<p>Well, at a school(public) nearby, 30+ ppl out of 400+ get into Stanford every year. I am not exaggerating. I don't even go to that high school.</p>
<p>That is simply false.</p>
<p>You don't have any idea, really, how many kids get into Stanford. That one public school would constitute over 1% of Stanford's total admitted class each year. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>You're right, ICargirl. </p>
<p>I am a hypocrite from time to time. </p>
<p>Stanford, as Sam Lee brought up, is more selective, however.</p>
<p>zephr, you have no idea how prestigious this school is as a public high school(it's 3 minutes from Stanford). 90% of the faculty are constituted by Stanford alumini. The students' parents, of course, are often alumini as well. </p>
<p>And really, I did my research on college. I think I know how many kids get into Stanford.</p>
<p>"Shark bite, I'm almost certain pretty much everyone knows Stanford is west coast..."</p>
<p>Not true; but wouldn't you like to think so?</p>
<p>Stanford is a great school but it is so transient socially. Not the community minded type of school at all so in that way its more city like in a beautiful setting. But a great school. Rice is great too. So is Hopkins and there are so many on par with Stanford. Harvey Mudd is great too. But I still would like to go to Princeton or Harvard or Yale I dont know why guess it is because of name brand!</p>
<p>I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that a big tipping point for what the best school is has to go with what you want to study. Poli Sci? Harvard. International Relations? Georgetown SFS. Psychology? Stanford. Mathematics? MIT. Chemistry? CalTech. Economics? University of Chicago. Pre-med stuff? JHU. A-I? MIT. Business? Penn- wharton. Underwater basketweaving? UCSD (actually offered there)..... amongst others... so really, what's the point of all this random ranking without the most important qualifier of all: What the heck do you wanna do there?</p>
<p>Example: A friend of mine got into Harvard SCEA, and he already sent his check in. He applied regular to other top-tier schools, including MIT. He is planning on studying theoretical math. Now, in his case, wouldn't most people agree that it would have behooved him to wait on the MIT decision?</p>
<p>"Example: A friend of mine got into Harvard SCEA, and he already sent his check in. He applied regular to other top-tier schools, including MIT. He is planning on studying theoretical math. Now, in his case, wouldn't most people agree that it would have behooved him to wait on the MIT decision?"</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Since Harvard and MIT have a great deal that allows students to cross-register, your friend can still take a significant number of classes at MIT if he so chooses. Ultimately, I think choosing between Harvard and MIT is less significant than, say, choosing between Stanford and MIT because of this cross-registration program; you can really get the best of both worlds if you're stuck with the former decision.</p>
<p>Such silly nonsense... first, MIT does NOT have better theoretical math than Harvard. Even if you were interested in theoretical math, you should go to the school that is the better fit, for some that might by Harvard, for others Stanford, for others MIT. The rankings are imperfect and inexact... and even if there existed "perfect" rankings, that still doesn't take into account individual and personal needs and desires.</p>
<p>It absolutely amazes me how rigid and hierarchical many of you think rankings are... as if they are exact or absolutes... kind of scary actually.
I pray to G-d you don't pick your friends or future mates based on such silly thinking...</p>
<p>For the record, despite cross-registration ability, almost NO ONE from either Harvard or MIT actually do it... the numbers are incredibly small.
You also have to contend with the fact that Harvard and MIT are on very different academic calendars.</p>
<p>Your example is math. The most prestigious college math contest is the Putnam. Caltech, which probably has the most mathematically-smart student body hasn't placed in the top 3 in over 20 years. In the past 8 years, Princeton and MIT have placed five times in the top 3 (Caltech has finished 4th or 5th 5 times). The most successful teams? Duke and Harvard, with 7 places in the top three over this 8 year span.</p>
<p>You might be asking, why is Duke there? This gives one perspective (and also provides one reason why Duke gets more highly rated than one might think it should).</p>
<p>Regardless, there is always going to be a top-ranked college for any academic discipline, but it is fatuous to believe that there is a substantive difference between the elite colleges that will be revealed by such rankings. There are simply too many variables for such a one-dimensional rating to be useful to the applicant. And what is great for one student won't be great for another. This linearity of thinking doesn't become folks who keep insisting that they are the brightest minds of their generation...</p>
<p>But I'd say the success of Putnam exam isn't necessarily an accurate measure of the math department. WashU was very successful in the 80s/early 90s in that exam and that has a lot to do with the coaching. I went to WashU for my freshman year and attended the kickoff meeting. The team was coached by this brilliant (and funny) physics professor. I was told he's one of the leaders in mathematical physics. It's not like every school would have a professor who can solve those problems (many professors can't solve them) AND is willing to volunteer his time to coach a team.</p>
<p>hideANDseek,
I don't deny some feeder schools may send lots of kids to Stanford. But what that person said was his/her school (apparently in IL) had bunch of kids applying to Stanford and Brown but only the valedictorian got into Brown (why didn't that valedictorian apply to Harvard? ;)) while 16 got into Stanford! That's quite surprising, don't you think? Keep in mind the results posted on EA threads for both schools suggest Stanford's admission is more selective. I don't see why that school could be so out of ordinary.</p>
<p>(why didn't that valedictorian apply to Harvard? )</p>
<p>Because maybe the valedictorian thought Brown was a better fit.
Again, when it comes to the top schools, these rankings are incredibly imperfect measures... and tend to overexaggerate small differences in quality.
Sorry, but I don't think one would necessarily get a better education at Stanford/Harvard versus Brown/Penn for example.</p>
<p>I must say again, it is sadly disappointing to see such supposedly brilliant students so ridiculously, unimaginatively devoted to a strict hierarchical view
of college education.</p>
<p>here's the correct putnam link. </p>
<p>I do realize that math contest results are not an accurate barometer of an entire department. They can be influenced by one really good teacher or the recruitment of a few teenage mathematicians. They do give some indication, however, as to where a really good mathematician can fluorish.</p>
<p>"Ivy League" means the top few schools in the country to most people - Stanford, Duke, Amherst, etc included.</p>
<p>Top students who are ambitious often prefer to go where they will be most likely to rub elbows with other ambitious top students.</p>
<p>In their case, this is the very "fit" they are seeking. Like it or not, higher education is quite rigidly hierarchical.</p>
<p>harvard_berkeley,</p>
<p>I wasn't meant to say every valedictorian should apply to Harvard instead of Brown. I am totally with you. Brown is a good school and I am sure there are many valedictorians applying there. But in most cases, a valedictorian from a prestigous school (that person said 16 kids got into Stanford) would apply to Harvard. I was just sacarsticly pointing out how that school was further different in that the valedictorian applied to Brown instead, as the claim goes. :) Just trying to point out one more reason why I was smelling a lie.</p>
<p>no real athletes would go to Harvard anyway, cept maybe for ice hockey. They don't really have any good teams. You really think the name HAAAAAARVARD is gonna take a top high school football prospect away from the fun in the sun, party all night, stay at the beach all day type of University like Miami? It won't.</p>
<p>'a valedictorian from a prestigous (sic) school (that person said 16 kids got into Stanford) would apply to Harvard.'</p>
<p>well, that person certainly might, but, if you look at admissions stats from some of the schools that don't begin with HYP, they turn down lots of valedictorians (e.g., Duke turned down over half of those who applied last year).</p>
<p>Is there a link showing how many valedictorians applied to Duke last year?</p>