<p>I really think it depends on what you value, and respect in education.</p>
<p>It makes perfect sense to rank MIT/Caltech at the top, because face it, those schools are LEGIT and hardcore.</p>
<p>But, often times, people see the value of a well-rounded, non-preprofessional, non-vocational undergraduate education (which I believe is especially valuable in these times), and hence, more “rounded” schools, such as HYP, rank higher than MIT/Caltech. </p>
<p>If rankings only took into consideration strength in the maths/sciences, MIT/Caltech would wipe out everyone else for sure. Schools like that DO serve a distinct purpose and you WILL wow someone if they knew that you graduated from MIT (impression: super genius, calculator brain, who is like a crazy scientist). People have more “respect” for graduates from these technical schools because the education is hands on, it’s real, it’s problem solving, and involves playing with the physical world.</p>
<p>Everything outside of the maths/sciences tends to be more BS-ey, but since the majority of humans can’t comprehend technical matters, the lawyers, politicians, etcs tend to have more “clout” in the world. That is why HYP are prestigious.</p>
<p>It’s also just a school of finance. Why single that out? I mean, suppose that you already are independently wealthy. Stinking rich. Imagine that your family name is so illustrious that YOU are the person everyone is eager to impress. Under those conditions, would you still even want your children to go to college? I would. I’d want them to make their own choices, but my own preference would not be to send them to Wharton to learn how to count the family money. We’d have people for that.</p>
<p>I’d be happy if my kid wanted to take up, say, ornithology. For that, the outstanding school is Cornell. Egyptology? Chicago. Or how about … Tibetan Studies? I believe the place for that would be Columbia.</p>
LOL! Chicago blows Brown’s program out of the water in faculty, resources, and offerings. Up until about two years ago, Brown’s program consisted of a single professor, and even today it’s not that impressive. I counted once, and 75% of Egyptologists in the US got their PhDs at Chicago. </p>
<p>It’s like saying Eckerd is better at marine science than MIT-WHOI or UCSD-Scripps. There’s just no comparison.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by classy, but Yale and Chicago and UCL have far and away the best and most recognized Egyptology departments in the whole world. I speak as someone who has taken Egyptology at Chicago. (And if I, going to Harvard, have something good to say about Yale, that part must be true! Lol…jk It’s a cool place one of the best schools in the country etc etc)</p>
<p>Edit: Ninja’d by warblers. Everything they said is true. Brown + Egyptology = …uh what?</p>
<p>Anyway… The gap between the seniors at my school going to HYPSM (less so Yale–admission to Yale from my school is a bit weirder than admission to the rest of 'em) and the ones listed in the title of this thread is readily apparent. However, it is not a gap of intelligence, or drive. It’s that the ones going to HYPSM managed to achieve just a little bit more extracurricularly. I find it unlikely that the gap will be significant by the time we’re all seniors in college, though, because of the nature of how college is (and especially Ivies/Duke/whatever are.)</p>
<p>Summary: Right now? There’s a visible difference. It’s a significant difference in terms of an insignificant metric. In four years? Doubt it will be significant.</p>
<p>Manute Bol (7’7") briefly played with Ralph Samson (7’4") on the Golden State Warriors. Bol’s comment on Samson to a reporter: “Wow, that guy is really tall.”</p>
<p>I somehow doubt Miles Davis spent all his time wondering whether he was a better trumpeter than Dizzy Gillespie. </p>
<p>This endless speculation about which school confers slightly more status on its students and alumni is wearying, and laughably at odds with the liberal arts ideal of “the examined life.” It makes about as much sense as a competition to be declared “most humble disciple.”</p>
<p>^^ Oh pipe down, Socrates. We have serious claims to settle here. Like this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Now Honesto, what could you possibly see as arrogant in this statement from the Chicago Egyptology site? They graciously acknowledge *some manner of program * at 10 other universities!</p>
<p>Harvard works at being the most selective. Everyone and their brother gets an application in the mail to apply. People don’t applaud them for this, they see what’s going on.</p>
<p>You people are arguing Brown vs. Chicago?
Well, they’re both great schools, Brown is ivy league, Chicago is not. But some of Chicago’s programs may be better.</p>
<p>I have no deep insights about departmental strengths or HYPSM v. CCCCPDDMXQwhatever; I just wanted to say that in the last page and a half of this thread, I see everything good and true and beautiful about the world.</p>
<p>I’m curious how you’d rank them. This is mine–based on name-recognition around my community (does NOT indicate which is academically superior or anything like that):</p>
<ol>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Caltech (gets confused with Cal Poly, but for those who DO know it, they know its awesome!)</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>UChicago</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Rice</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li> Coach K</li>
<li>John Thompson, Patrick Ewing and the former Prez (who feels our pain)</li>
<li> Cornell</li>
<li>Wharton (or it is JoePa? in the Big10/11/12?)</li>
<li>PLME</li>
<li>The school in Missouri, which is great in journalism</li>
<li>Dartmouth and Rice: huh?</li>
</ol>
<p>The average Joe hasn’t heard of any of the Ivies besides HYP and Columbia(New York City fame). He most likely has heard of Duke(basketball+med school) and Georgetown(basketball+law school/politics). That’s about it folks.</p>
<p>NYU is as annoying of a school to Columbia as UNC is to Duke. Just putting it out there. Alwayss comparing, hating and stealing Columbia and Duke’s glory =P</p>
<p>Yes, he has heard of them in the same way he has heard of Notre Dame or Ohio State. He knows nothing about Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. If by some chance he has heard of Columbia, he has no idea it has a killer Tibetan program. He has no idea Brown is becoming a classy place to study Egyptology or that Cornell has a fine ornithology lab. Which are the kinds of things that should matter for someone like haavain if he really wants exposure to everything good and true and beautiful about the world. Which is why Joe’s opinion does not matter, and why the alleged gap we’re discussing does not matter.</p>