<p>"Haha at JHU is in the same tier as UPenn and Columbia… keep dreamin. =) "</p>
<p>I find it amusing that you think JHU is a tier lower than UPenn and Columbia; in reality, all of the top 20-25 schools are essentially peer institutions with very minute academic differences. USNWR defines Tier 1 schools as ranked in the top 50; so they are in essence all Tier 1 schools. You can get a strong education at any of these. I find it ridiculous that you are basically saying JHU is “inferior” to UPenn and Columbia as if it is some second-rate institution. Internationally, Hopkins is just as well known as Columbia and probably more well known than UPenn.</p>
<p>People are always going to rate the institution they attend or the school with a bigger name brand or appeal (i.e. Ivy League schools, Duke, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, etc.) above schools with lesser known names (hence it is no surprise, that just like in USNWR, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, and Vanderbilt are ranked closer to the bottom in a lot of these lists)</p>
<p>These threads need to be put to rest-- all of these schools are top universities and you would be lucky to attend any one of them.</p>
<p>hippo: I don’t really care. I am sticking with my list. The Univ. of Michigan is arguably a private school. And yes I know that some are not classified as universities, just read around those if it bothers you so much.
P.S. In Post #23 you claim that your list is alphabetical, better recheck your list or review the alphabet!</p>
To each his own. Michigan is a fine university on par with almost any private, so I see no need to refer to it as something it is clearly not.</p>
<p>As far as my list is concerned, yes, I realized my error after the time limit for editing had passed. I originally had the University of Southern California in the list, but at the last minute I decided to exchange it with Tufts; I neglected to realphabetize after the substitution.</p>
<p>I was like …what… when I saw Gifford’s list… “The university of Michigan is arguably a private school”… umm… no it’s not… how can you argue about things like this?</p>
<p>Re this comparison of privates to publics, the very different sizes make for very different campus environments. For example, the large publics of Texas (37,000+ undergrads), UCLA (26,000+), U Michigan (26,000+), and UC Berkeley (25,000+) have a very different feel and vibe to what goes on at any top private with 3000-8000 undergrads. </p>
<p>Some may argue that places like U North Carolina (17,000+) and U Virginia (15,000+) are similar to the privates, but even there it’s a stretch. In reality, IMO the only top public with a campus feel similar to the top privates is William & Mary (5850 undergrads). </p>
<p>In practice, what does this size difference mean? At the privates, you’ll find a more universally strong student body, greater proximity to profs and other academic resources, usually an overall higher touch experience and probably a greater institutional foundation supporting undergrads. But the publics also have their positives as their size usually means a broader menu of academic and non-academic offerings. Students/graduates can be highly successful coming from both environments, but prospective students should understand that there are important differences in what one will get on various campuses.</p>
<p>@ Barty13: you can’t always go by the name… Wesleyan and Colgate, for example, are both LACs despite having small (<200 students) graduate programs (and 2,800 undergrads each) and Dartmouth is a research university. Dartmouth was always called Dartmouth College (and never changed it unlike its Ivy brethren), while Wesleyan was chartered as “Wesleyan University” in 1831, despite not adding graduate programs until the 1960’s.</p>
<p>plus, schools like Williams College also have tiny graduate programs.</p>
<p>I agree with Choklinrain… One could argue that the education level at NU, JHU, Duke, Emory, Wash U. and other are all comparable… there are differences and usually there is some sort of consensus which is better overall… but I doubt students would notice such a thing…</p>
<p>Michigan is almost a private school because it’s level of funding from the state is miniscule as compared to other state supported universities. This is the reason that tuition rates–especially for the professional schools–is equal to or higher than that of most private schools. The Michigan Board has often considered going private.
JHU is not equivalent to NU. Dream on. Top three schools for National Merit Scholars are Harvard, Texas & Northwestern.
Average matriculated SAT scores: Northwestern University #8 & JHU not even in the top 20.
Top endowments: Northwestern University #8 & JHU #25.
I like JHU, but it is not in the same league academically or athletically as NU.
JHU’s graduate programs are closer to NU, however, but this is an undergraduate ranking.
Northwestern University & the Univ. of Chicago are the two great admissions bargains left in the U.S.</p>
<p>They’re separated by a single point in the US News 100 pt scoring system. 87 versus 86. And JHU has a higher PA score as well as a lower acceptance rate. I generally accept the views of others, but in your case your views are asinine and unfounded.</p>
<p>The USNews PA score is heavily influenced by graduate programs at each school. ChokLitRain: Your vernacular speaks for itself.
“Unfounded”? I cited both Nat’l Merit Scholars & Endowment figures; your position is “unfounded”–not mine.</p>
<p>@ Gifford: Of course, Northwestern and UTexas are going to have a larger number of NMFs than many other top 20 schools… they are quite larger than others (especially UT). Well, Harvard is Harvard, so that’s why they have a large number of NMFs. </p>
<p>Northwestern and JHU are peers… all the top 25 schools are peers. </p>
<p>Northwestern and UChicago are not great academic bargains… they are quite expensive. They are not even ranked in the top 10 for best value in magazines such as Kiplingers and in the Princeton Review rankings. In my opinion, schools like Swarthmore, Pomona, Davidson, Rice, Yale, Princeton, and CalTech are better academic bargains than Northwestern and UChicago… these schools are CONSISTENTLY ranked in the top 10 for best-value.</p>
<p>you realize, of course, the Kiplinger ranking is just a surrogate for financial aid generosity and that 50% of “schools like Swarthmore, Pomona, Davidson, Rice, Yale, Princeton and CalTech” don’t qualify for FA at all? It says, nothing about the intrinsic value of their educations at all.</p>
<p>harvard
stanford
MIT
yale
princeton
columbia
chicago
caltech
duke
penn
dartmouth
northwestern
brown
cornell
JHU
Georgetown
tufts
emory
vanderbilt
notre dame
Rice
NYU
Wake forest
BC
brandeis</p>
<p>I didn’t include Caltech just because I think its so different from the average university…its hard to compare them (just as it is hard to compare publics/privates)</p>