<p>All right guys, first of all I am by no means a prestige fanatic. Far from it. I recognize the value of going to college for fit and for me that's the most important thing. Getting that out of the way, most people that I know in my school and even relatives and employers in India don't feel that way. The US News is a quasi bible for many students in my school and though it is disturbing, the cold hard truth is that in India many judge you by which school you've gone to. </p>
<p>Therefore, my question is based on your experiences, from your relatives, or hearsay or friends, which one is the most prestigious: Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, or MIT?
An assumption I would be glad to make is that Harvard would be the most (despite people knowing very less about specifics. Madness I say). Let me amend my question then. AFTER Harvard, which one is the prestigious?</p>
<p>I realise that things will differ for subjects. Therefore please feel free to categorise. For example, Economics: X school, Engineering: Y school, etc.</p>
<p>Again, this is only for curiosity's sake. Thanks all. :)</p>
<p>MIT by far for engineering/sciences. Harvard/Stanford are interchangeable for everything else with the former having an edge only when it comes to business.</p>
<p>Ascaris, you aren’t even <em>in</em> India. Pshaw :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Edit 2: Oh wait, I ranted all this while without actually understanding your question. I’ll leave the rant intact. Here’s what I’ve come to hear:
[<em>]Engineering: MIT
[</em>]Economics/Business: Wharton
[<em>]Humanities: Harvard
[</em>]People who don’t know anything: Ivy League School
Edit 3: I removed the rant, and summarized it in one sentence:</p>
<p>For everyone in India who talks about Ivy League schools, if I got a rupee when they couldn’t name all the schools in the Ivy League and had to give a rupee every time a person could name them, let’s say, I’d make a profit. And that, is how much I care about the common man’s perception.</p>
<p>@Ascaris- Are you talking about master’s? I say this because at undergrad wharton is the only one that provides business. In any case, it doesn’t matter. I’m simply talking about the kind of feeling or awe that saying the name engenders. </p>
<p>@Tizil- I agree with your statement for Harvard. Hence, my original question specifically said AFTER the big H. And yes you’re right, common knowledge is an ill-informed stereotype. But think about the word you’ve used. It’s a “stereotype.” By the very definition of the word, people make generalisations and such categorizations are wide spread. They’re not right. They shouldn’t even be there in my opinion. But reality says that they do and thus my question. </p>
<p>In addition to my question what about if these are compared to the IIT or IIM’s or ISB. To an average educated joe assume you drop any of the names (HYPSM, IIT, IIM, or even ISB). Which one do you think would garner the most favorable response?</p>
<p>A lot of the general population or your average laymen if you will, may not even know Yale and Princeton to be among the best in the world.
MIT, Harvard and Stanford are by far the most prestigious in India.</p>
<p>IMO, to “an average educated joe” as you put it,
H>>M/IIT/S>IIM>YP>ISB</p>
<p>IIM and YP may be interchangeable for some.</p>
<p>I’m talking about general prestige, undergrad and grad. And @Tizil, I may not be living in India but I have a plethora of family and friends in India. Also, my friend circle here is composed primarily of Indians. </p>
<p>And I think MIT beats IIT any day when it comes to the awe inspired by the name in the average indian. Indeed, many IIT-ians do dream to going to MIT at one point.</p>
<p>Finally, Tizil is right that, although the name ‘Ivy League’ carries with it connotations of academic prestige, barely any Indian I know can actually name all the schools in it. I myself didn’t even know Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell and UPenn existed (I thought Wharton was a university on its own) until I started looking at colleges to apply to. I actually thought Stanford was a part of the Ivy League.</p>
<p>addendum: I think HBS is more prestigious than Wharton for business, though it doesn’t offer undergrad courses.</p>
<p>For Economics, there’s no school which beats MIT and Harvard, not even Princeton and Yale (which are both very very awesome for economics by the way)…</p>
<p>That makes you think doesn’t it, Stanford being ahead of Yale and Princeton specifically in India. I mean if there’s such a big obsession with simply the term “ivy league” (with scarcely anyone knowing its athletic origins), you would think that they would value an actual ivy league more. Or perhaps, my basic premise is wrong. Perhaps the average Indian considers Stanford as an Ivy?</p>
<p>But would IIT really be on the same league as Stanford and MIT? I mean what I’ve seen is that IIT graduates aspire to go to MIT after MIT (as Ascaris rightly said).</p>
<p>Or maybe we’re all wrong, and because of British Colonisation, Oxbridge is the most recognised name?</p>
<p>EDIT 1: @phr34k- Are you talking about actual ranking or prestige in Indian firms hiring economists? Or are you talking about Billu next door (it would be funny if that was actually your neighbor’s real name):P</p>
<p>Prestige wise in India, I would say Harvard. But for research, rankings, number of Nobel prize winners, influence on the world, influence on Wall Street, job opportunities and whatnot, MIT and Harvard (prolly MIT stands out a tab bit more than Harvard) pawn every single econ school out there…</p>
<p>@Tizil- I meant economics removed from the usual placing it gets along side business. So Wharton despite being an amazing school, is still a B school, so… Cal’s another great place, but still it gets pawned by the two giants…</p>
<p>@Ascaris- Again, I find the IBS is superior to YP line rather confusing? How so? Is it simply the general aura the place has, employer rankings, what?</p>
<p>@Tizil- Agreed. Heck I would even add an extra category.</p>
<p>Poor India- The rickshaw drivers, the chaiwallas (I so feel like saying chaiwalla like Anil Kapoor right now), the Bus drivers. Agreed, they haven’t heard of YP but surprisingly some people that I’ve asked have heard of Harvard, Oxford (oddly not Cam), and some of estanford. I’m including this category because many work long hours to try to place their children in the IIT’s and IIM’s and view this as the end all and be all of education. Moreover, because such an income segment forms a vast majority of our population (~57, including rural areas), their opinions should be considered.</p>
<p>The other categories are what Tizil considered.</p>
<p>@nocensure, I really have no idea. Yale and Princeton don’t have as much mindshare among the Indian populace as the other three schools in the acronym do, in my experience at least. It’s somewhat baffling but it is what it is.</p>
<p>In retrospect I’d actually rank Princeton on par with IBS or a tad bit above it. Yale on the other hand remains the most underrated school of HYPSM among Indians for some reason.</p>
<p>nocensure, I just noticed. Why idd you write is at HYPMS?</p>
<p>HYPSM is much more pronounceable :p</p>
<p>
I completely agree! That’s the truth and I don’t disagree with that. It is good education. The people I am talking about are the classical “******bags” (sorry in advance if that counts as bad language, moderators. Please just edit, instead of an infraction <3) who may be slightly financially stable and have somewhat experienced a good education but do really do any work and talk about how good life at the ‘Ivy Leauge’ is.</p>
<p>@Tizil- It was accidental. Or perhaps, because of my Stanford likely it was an unconscious assesment along the lines of “saving the best for last” (notice how S is last). :P</p>
<p>IIT better than Cornell ---------------->makes no sense not even a little bit
Cornell>>>>>>>>>>>>>>IIT</p>
<p>IIT’s science departments are weak, note: I am talking about science department not engineering department,where as Cornell has an amazing science(specifically-Physics) as well as engineering department.
Cornell offers a lot more undergraduate research opportunities, than IIT’s
by a lot more I mean 100X more.</p>
I’m just kidding with you :D</p>