Ivies aren't that special

<p>Yes ivies aren't that special. HYPSM are special.</p>

<p>I know everyone is having fun ivy bashing, but still all ivy league schools are fantastic. Its just not the only option. I mean i hope someday people look at the top non ivies with the same repect of the ivies.</p>

<p>I love comments like the following:</p>

<p>"i find the ivies a lot tougher to get into and better schools altogether than johns hopkins and duke."</p>

<p>These comments abound on this site, and I assume they are being written by high school and college students who may have spent, at most one night at the colleges about which they're pontificating. How in the world can people generalize like that. These schools are very similar. They have very similar faculties and very similar undergraduate student bodies. The elite graduate schools recruit from all of them because they recognize that notonly do 17 year olds choose colleges based on a variety of factors that have very little to do with talent, but it is very hard to truly differentiate between all of these 17 year olds with hyperacquisition of good grades and scores.</p>

<p>"I mean i hope someday people look at the top non ivies with the same repect of the ivies."</p>

<p>People do.</p>

<p>I hope more people do.</p>

<p>(I can't believe you dug this thread back out!)</p>

<p>All American colleges are great, even Ivies, compared to their counterparts of the world. Look at world-wide college rankings; we dominate the top-10, -50,-100,-500... So, let's just leave it at that ;).</p>

<p>Now, the primary and secondary system could use some work, but that's another topic.</p>

<p>I visited Harvard last weekend. I thought it was pretty special. :)</p>

<p>Yeah, I visited Harvard. I was excited until I figured out that the John Harvard foot that I was rubbing gets urinated on by drunk college students all the time.</p>

<p>I told my parents not to touch it. :)</p>

<p>
[quote]
our school got 16 kids into stanford this year, and only the top-ranked student (1 person!) got into brown....

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I smell a LIE!</p>

<p>Why would someone lie about that? They might have exagerated, but lying? I think not.</p>

<p>Still Stanford>Brown.</p>

<p>Stanford is NOT "better" than Brown... "better" is not an absolute, and is way too subjective... and for any particular individual student, Brown might be a much better fit.
Let's at least try to move beyond USNWR rankings as if they are absolutes.</p>

<p>but stanford is better than brown. ask most and they'll say '*** is brown?'</p>

<p>^on that, ask people where Stanford is, and they'll haven't a clue (unless they're a CCer). Hell, some kids here don't even know of Stanford. </p>

<p>Sidenote: This is not an insult on Stanford.</p>

<p>I think you're exaggerating. In a Gallup poll, Stanford was tied for second with Yale when people were asked what was the best college in the country was. </p>

<p>Stanford is more selective than Brown and it dominates the cross-admit percentages.</p>

<p>That still doesn't mean they know where it is ;).</p>

<p>Stanford is not "better" than Brown. Harvard is not "better" than Brown. Harvard is not "better" than Stanford.</p>

<p>Dang, for a site populated by supposed "intelligent" people, can we at least grow up?? I guess this is just another example of the fact that
intelligence DOES NOT equal wisdom.</p>

<p>Zephyr, you have never accepted Byerly's arguments that Harvard's clear cross-admit edge over all other schools, including Stanford, makes it the undisputed best school in the nation. Why would you expect others to buy it in regards to Stanford and Brown?</p>

<p>
[quote]
Why would someone lie about that? They might have exagerated, but lying? I think not.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Because humans are complex and some of them do things that don't make sense. It's like asking why would people spread computer virus? Because people can without worrying about being held accountable on the net. That's the thing about being totally anonymous and that's why people need to take others' "advice" here with caution. Anyway, I just checked that person's other messages and apparently he/she either got accepted to Brown or has Brown as his/her 1st choice.<br>
Check out the EA decisions threads for both schools:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=124952%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=124952&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=123269%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=123269&lt;/a>
In those small (but not too small) samples, Stanford's applicants are stronger on average and its admission looks more selective as its always been. I wonder what school BrunonianClass2002 attends that had "16 kids got into Stanford but only one got into Brown".</p>

<p>I know. It happens. It's ridiculous that some people haven't even heard of UPenn. </p>

<p>I think most know about Cornell...despite it has the highest adm rate as an ivy. It's really not the ivy title that seduced me to apply. I treat each school as an individual.</p>