<p>Lakshya M, my intention was not to demonstrate that rankings are inaccurate. In fact, I believe that rankings are products of extensive data gathering and research, and hence they should be more representative than general opinions.</p>
<p>Well they're not :-p they're based on silly things like peer assessment and SAT scores.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is an exceptional case amongst the Ivies.</p>
<p>I think we can all agree on this. Dartmouth is an exceptional ivy :-)</p>
<p>Haha, Big Brother 1984 and ammarsfound are both going to Dartmouth soon... I guess just the topic of this discussion alone irks them --- whether the school that they would be going to is sub-standard.</p>
<p>Both of us got into a bunch of other schools you have repeatedly insisted meet this 'standar' (including imperial in my case). Both of us chose dartmouth after extensively researching all our schools. I haven't regretted my decision for a second till now, and I'm sure i can say the same for big brother. </p>
<p>I dont find the topic of this discussion annoying as much as i find it ridiculous. I honestly thought it was just someone kidding around the first time i saw it :-/ Never would I have imagined it'd actually be a matter of debate :-S</p>
<p>ammarsfound, when do you learn how to quote properly? ;)</p>
<p>Rankings such as Shanghai and THES (and USNEWS) aren't silly. They give you the broad picture (Dartmouth is a weak research school, but very good for undergraduate).</p>
<p>@ammarsfound: what schools did you turn down for Dartmouth?</p>
<p>I'll pm you the list.</p>
<p>The rankings may not be silly. the idea that they're the products of extensive research is. </p>
<p>okay i give. How do you quote?</p>
<p>(quote="person you're quoting")words(/quote)</p>
<p>or simply </p>
<p>(quote)more words(/quote)</p>
<p>replacing the parentheses with square brackets.</p>
<p>
Say for Shanghai Jiaotong, they need to tabulate, for each and every university, the citation score, alumni who are prize winners... </p>
<p>For THES, they need to send out surveys for peer review assessment, recruiter review...</p>
<p>There is really a lot of work done.</p>
<p>cameliasinensis, some how this CC is quite low-tech... </p>
<p>It doesn't even have the auto-quote feature! Every effect must be done by scripting....</p>
<p><a href="quote=%22person%20you're%20quoting%22">quote</a>words(/quote)</p>
<p>or simply</p>
<p>(quote)more words(/quote)</p>
<p>replacing the parentheses with square brackets.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Thank you :-D</p>
<p>
[quote]
Say for Shanghai Jiaotong, they need to tabulate, for each and every university, the citation score, alumni who are prize winners
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I could probably google that stuff in less than a day if i was getting paid to do it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For THES, they need to send out surveys for peer review assessment, recruiter review
[/quote]
</p>
<p>so? how thorough are the surveys?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Both of us got into a bunch of other schools you have repeatedly insisted meet this 'standar' (including imperial in my case). Both of us chose dartmouth after extensively researching all our schools. I haven't regretted my decision for a second till now, and I'm sure i can say the same for big brother.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>According to your other thread (<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=333761)%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=333761)</a>, you only got into Dartmouth and Duke and couldn't decide between the two. They're similar in academic quality--so saying that you have "extensively researched" doesn't give many points of comparison.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And what gave you the impression that since he was deliberating over Duke and Dartmouth, they were the only two schools he got into? And do school's have to be very different so that you can 'extensively research' about them? </p>
<p>As I look at it, it's more difficult to choose between similar schools than the other way around. Hence the 'extensive research'.</p>
<p>I got into columbia, chicago and rice as well, but if you look at my other posts carefully, you'll see how many questions i was posing about those two colleges because they were the ones i was really torn between. I decided on dartmouth five days before the deadline. And i would say my research on dartmouth and duke was pretty meticulous (albeit not as much for the other three). I was spending every second on CC asking everything i could about them, and i usually got answers.</p>
<p>And its a little stalker-ish that youre going through my posts and pulling things i posted two months ago out :-/</p>
