<p>I am 32 years old and I know which Ivy Leagues were more prestigious than others, when I was growing up and going through high school. I would like to hear from young adults who are in high school, or just graduated from H.S. about which schools have more social prestige these days among the younger generations.
Where would Penn rank against Brown? Please exclude professional schools, such as Wharton. I am referring to just the school, itself. Would schools like John’s Hopkins and Georgetown be just as prestigious as the Ivies these days?</p>
<p>How can you refer to the school without Wharton? Because wharton IS A PART Of the undergrad..???</p>
<p>I understand Wharton is part of the undergrad program, but not everyone that attends Penn goes to Wharton. I am speaking of Penn without regards to its business school.</p>
<p>I feel, and I know that the general consensus is similar amongst other kids my age, that schools such as ... Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Williams, Chicago, and so forth are just as (if not more, depending on the ivy) prestigious. Some of the above mentioned schools are ranked higher than Cornell, Brown, and a few others in various rankings (don't know how you feel about the rankings, they're all very subjective).</p>
<p>so should we speak of brown w/o thinking of its seven year med program? What about penn engineering vs brown engineering? The individual programs make the school. </p>
<p>Check usnews for rankings
but it is usually HYP then rest of ivies</p>
<p>penn has really climbed the rankings dramatically in the last 5 years. it went from the bottom of the pack (in terms of ivy rankings) to 4th in U.S. news very quickly. people think this is mainly due to the liberal use of early decision--an extremely large fraction of the class gets in ED, and large new capital investments into wharton such as the new building and wharton west.</p>
<p>columbia has also climbed quite a bit, mainly due to a sustantially increased number of applicants (columbia started using NYC heavily in its PR) and the improvement of the morningside heights neighborhood.</p>
<p>meanwhile, brown has taken a bit of a plunge in the rankings, due to a slow growth of the endowment and faculty resources--a direct result of president gordon gee's early and unexpected departure.</p>
<p>the rest of the schools have more less held steady.
at the time being, columbia seems to be coming down slightly (slipping one spot for two consecutive years) while brown is starting to rise back up (jumping four spots last year)</p>
<p>At least based on what I have been hearing from others(both where they would go and where their parents would want them to go if they get into all the prestigious schools that they applied to..meaning..reputation wise..- excluding my own personal opinion), I would rank... </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard(I think more say Harvard than Princeton..), Princeton</li>
<li>Yale, Stanford</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Brown(generally known as the artsy Ivy), UPenn(a.k.a the cool Ivy-I guess people might have a slightly greater fondness for UPenn since it ranked #4 this year. )</li>
</ol>
<p>After that, I really think that it depends on the personal taste.</p>
<ol>
<li>Cornell(One person even commented that it shouldn't be considered as an Ivy cause it's not as selective as other Ivies...but I don't agree with that. Cornell still has the international reputation of excellence. )</li>
<li>Dartmouth(prolly..doesn't have the name recognition factor as other ivies do...)</li>
<li>UChicago is definitely recognized as a great place. But more so among adults, than students?</li>
<li>Georgetown seems to be popular.. </li>
<li>Tufts/ Johns Hopkins- Students around me don't really seem to appreciate them as much...except for pre-med students..</li>
<li>Williams, Swarthmore, and Amherst are recognized as good schools, but it seems like that people who can afford and have been admitted to an Ivy prefer to go to an Ivy over them..</li>
</ol>
<p>Schools such as Washington U, Rice, and Northwestern don't attract much attention, either..</p>
<p>Again, these are ONLY impressions that I get from a suburban private school in a mid-atlantic state and adults around me.. I really don't agree with some of the statements I heard and the rankings of "prestigious-ness" of colleges because I have my own idea of the ideal, perfect school for me just like everyone else...</p>
<p>Duke please? You completely forgot one of the best schools in the country.</p>
<p>If I had a kid I'd want him to go to harvard, penn, or stanford.</p>
<p>Oops..sorry..i totally forgot about duke..</p>
<p>Yea..Duke is a great school...I'd say it would be either above UChicago or about the same? Maybe around Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Duke certainly has the amazing sports program in addition to great academics, while Chicago is known for it's extremely intense student body ("Chicago, where fun goes to die"), liberal arts curriculum and renowned faculty.</p>
<p>-Z</p>
<p>Dartmouth is not below UPenn or Brown. It's the same or more up.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone that has responded to my post. This information has been very helpful. I would really be interested in getting a hold of the US NEWS and WORLD REPORT rankings from the last 5-10 years and see how big of change the list has gone through.
Is anyone aware of what some of the top rankings(top 10-15) were for the last several years (excluding 2005, of course).</p>
<p>Duke is definately ahead of Cornell and Dartmouth and probably Brown. They are ranked #5 in US News this year. The Penn student body is probably most similar to that of Duke as well.</p>
<p>If we replaced prestige with a more vulgar term like cash value (that is what you think you're buying by attending a prestigious school + bragging rights --which all prestige ratings are eally reffering to):</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li><p>Yale
2 1/2. Princeton</p></li>
<li><p>Stanford
3 1/2 MIT</p></li>
<li><p>Cal Tech</p></li>
<li><p>Columbia
5 3/16 Dartmouth
5 3/8 Brown</p></li>
<li><p>Penn (Wharton's bragging rights would be higher. Penn-Wharton=Wharton to grads)</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago
7 1/8 Duke</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell</p></li>
<li><p>Hopkins</p></li>
<li><p>Georgetown</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It would vary somewhat according to region, e.g. </p>
<p>Rice if the SW (top 10)</p>
<p>Berkeley if West-coast (top ten)</p>
<p>Michigan-Northwestern in the midwest (top ten)</p>
<p>Washington U if in St. Louis</p>
<p>etc.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some of the best teaching schools in the country would not purchase you the necessary bragging (bumper-sticker, water-cooler) rights:</p>
<ol>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Pomona
etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>Woodwork, I disagree with your rankings and especially the "prestige by region" whole thing.</p>
<p>yeah, your notion of prestige is really arbitrary. i dont know what school youre going to, or where you're from, but putting the schools in descending order like that doesnt reflect which are more "prestiguous" or give you more "bragging rights" than others. i think 99%+ of students from 2 and 1/2 to 10 on ur list would dispute your perceptions of their schools, when getting into any of them is pretty impressive.</p>
<p>interesting...bump</p>
<p>Hm...
I would place Duke right there with Penn (which should be a bit higher), woodwork.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I'm just biased..</p>
<p>My point is that prestige is really only a matter of bragging if you are talking about which school rather than which "fit," which "program" what "size" what "location."</p>
<p>What do you think prestige means?</p>
<p>It doesn't have any objective meaning other than how it would reflect on you publicly, not privately.</p>
<p>For that reason, my list of prestige schools has to do with what people think of people who attended those schools. Not how wonderful their individual education or experience was at that school.</p>
<p>I'm from Michigan, and believe me the perception of Michigan, prestige wise, in the state of Michigan is that it is certainly a top 10 school. Check the Michigan forum if you doubt it.</p>
<p>If you doubt Californians think Berkeley is a top 10 school, check Berkeley's forum.</p>
<p>StonePandas, I think you need to get out more often and hear what people who are not like you think.</p>
<p>I have no idea which school is better.
Do you? Really?</p>
<p>I only know how they are perceived, and then only how they are perceived in the places I've spent time, Midwest and East coast.</p>
<p>I'm no seer, I just have opinions?</p>
<p>How about you guys?</p>
<p>to a large degree, it is not much more than a beauty contest.</p>