Ivy League Stereotypes

<p>What are the stereotypes of each ivy league? Especially Cornell, I'm very interested.</p>

<p>No clue. Personally, I have never understood the fascination with Ivy league schools. </p>

<p>Whenever I see high school students obsessing over being accepted to one of these schools, I cringe. You can be successful in life and get into med school, investment banking or consulting if you do well at a state flagship school.</p>

<p>ok…</p>

<p>My question was how the student body of each school differs.</p>

<p>I’m sure it varies based on what part of the country you’re in. But here’s how it was at my old high school. Dont be dissuaded by stereotypes, they’re not accurate depictions generally.</p>

<p>Dartmouth: outdoorsy, rural, party and drinking a lot, conservative etc.</p>

<p>Princeton: preppy, snobbish, “elitist” </p>

<p>Brown: chill, free-thinkers, “hippy ivy,” very liberal</p>

<p>Harvard: “elitist,” rich, academic driven. </p>

<p>Cornell: “safety ivy” (if you cant get into any other one you get into Cornell). Good sciences, but high suicide rate</p>

<p>Columbia: a bunch of leaders who all dont like each other and are only out for themselves. In the city, lots of fun</p>

<p>Penn: grade inflation galore, excellent business school, terrible location. </p>

<p>Yale: not quite as snobby as Princeton but close second, artsy, big gay population</p>

<p>These are the stereotypes, not my personal beliefs.</p>

<p>Sounds about right. I’ve been hearing this around but I wasn’t so sure about it. Anyone else?</p>

<p>I would agree with the stereotypes that Lagging posted but would also warn you heavily not to rely on these stereotypes to make your application decisions. You need to evaluate schools on their own.</p>

<p>I also agree with what Lagging posted for stereotypes. Except for Cornell- great applied sciences and engineering, but terrible pre-med.</p>

<p>What are some more stereotypes about uPenn and Cornell? I haven’t heard about the grade inflation one. Curious about more opinions.</p>

<p>I can’t say about the whole Cornell but it’s generally known that Cornell engineering is very rigorous and competitive, and also the best among the Ivies. However, I’m not sure if Cornell engineering is called rigorous because most Cornell students are less competitive than the higher-tier Ivies. (All the good engineering students are probably in MIT, Caltech or Stanford)</p>

<p>UPenn is known as the party ivy, afaik.</p>

<p>UPenn: Cut throat business school, excellent social scene (“Social Ivy”).
According to a friend that goes there, some stereotypes she’s heard about the school are that most people that go there are gay and/or Jewish. So much so that she’s heard it referred to as University of Pennsylgaynia or Jew Penn. </p>

<p>Cornell: You’ll probably kill yourself before graduation due to the insanely hard engineering program and the fact that it’s in f$#@ing Ithaca.</p>

<p>Most of the stereotypes I’ve listed are the ones I’ve heard too. Also, UPenn has a reputation as a party school. Cornell does have a suicide reputation, but it’s a total lie. People who tell you it has unusually high suicide rates aren’t actually correct- they’re not much different from the national average at colleges. It just has that reputation because it has a bunch of gorges which I guess people who do commit suicide jump into. Flashy gorge-jumping suicides just get more media attention I guess. In general all the Ivy Leagues have reputations for snobbery (I have a bunch of Ivy friends and think this is a lie. You can find pretentious people anywhere, but they’re the exception, not the norm… even at Harvard.)</p>

<p>Penn has a little of the safety ivy reputation as well, and that Wharton students are prouder of the Wharton brand than the penn brand. Leads to a bit of divisiveness.</p>

<p><a href=“All%20the%20good%20engineering%20students%20are%20probably%20in%20MIT,%20Caltech%20or%20Stanford”>quote</a>

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<p>Nonsense. </p>

<p>There are hundreds of thousands of practicing engineers in this country who were “good engineering students” and who did not give to MIT, Stanford, or Caltech.</p>

<p>All of these must be put into context that they are all Ivies, so the standard is really high at all of them (Even Cornell). Only MIT and Stanford can really compare. </p>

<p>Brown: liberal, freethinking, really chill, open curriculum, not as well funded
more informal: stoner school, really easy, not really famous for anything other than Emma Watson, Providence isn’t so nice</p>

<p>Columbia: independent, edgy students, surrounded by new york, heavy core curriculum emphasizing the classics, international, good grad schools, hipster
informal: yale’s waiting list, barnard connection, random school of general studies</p>

<p>Cornell: big, tough to get through - “easier” to get in, can study anything, traditionally the “working man’s ivy”, strong hotel and engineering schools
informal: the ivy safety school, suicide alley, Ithaca is so random</p>

