Arts and Engineering
Cornell Engineering
Cornell Liberal Arts
Cornell Miscellany-Hospitality School, Labor Relations etc.</p>
<p>note : Two Non-Ivies have significant "Ivy Like" clout. For Music/Performing Arts Juillard would have about an equivalent rank to Wharton and for diplomatic/intelligence careerists Georgetown SFS would be around that level too.
And Stanfod and MIT ,of course.</p>
<p>All this, is based on my opinion.</p>
<p>
What does any of this have to do with one school being more UG focused than another?
</p>
<p>Read again. I said we care about UG focus because that's what people are discussing here-- top universities for undergraduate education.</p>
<p>I went on to say it would not even make sense to make a list like that for graduate education because of all the reasons you bolded.</p>
<p>So why do we still care about UG experience? Because that's the only experience it makes sense to compare like this and because this is the UG board, there's a separate one for graduate school.</p>
<p>Post 138 is for undergrad.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Peer assessment-- a bunch of people who have seen typically no more than 3-4 institutions first hand writing about their impression from the outside.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's like asking top executive CEO's to rate other top competitors down the street. If Sony didn't know what Microsoft or Nintendo's product line, business model, projected sales volume, the company wouldn't survive would be kicked out like in an instant.</p>
<p>It's not like any of us 19 year olds here are any more qualified or has seen more colleges to rank the schools anyways lol. I believe my judgment of schools are just as good as the President of Harvard or Princeton as far as I am concerned (Since I live and breathing US news rankings :-P ) jk</p>
<p>
[quote]
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia College(the hot school right now with Obama, close to a peer of Princeton now)
Wharton of Penn
Dartmouth
Brown
Columbia Engineering
Penn Liberal Arts and Engineering
Cornell Engineering
Cornell Liberal Arts
Cornell Miscellany-Hospitality School, Labor Relations etc.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly disagree. Cornell's engineering is widely known to be better than Columbia's and Penn's. Student quality, education, everything.</p>
<p>Secondly, Wharton is obviously ahead of Columbia in every metric possible; SAT scores (all of Penn's is higher than Columbia's, let alone Wharton), HS rank, education, job opportunities, and so on.</p>
<p>Finally, Columbia engineering might be better than Penn engineering, but it is in no way better than Penn CAS. Penn CAS is on par with Dartmouth/Brown/Columbia. Forget Columbia engineering. Think back to high school. Which kids went to Penn, and which went to Columbia engineering? The kid in my class who went to C. engineering wasn't even in the top-ten.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Columbia College (the hot school right now with Obama, close to a peer of Princeton now)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What? Considering that its student body by ANY metric imaginable is of lower quality than Penn CAS/Dartmouth/Brown, and that it barely beats any of those schools in cross-admits and is itself beaten by Brown, this seems completely ridiculous and unfounded.</p>
<p>My ranking:</p>
<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton
Wharton
Cornell Engineering/Columbia College/Penn CAS/Brown/Dartmouth
Cornell Arts & Sciences/Penn Engineering
Cornell: the rest</p>
<p>muerteapablo, you crack me up. The question posed is "what do you think?" Your response is "who cares what others think, I KNOW." The irony is that you state that you "know" based on things you've read (like an outdated NYT article re cross-admits) and kids you knew in high school. "Widely known to be better," "obviously ahead...in every metric possible," "is in no way better," "by ANY metric imaginable." Your post really is funny.</p>
<p>Thoughts are based on perceptions; vienna man's are diametrically opposed to reality. I'm just helping him out a little.</p>
<p>Glad I could crack you up, though.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Cornell Engineering
Cornell Liberal Arts
Cornell Miscellany-Hospitality School, Labor Relations etc.
[/quote]
I know this is just opinions and all, but that's pretty surprising - Cornell's Liberal Arts are really nothing special, the programs Cornell is known for are Architecture, Hotel, Agriculture, ILR, Food Science, Animal Science, those programs are the ones Cornell ranks in the top 5 for, some are consistently ranked #1...Cornell CAS is nice and all, I'm applying there myself, but it's really nothing special. Cornell is definitely stronger in those areas than Engineering, although Engineering is pretty decent.</p>