<p>Haha, my apologies thethoughtprocess. I saw you had posted extensively in this one Duke vs. Berkeley thread - one that not surprisingly, rehashed a lot of the arguments that went on in this thread. I guess you're just tired of seeing people post the same arguments over and over again. </p>
<p>Some stark similarities:</p>
<p>1) There was a Singaporean dude throwing ad hominems like no tomorrow. He also seemed to freak out a lot in his posts.</p>
<p>2) Duke apparently, sucks.</p>
<p>3) Graduate school performance apparently, matters.</p>
<p>4) You've also brought up this point a lot - that it doesn't matter what specific groups of people think. "International recognition" doesn't matter. But that fell on deaf ears to a fanatic Singaporean. I know how you feel bro.</p>
<p>5) sakky posted in that thread, and was harassed by the Singaporean dude.</p>
<p>6) A Singaporean's personal experience is worth more than WSJ data and hard facts anyday.</p>
<p>No offense to all the cool Singapore folks out there, but what the hell is it with some of you guys and your style of throwing out personal attacks and putting too much faith in certain cultural biases?</p>
<p>Such is deja vu.</p>
<p>not all Singapore folks are dogmatic, lol.</p>
<p>Just ask anybody on Orchard Road, they'll probably tell you these are RJcians.</p>
<p>Cause they somehow got it into their head that they own Singapore. Other JCs pretty much hated them. </p>
<p>I apologize in advance to any RJcian reading this, but these are my observations while I was in Singapore.</p>
<p>wait.. so singaporeans think duke and dartmouth undergrad suck? *** ??</p>
<p>I'd turn down every other college for Dartmouth</p>
<p>
<p>Some stark similarities:</p>
<p>1) There was a Singaporean dude throwing ad hominems like no tomorrow. He also seemed to freak out a lot in his posts.</p>
<p>2) Duke apparently, sucks.</p>
<p>3) Graduate school performance apparently, matters.</p>
<p>4) You've also brought up this point a lot - that it doesn't matter what specific groups of people think. "International recognition" doesn't matter. But that fell on deaf ears to a fanatic Singaporean. I know how you feel bro.</p>
<p>5) sakky posted in that thread, and was harassed by the Singaporean dude.</p>
<p>6) A Singaporean's personal experience is worth more than WSJ data and hard facts anyday.</p>
<p>No offense to all the cool Singapore folks out there, but what the hell is it with some of you guys and your style of throwing out personal attacks and putting too much faith in certain cultural biases?
</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Graduate school performance matters A LOT. After all, a school get its reputation from making ground-breaking research. Also, it is good to study under scholars that are leaders in their field.</p></li>
<li><p>International Recognition is important if they want to seek employment back home or around the world. As you have stated before Dartmouth can get you the connection in the US. Likewise, Dartmouth is not going to get you the connection in Singapore (or HK and ...), Cambridge would.</p></li>
<li><p>We don't read WSJ or Business Week. We live in Financial Times and the Economist any day! Haha!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Lastly, we have different perspectives. it is Yourpointofview I guess.</p>
<p>
Let's be frank here, Dartmouth is "unknown" to the average Singaporean student/employer. Duke may be known by some, but is still quite "unknown".</p>
<p>Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Cornell and UC Berkeley are considered top-notch. </p>
<p>School like Columbia, Chicago and Penn are not exactly famous.</p>
<p>Top 4 UK schools like Cambridge Oxford Imperial and LSE are very well known in Singapore. Many of our ministers graduated from there.</p>
<p>
Even Harvard or Stanford?</p>
<p>
[quote]
not all Singapore folks are dogmatic, lol.</p>
<p>Just ask anybody on Orchard Road, they'll probably tell you these are RJcians.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Haha, are Raffles kids really that arrogant? I only know a couple, and they didn't seem that bad.</p>
<p>
[quote]
wait.. so singaporeans think duke and dartmouth undergrad suck? *** ??
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It certainly seems to be the impression down there on the other side of the world. What I and others like thethoughtprocess have stressed is that nobody cares about what Singaporeans think. Singapore is just a tiny country with very limited political influence but is apparently, very much prestige and status obsessed. I would not want to live in that country.</p>
<p>But alas, they keep going on with their spiel about graduate schools and personal anecdotes. </p>
<p>Dude, **** this. Canada rocks.</p>