<p>Dartmouth: really small and really isolated, crazy fratty (in the animal house sense), emphasis on undergraduates (or an excuse because their grad schools are pretty bad)</p>

<p>Harvard: traditional, reputation crazy, very academic (but those with connections get z-listed), the most renown, silly finals clubs, great at almost everything
more informal: egotistical, easy to get in for the well-connected - incredibly hard for everyone else.</p>

<p>Penn: “jewniversity of pennsylgaysia”, betchy (scene-y), classy as well as fratty, diverse, international, famous med and business schools, pre-professional
more informal: party school (see I’m Schmacked), random engineering and nursing schools, confused with state school</p>

<p>Princeton: rich, elitist, pretentious, eating-clubs, undergrad focused, suburban, beautiful architecture
more informal: always complains about grade deflation to address rampant inflation of past years, insecurity with Harvard and Yale</p>

<p>Yale: artsy, the most gay ivy, really academic, secret societies, famous law school, not the best college town, beautiful architecture, traditional
more informal: harvard’s waiting list, really sketchy borderline hazardous New Haven, bad med and business schools.</p>

<p>All are Division 1 schools, so they recruit all athletes (lots of not-so-smart people) - and all kind of are about as equally athletic.</p>

<p>Never heard about grade inflation at Penn, perhaps pre-professional curves? I remember admissions saying that the average GPA (similar across schools) was about 3.3</p>

<p>Cornell: Where the University of Phoenix rejects go.</p>

<p>In a few words</p>

<p>Harvard: “We’re the best!”
Yale: “We are better than Harvard!”
Pton: “We’re a class above Harvard and Yale”
Penn: “At least we’re not Penn State”
Cornell: “We are not a state school either”
Columbia: “Don’t forget about us.”</p>

<p>Meanwhile Dart students are partying too hard to care, and Brown students are too quirky to care.</p>

<p>This reminds me of trying to categorize people based on their “sun signs.”</p>

<p>I formed my own prejudicial views the old fashioned way: from considering the lyrics to fraternity drinking songs:</p>

<p>"Harvard’s run by Vassar, Vassar’s run by Yale.
Yale’s run by Wellesley, Wellesley’s run by tail.
Princeton’s for the pretty boys and drunkards go to Penn,
But far above Cayuga’s a race of hairy men.</p>

<p>"Oh we are the race of hairy chested men, hairy chested men, hairy chested men.
Oh we are the race of hairy chested men, and we are from Cornell.
We are from Cornell, we are from Cornell (Cornell!)
Oh we are the race of hairy chested men and we are from Cornell.</p>

<p>"Don’t send my son to Harvard, the dying mother said.
Don’t send my son to Yale, I’d rather see him dead.
Send him off to Darmouth, or better yet, Cornell.
And as for Pennsylvan-i-a, I’ll see him first in hell!</p>

<p>“To hell, to hell with Pennsylvania,
To hell, to hell with Pennsylvania.
To hell, to hell with Pennsylvania.
To hell with U of P; P-U!”</p>

<p>I couldn’t resist replying to this! I go to school right outside of Philadelphia - very competitive - and it is a constant game to see who will get into what school. </p>

<p>Cornell - the Ivy League for kids who can’t get in to any other Ivy Leagues. Great engineering, but it’s in Ithaca, which is like, a major downside. </p>

<p>Dartmouth - rowdy frat boys, conservative, in the middle of nowhere</p>

<p>Harvard - super nerds, predominantly Asians, foreigners, prodigies</p>

<p>Brown - hipster liberal arts students, smoking pot and studying something like ‘Classical Mythology’</p>

<p>Princeton - preppy rich kids, all legacies, tries to seem open but extremely hard to get in to.</p>

<p>Columbia - dressed in black, smoking in shady coffee shops, attending Shakespeare in the Park, etc. </p>

<p>UPenn - killer business school, unfortunately in Philadelphia haha, another ‘easy’ Ivy</p>

<p>Yale - snotty ■■■■■■■■, apparently. In New Haven, which is worse than Ithaca and Philadelphia combined</p>

<p>People always say Cornell is notorious for suicides. However, that is not true in the slightest and it is very frustrating for me to keep reading it. I volunteer for Ithaca’s suicide prevention and crisis services and I can tell you that Cornell is one of the safest places to go. The rates are no higher than anywhere else (and may even be lower). Suicide rates only seem higher because the few suicides here are often done in very dramatic ways, such as jumping off gorges and bridges, and are therefore made more public. Many of these suicides are not even Cornell students but rather ithaca residents. In recent years, nets have been installed under the bridges and the Crisisline number is posted around sites where people have died by suicide in the past. So please pay no heed to that stereotype as it is not accurate. </p>