most overrated/underrated college?

College Search & Selection
201

<p>Overated- Duke, Penn (not Wharton, and only slightly), NYU
Underrated- Oberlin, Northwestern, Brown</p>

<p>I would also contend that Wash U is not overrated, especially for the sciences (especially for biology or anything medicine-related). The reason most people consider them overrated is because they're new money, aka, they're a solid institution trying to improve itself, trying to build better infrastructure and attracted more talented students and faculty. It's trying to build itself up (and doing a pretty good job of it). I'd personally rather go to an upstart like Wash U that is trying to grow and find it's niche, than some old, stagnant institution that thinks it's too elite to try to expand itself.</p>

202

<p>US Senator from Virginia-Law Grad
Secretary of Defense-SFS Grad</p>

203

<p>overrated: Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, </p>

<p>Underrated: UC Berkeley, U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, U of Virginia, USC</p>

<p>In the international scene: Princeton is underrated while NYU is overrated.</p>

204

<p>Where do you get this idea that NYU is overrated? Based on what? NYU is a very strong research university across the board, far stronger than you apparently think. Do not take my word for it. In all rankings of world universities which are based on the research reputation and quality of the universities and their faculty, NYU appears much higher on the lists than in the apples-and-oranges rankings, such as in the USNWR. </p>

<p>Thus, in the 2006 Academic Ranking of World Universities,
<a href="http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2006/ARWU2006_TopAmer.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2006/ARWU2006_TopAmer.htm&lt;/a> , NYU is 21st in the US and 29th in the world.</p>

<p>On the 2006 Newsweek list of the Top 100 Global Universities,
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/site/newsweek/&lt;/a> ,
NYU is ranked 25th in the US and 39th in the world.</p>

<p>In both independent rankings based on the research strengths, NYU comes well ahead of many universities which rank higher on the (rather meaningless) USNWR list, such as Darthmouth, Brown, Vanderbilt, CMU, Notre Dame, U of Virginia, Georgetown, Tufts, Wake Forest, College of William and Mary, Brandeis, Lehigh, Boston College, etc. NYU is simply a stronger, better research university than all these. </p>

<p>The other day the new and highly respected Philosophical Gourmet Report for 2006-08,
<a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp&lt;/a> , ranked (again) NYU Philosophy Department as the very best in the US, and in the world. And there are a number of other very highly ranked departments and schools (math, economics, politics, English, art history, etc., etc., Tisch School or the Arts, Law, Business, etc.).</p>

<p>In a nutshell, by any objective measure, NYU is among 20-25 top research universities in the US.</p>

<p>If anything, NYU underrated, way underrated. If you have good arguments to the contrary, please share them with us.</p>

205

<p>Overrated: WUSTL
Underrated: GIT</p>

206

<p>Overrated: Penn (esp. the Liberal Arts school), NYU, .... and anyone who thinks Northeastern is a great schools is overrating it</p>

<p>Underrated: Wesleyan, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, WUSTL</p>

207

<p>Overrated: BC
Under:Rochester, NY</p>

208

<p>Over: George Washington
Under: American</p>

209

<p>"atnyu" You are super!</p>

210

<p>Overrated-Emory, Penn, NYU, BC.</p>

211

<p>atnyu,</p>

<p>I'm really sorry but I didn't see it that way. This is not, however, to say that I am correct. I'm just saying that that's just how I see it. Except for its MBA and Law schools, the rest of the programs are, in my opinion, at par with Harvard, UC Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, Caltech and Yale.</p>

212

<p>
[quote]
overrated: this thread
underrated: search button

[/quote]
</p>

<p>So true. (10 char)</p>

213

<p>Overrated: Northwestern, WUSTL, Rice
Underrated: JHU, UChicago, most LACs, most top publics</p>

214

<p>The undergrad student body quality of NYU is much lower than Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Tufts, Georgetown. That ranking of research universities is more based on graduate programs; many of which Dartmouth, Brown, Tufts don't even have programs in. Not to mention that NYU is a much less community feel, school spirit experience compared to these other schools. One reason NYU does better on international surveys is just because foreignors have heard of New York city and not Hanover, NH; Providence, RI; Durham, NC; Somerville, MA.</p>

215

<p>gellino is right.</p>

<p>Overrated: NYU, Cornell, Upenn, Wash U, Berkeley
Underrated: UVA, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, Yale</p>

216

<p>Gellino,</p>

<p>The ranking cited in my post of Nov. 10 do not take into account the location of the universities. If you would take the time to read about the criteria used in these rankings, you would see that these are quantitative measures of the research quality and reputation of the faculty: number of research publications in the best journals, amount of funding for science, membership in the editorial boards of top science journals, number of awards (Nobel, Fields, various fellowships, etc.), number of members of the National Academy of Sciences and similar prestigious societies in the US and abroad, etc. These criteria are much better defined and objective than those used by USNWR. You may choose to dismiss them, but facts remain facts. NYU on the whole does have much better, and much better known, faculty than Dartmouth, Tufts, Notre Dame, Georgetown, etc., etc. And the quality of the faculty, together with that of the students, determines how good a university really is. Not the mythical school spirit and other elusive quantities.</p>

<p>As for the NYU students, they are very, very good, and have opportunities for research, internships, and networking (all essential for their future) that students in most other institutions can only dream about.</p>

<p>And finally, yes, on top of all of the above, NYU does have the advantage of being in the city that everyone in the world knows about (and most would love to live in it, for a few years or longer). What's wrong with that? It surely beats being located in some small town that nobody has heard of, in the US let alone abroad, and couldn't care less about. NYU has excellent name recognition and reputation world wide; just look up the statistics on the number of foreign students attending it. You would agree that this cannot hurt one's career prospects.</p>

217

<p>HopeIgetin is so right about Yale and CalTech being underrated. When people talk about the top universities in the country, you never hear them mentioned. Why?</p>

218

<p>Atnyu, unlike the rest of the world in the US UNDERGRAD and overall UNIVERSITIES are very different things! Some of the best undergrad schools (Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, Brown, Swarthmore, Princeton) have top 10 UNDERGRAD schools but unranked or non-existant grad schools. These schools have tremendous graduate school placement and the best recruiting. So even though someone in Mumbai might not have heard of them, in the US and at US firms they are solid gold. NYU doesn't have close to the alumni network, graduate placement, or recruiting as any of these schools.</p>

219

<p>You say NYU has NYU has "much" better faculty than Dartmouth, Tufts, Georgetown, etc. You are incorrect. While there may be some exceptions, most professors would rather teach the students at the aforementioned schools because they are, statistically, more elite. Higher SAT scores, GPAs, ECs, and the like.</p>

<p>I will agree that the Tisch School of the Arts has better film, acting profs than those schools, because that is the only really respected school at NYU. The others are really overrated. You may not see that only because you're a student there.</p>

220

<p>atnyu, your last paragraph is completely subjective. It's meaningless if someone has heard of the town your college is in. Having gone to school in Hanover, NH and then lived in NYC, I certainly would not want to go to NYU over Dartmouth. I could understand why someone would maybe want an urban experience rather than a rural one, but your reason is without basis. Being in a city is not necessarily an advantage at all.</p>

<p>"It surely beats being located in some small town that nobody has heard of, in the US let alone abroad, and couldn't care less about." - This sentence is so ridiculous that it doesn't merit wasting time refuting it.</p>

<p>"As for the NYU students, they are very, very good, and have opportunities for research, internships, and networking (all essential for their future) that students in most other institutions can only dream about." This may be true, but not for the five schools mentioned above.</p>