<p>Or is it really established that these universities are the best of the best in America? For undergrads?
Why don't people use the USNEWS rankings? My counselor says this ranking is the best and most accurate of all rankings.
So shouldn't Columbia, Caltech, Dartmouth, and Duke and UChicago be regarded along with HYPSM? Those universities are top 10...at least Columbia, UPenn and Caltech are each above...Stanford and MIT.</p>
<p>Of course it’s subjective. And, although couched in “science”, you will find many cogent arguments that the USN&WR rankings are flawed. </p>
<p>Many people regard the universities you list as absolutely on a par with HYPSM. </p>
<p>It is all a matter of opinion. Sells a lot of magazines, too :).</p>
<p>HYPSM is all about prestige, not about adhering to the rankings. These schools have extremely good and well-established reputations, unmatched by any other American universities. Plus, what would be the acronym? HPYCSPCMDDC?</p>
<p>Well I see that…but isn’t Columbia, Brown, JHU, Duke, UPenn prestigious in itself? I know so many people around my area who value these colleges and get taken aback when you tell them you’re from one of these. Of course Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and Stanford would also shock them and make them go “wow” but why an exclusive acronym?</p>
<p>Isn’t that a bit too…elitist? Why is such elitism being promoted among these boards?</p>
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<p>No one said they aren’t, but at a certain point, if you include all these schools, it becomes a very cumbersome acronym. HYPSM is often used, but so are other acronyms.</p>
<p>And no, I don’t believe it is elitist because few people who use the HYPSM acronym would argue that those are the only prestigious schools, especially since “prestige” is so subjective in the first place. In other words, the acronym is exclusive, because it simply can’t be all-inclusive to easily meet everybody’s standards.</p>
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<p>Because “HYPSMCBJDUP” is a little unwieldy. </p>
<p>Besides, the more letters (schools) you add to the acronym the more arguments you start about who deserves to be included on the list or which schools the many letters stand for in the first place. Right away it’s easy to envision someone saying “Hey, wait a minute. Dartmouth (or Caltech, or Cornell, or Berkeley, or what have you) is just as good as Duke. Why aren’t they in the acronym?” Others would simply assert that the D stands for Dartmouth in the first place and Duke isn’t even on the list. </p>
<p>Expanding the acronym is not worth the hassle.</p>
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<p>I don’t know that elitism is being “promoted” here any more than it is anywhere else in our highly status-conscious society. The discussion on these boards simply reflects the elitism that our culture is already drenched in.</p>