<p>Ok. As the OP of this absurd thread, I now have a follow up question:</p>
<p>Who the heck cares? And why?</p>
<p>Discuss…</p>
<p>Princeton was always one of the best universities in the world and it is still one of the best universities in the world, both by reputation and factually. I don’t know where you come up with the idea that it used to be #1 in prestige–much as I love the school, such specific rankings don’t make much sense to me in general.</p>
<p>I’m sort of done here. You are making statements of opinion that cannot be verified and treating them as fact. Maybe at college you will learn to be more rigorous about your logic and a little less self-satisfied, but who knows?</p>
<p>Midatlmom, it’s not just my opinion. When Von Neumann, Einstein and Godel taught there, Princeton was much more highly regarded than Harvard, at least in Europe. Ask people if Princeton is more well-known than Harvard OUTSIDE the US…</p>
<p>thank God I didn’t go to Princeton, can’t tolerate some minor criticism…</p>
<p>I’ll say it for the last time: Princeton is one of the best colleges in the world, but I just think that it lost some of its reputation… nonetheless it still has an extremely high reputation. </p>
<p>have a nice day folks</p>
<p>Just for the sake of clarity on Einstein’s affiliation with Princeton:</p>
<p>“Einstein lived in Princeton during the last 22 years of his life and had an office on campus, but was not a member of the University faculty. He was a faculty member at the neighboring Institute for Advanced Study and an important member of the larger intellectual community of Princeton.” </p>
<p>[Princeton</a> University - Celebrating Einstein’s birthday on Pi Day](<a href=“Celebrating Einstein's birthday on Pi Day”>Celebrating Einstein's birthday on Pi Day)</p>
<p>@Rain202</p>
<p>I was wondering the same exact thing!</p>
<p>To the OP: No.</p>
<p>In my opinion, rankings of universities outside the US usually give more weight to existence of graduate/reserach and professional schools. This occurs for two main reasons: 1.In foreign countries universities only grant doctorates or professional degrees – as there is no real “undergraduate” studies at top European universities and 2. Foreign students who come to US do so to study at the graduate and doctorate level – so they tend to know the US universities that have extensive graduate and professional schools. Princeton has no professional schools and a relatively small graduate school. While I think Princeton is certainly in the top tier of American universities, I think its lack of professional schools and small graduate school will eventually hurt its reputation-- as more and more US universities expand their research and graduate offerings. It’s not just Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Cornell, UPenn that have distinguished graduate programs, but also schools like Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Duke, UMich, Berkeley. There is no reason that Princeton should not have a medical school, which would instantly increase its research footprint and allow it to attract more top life sciences students and scholars. Not sure why a school like Princeton needs a $17 billion endowment to teach a bunch of undergraduates. Likewise, Princeton could easily support a business school --as it has a strong finance, math and economics faculty anmd close access to both NYCity and Washington.</p>
Sorry this is very late, but I know that everyone was surprised at the lack of Princeton grads going to law and medical school. My father graduated from Princeton but did not enroll in law school for another 2 (I think?) years because he simply could not afford to do so. He worked as a paralegal at a large company, which partially funded his law school education. This could apply for many students who plan to become doctors of lawyers; Princeton’s expensive, and they just need to save up some cash for a few years before plunging into a LOT of debt.
@tortoise I think @Kalorama has put it best. Global recognition is mostly due to the graduate strength and research output of a university. The most renowned schools internationally are Harvard, MIT and Stanford (joined the former two in the last two decades or so) . Yale and Princeton follow a little bit behind.
The first three combine both incredible prestige in terms of their brands but also very strong graduate programs and are research powerhouses. Yale and Princeton are super prestigious but are relatively behind in terms of the super-strong grad school/research powerhouse component when compared to the former three. Also Yale and Princeton tend to be overshadowed by Harvard, while MIT, Stanford are strong in areas where Harvard is relatively lacking and have a completely distinct identity from Harvard, so they are able to escape Harvard’s shadow. Other schools like Penn, Columbia, Berkeley, have super-strong grad schools and are research powerhouses but lack the kind of prestige that the five previously mentioned schools have.
So bottom line Princeton is an truly amazing school with unique offerings but its global brand and recognition is not at the level of Harvard, MIT, Stanford. I daresay it slightly lags Yale’s brand too since Yale has been historically considered Harvard’s true rival and also it has itself a superstar grad school (law) and some other very good grad schools too.
Also @kwu fyi Penn has better employment outcomes than Princeton (and Yale for that matter). But that is because the school is more pre-professional than Yale and Princeton.
By 4 years.
Older threads should be used for research only, but should not be resurrected. Closing.