<p>Interestingly, nobody has suggested Cornell.
And why on earth would anyone add Berkeley?</p>
<p>@dncgirl....in all fairness, i don't think this group is "solidly established" anywhere else but on these boards, i.e. most people don't generally parade around discussing acronyms for the best schools in the country. </p>
<p>With that said, I'd say Columbia University should take that sixth spot. The only area in which lags behind those other five is in the amount of money it has. It's also located in this country's most important city.</p>
<p>On the graduate school level, Harvard, MIT, and Cal are king.
On the professional school level, Harvard, Stanford, and Penn (maybe UChicago too) are king.</p>
<p>^ Yes but not UChicago</p>
<p>HYPSMG</p>
<p>G for Georgetown</p>
<p>Add me to the group that does NOT agree to the conclusion that all five belong in the "pentium 5" of elite universities. In fact, many of us would argue that the first four belong, but that MIT is not among the top 5 unequivocally. I have often seen just "HYPS" and that may be for a good reason.</p>
<p>Unless and until MIT, CalTech, Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, etc., establishes their superiority across the board, we might want to back up to four letters in the acronym, instead of adding a 6th!</p>
<p>^ Georgetown is not even close to making it into the HYPSM acronym. Not by a long shot. Even though USNWR rankings are notoriously unreliable, Georgetown doesn't even have a shot at making it into the top 10, let alone the top 15.</p>
<p>We could establish two acronyms,
the first being HYPS (first tier)
and the second being MCPCD (second tier)</p>
<p>Leave it at HYPS, take the M. It is just to techy for this group. The other four not only have prestige but are rather well rounded.</p>
<p>In the national lexicon, the schools of HYPSM each can stand on its own in every section of the country, both from name recognition as well as from recruiting power with employers. After this group, IMO the college that next most fully meets this test would be Duke. </p>
<p>Duke's strong athletic profile has made the college a household name in all of America. Its placement strength is well established across a variety of industries with all of the East and the South and somewhat in the West and Midwest. </p>
<p>Duke's profile has also been supported by the USNWR rankings over the years with an average ranking since 1991 of 6.17. Here are the average USNWR rankings since 1991:</p>
<p>1.44 , Harvard University
1.78 , Princeton University
2.39 , Yale University
4.50 , Stanford University
4.94 , Mass. Inst. of Technology
5.67 , Cal Inst. of Technology
6.17 , Duke University
8.44 , Univ. of Pennsylvania
8.61 , Dartmouth College
10.00 , Columbia University </p>
<p>While Caltech may rank higher, its profile generally and across more than the technical fields is very small. U Penn is perhaps less known than its own Wharton brand while Dartmouth and Columbia are not nearly as well known outside of the Northeast.</p>
<p>The only area where Duke lags would be in academia where it ranks 12th based on annual PA rankings going back to 1998 (first year of the 5.0 PA scoring scale). Just last year, Duke suffered a 0.2 point decline in its USNWR PA score from 4.6 to 4.4. Many believe that the academics, in their scoring, ineptly linked Duke's faculty and prestige to the infamous lacrosse scandal.</p>
<p>not columbia. CALTECHH</p>
<p>"The only area where Duke lags would be in academia"
Isn't that the point? That HYPSM are all highly regarded in academia, and that few if any other universities share that same status? I really don't think that Duke can compete with HYPSM</p>
<p>The problem with Caltech is that it has notorious difficulties in getting its grads into med school.</p>
<p>C.</p>
<p>Columbia, Caltech, and Chicago all fit in rather well.</p>
<p>Penn? No, I don't think so.</p>
<p>Another thing that makes HYPSM so elite is that they have excellent undergraduate AND graduate programs. Which would make either Caltech or Chicago fit best. Berkeley is questionable, but still a decent choice if we consider a mix of UG/G.</p>
<p>psh who wants med school anyways ;P</p>
<p>^why not Penn? Where is it lacking compared to these other schools aside from having a larger undergraduate population?</p>
<p>Columbia and Chicago maybe, but again, Caltech is too specialized, and has atrocious admit rates for med schools.</p>
<p>hawkette, you cite some impressive, yet OUTDATED stats. If one looks at USNWR rankings for the past 5 or even 10 years, Duke has consistently lagged behind MIT, CalTech and Penn. Moreover, the Blue Devil Adcoms have "achieved" a reputation for admitting lots of stellar students and seeing them go elsewhere to schools that can and will spend more from their endowment to entice and keep top students with merit aid. I LOVE Coach K and the bb team, and Duke has many fine graduate programs, too. However, after the Lacrosse scandal which of you parents would choose Duke over any of the other top 10 we have been discussing? I was SO disgusted that the Duke faculty RUSHED to judgment against those innocent boys, I would really worry if my daughter were there and hope she does not want to apply there.</p>
<p>Let's stick to HYPS as the first tier and MCPCD as the second group, with the "D" referring, of course, to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>
[quote]
why not Penn? Where is it lacking compared to these other schools aside from having a larger undergraduate population?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Penn is too professional and doesn't have a grad program on par with the other mentioned schools.</p>
<p>^ agreed :)</p>