<p>patlees,
I think you will notice that I often don’t include the top publics in my comments. I am ambivalent about how they stack with the Ivies and the top privates. They certainly do the athletic life thing at the very highest levels, but there are some other trade-offs. </p>
<p>The publics do a lot of things well, but I’m not as confident in their ability to deliver the same level of undergraduate classroom experience as the top privates (while acknowledging that for some students, they can be superior to that found anywhere else). My view is tied to considerations like the size of the classroom, the consistency of the student body, and the amount of resources that the institution devotes to undergraduates. Taken collectively, these do create a somewhat different academic experience vis-</p>
<p>^ Also note that it’s Longhorn fans to the immediate left, and Husker fans to the immediate right. The photographer must have been right on the border.</p>
<p>Imagine a hypothetical school, with 20 undergraduate students(9 guys, 11 girls, all good looking), 1 grad student, 3 professors, 1550 SAT average, all caucasian from private hs, 1 fraternity, 1 sorority, a baseball team(of course), classes are all taught in a seminar style(who cares what they teach, small classes!), 100% placement into Ibanking and management consulting, and that’s pretty much Hawkette’s ideal institution. (I’m half joking of course)</p>
You seriously think just because you got 99%ile, the odds of others getting 99%ile is any less?
Still do not get it, I see. What he said was the people he worked with. Of course there are smart people everywhere.
Who said anything about me going to Cal? I might, I might not. Although I know exactly what to expect coming to Cal. Don’t worry about me. People like you further convince me that Cornell is what I think it is.</p>
<p>Believe in whatever you want. But, don’t come back here and write some **** like “Cornell grads are stupid”. What a ■■■■■. Keep that thought to yourself. And have fun with the smart fellows at your smart school. </p>
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<p>Okay, you are just hopelessly ■■■■■■■■…after you clearly wrote “Cornell grads are stupid.” I no longer see any necessity for any more interaction with you. You sound like a person unable to be civilized and you don’t show any hopes of being able to understand word for word. Obviously, you are just way too stupid.</p>
<p>For many prospective students, the non-HYP Ivies offer a less intimate academic setting than the top LACs and a less ebullient social life and nationally-relevant athletic life than top privates like Stanford, Duke et al. By no means am I intimating that the Ivies are bad places, but in certain comparisons they will struggle. >></p>
<p>There’s an easy way to answer this question. hawkette, would you have (or could you calculate) the # of applicants per spot at each of the top 20 colleges? That factors away the yield issue and just says in general, how desirable are each of these schools in a broad-based way.</p>
<p>If your hypothesis is correct, that a wider range of students value both the academics AND the big-sports-scene than just value the academics, then I would expect Stanford, Duke, NU et al to have a higher # of applicants per spot than at least the non-HYP Ivies. </p>
<p>I still have to say as an NU grad it is quite funny to think that NU is playing <em>any</em> part in a discussion of major sports schools.</p>
<p>A few years past graduation from Cornell, I am increasingly proud of having gone to a school that has no significant focus on athletics. I could not imagine going to a school and actually thinking, “Man throw ball good. School good.” Or, worse, actually judging a school’s worthiness by the quality of tailgates. How old are these children on this board?</p>
<p>It’s good to know, however, that I am stupid. I’ll have to inform my friends and co-workers who are convinced otherwise. They must have forgotten I went to Cornell.</p>
<p>Applejack, I’ve always been proud of having gone to a school that had no significant focus on athletics, which is why it’s really hysterical for me that my alma mater is being cited as one of those perfect blends :-). I appreciate Hawkette’s kind words for NU, but I think she WAY overstates the importance of spectator sports / tailgating to what makes NU desirable to prospective students and special to its current students and alumni. (And the same for the other peer schools she mentions.) In fact, I do have a perception of Duke as being more sporty than NU, and that is a negative <em>to me.</em></p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not buying the claim that NU is more athletically oriented than a place like Cornell or UPenn either. I’ve spent a decent amount of time on Northwestern’s campus, and I just don’t feel it.</p>
<p>Also realize this: Stanford’s undergraduate reputation will forever have a negative impression on me due to the fact that the only student ever to get into Stanford from my high school was a recruited athlete with a sub-1150 SAT score. I realize that it is just one student and not indicative of the student body or undergraduate body in any way shape or form, and I certainly don’t let it affect the way that I interact with Stanford grads, but that is how impressions are made.</p>
<p>Applejack,
Your post is just sooooooooo far off the mark. If you really did graduate from Cornell, then I wonder if you ever had classes where you actually had to read the material and make accurate interpretations of what is being communicated. Or did they just teach you to slant your comments and completely misrepresent and denigrate the viewpoints of others? </p>
<p>Read the comments again. And again. Now read them a third time. Is it sinking in yet? No one is claiming that there is a connection between a school being good academically and good athletically. No one. Do you understand now? Or better, can you actually accept that statement now or will you ignore it with more silly straw men (and women)? Cornell is a terrific school and deserves better arguments in support than the insults that you’ve offered so far.</p>
<p>I think one would be hard pressed to accurately describe a university that is generally recognized as being among the top 20 in the U.S., and which has some of the best colleges and programs in the world, as overrated. Granted, it may not be the school for you, but overrated? I don’t think so. And no, I don’t go to Cornell, work at Cornell, have a family member at Cornell or have any affiliation with Cornell.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t think it’s overrated at all, considering whenever my friends and I think of cornell, the first thought that comes to mind is “worst ivy” or “hyp reject”…even though we know it’s not, that’s just our first thought..</p>