<p>Over-rated: Harvard, Stanford, Yale</p>
<p>Under-rated: UC San Diego, UC Irvine (a lot of the lesser known UCs are some of the top research schools in the world, but receive little recognition)</p>
<p>People in this forum seem routinely to think of high-powered research schools as "underrated" and smaller schools as "overrated." I guess if you're... um, the NIH, or something, this makes sense.</p>
<p>But the VAST majority of kids here won't be affected in the least by what research their school does. So why on earth should they care? Faculty attention matters a lot; administrative support matters a lot; having smart classmates matters a lot.</p>
<p>atnyu:</p>
<p>
[quote]
So, you do think NYU is one of the best schools in the nation, but you also think its reputation is undeserved. Isn't this contradictory? Am I missing something?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What's so difficult to understand? In comparison to the 4200+ colleges in the US, NYU is easily one of the best. But, given its "desirability," it's not nearly as good; it doesn't live up to it, in my opinion. Thus, its reputation is undeserved.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Finally, you do not back up your opinion about the undeserved reputation of NYU with any arguments - must be just a gut feeling.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What was my entire post about? See:</p>
<p>Argument #1:</p>
<p>
[quote]
For one, financial aid is crappy; NYU covers on average 65% or so of a student's need, and consequently, NYU students on average graduate with some of the highest debt -- about $34,000 (way above the national average).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Argument #2:</p>
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It's a huge school -- over 40,000 students, and only about a $2 billion endowment; it clearly can't support all its students (which probably explains its financial aid stats).
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</p>
<p>Argument #3:</p>
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Its graduation rate is below many of the top publics.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Argument #4:</p>
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Only 3/4 of its faculty are full time, so the faculty numbers reported (while seemingly large) don't have as much of an impact. As a result, its classes are large.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Conclusion:</p>
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NYU has some great programs, and no doubt it's one of the best schools in the nation. But I would expect more from such a highly "desired" private school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What more do you need?</p>
<p>
[quote]
In contrast, in my earlier post #725 I do provide some facts about the academic/research reputation of NYU.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You pointed out program rankings, but you failed to point out many of the logistical problems -- e.g. financial aid, size, graduation rate, and class sizes, problems which affect students in every department, no matter the ranking.</p>
<p>Overrated: Northwestern's graduate business school (I worked with one NU grad who could not write a financial proforma and another who could not read an income statement or balance sheet.)</p>
<p>Overrated: Harvard's undergraduate science programs (A friend of mine from undergrad did a semester exchange program at Harvard in Chemistry and not one Junior level class there was taught by a full professor. We had full professors teaching all our courses from Freshman year on at Carnegie Mellon.)</p>
<p>Underrated: DePaul University (My wife's company has several DePaul grads and they have all the knowledge of a NU alum without the attitude.)</p>
<p>Underrated: University of Illinois graduate business school</p>
<p>
[quote]
Overrated: Northwestern's graduate business school (I worked with one NU grad who could not write a financial proforma and another who could not read an income statement or balance sheet.)
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</p>
<p>Well...Kellogg is known more for marketing...</p>
<p>Probably a U of M alumnus.</p>
<p>i agree with northwestern being underrated</p>
<p>Overrated- NYU
Underrated- UChicago</p>
<p>Underrated - U California San Diego
Overrated - Duke U</p>
<p>I would contend that Harvard is overrated. As far as I can tell, it is full of conceited and self absorbed people. That's just my opinion. I could be wrong. To each their own.</p>
<p>
[quote]
conceited and self absorbed people
[/quote]
i.e. it's what you'd expect from a population of very accomplished 18 year olds?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Overrated: Northwestern's graduate business school (I worked with one NU grad who could not write a financial proforma and another who could not read an income statement or balance sheet.)
[/quote]
Right. Let's generalize an entire school because of two grads who couldn't do (or more likely remember) basic finance/accounting. That's like pegging Wharton or Chicago grads as "overrated" because a few couldn't tell me what STP and the 4 P's mean... a little over the top, no?</p>
<p>As an aside, Kellogg does need to strengthen the finance portion of its core curriculum.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Overrated: Harvard's undergraduate science programs (A friend of mine from undergrad did a semester exchange program at Harvard in Chemistry and not one Junior level class there was taught by a full professor. We had full professors teaching all our courses from Freshman year on at Carnegie Mellon.)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think I can agree that Harvard's undergrad science program (or heck, arguably the entire Harvard undergrad program) is overrated.</p>
<p>But not necessarily because classes are not taught by full profs. The truth is, many full profs at any school, including Harvard, are just not good teachers. Sure, they're brilliant researchers, but they're not necessarily good teachers, especially teachers of undergrads. Teaching and research are 2 entirely different skills. </p>
<p>As a case in point, I had been taught - and taught badly - by many full profs in my day. For example, I distinctly remember taking math classes with full profs and wishing that those classes were instead being taught by my old high school teacher. Sure, my old HS math teacher wasn't a brilliant researcher, heck I don't think he had ever performed any math research in his life. But at least he knew how to teach math in a way that made it fun to learn and that made you want to learn the material. I certainly can't say the same for those full math profs I had. </p>
<p>Furthermore, many full profs have the unique problem that they just don't care anymore. Once they've gotten tenure, many full profs just don't want to do anything that they don't want to do. Assistant and untenured associate profs still have to care a bit about their teaching evals because they're still fighting for tenure and so every little thing counts when it comes to their tenure review. {Granted, many assistant/assoc profs don't care very much about teaching either, but at least they have to care a little bit.} But full profs don't have to care at all. Some of the absolute worse classes of my life have been taken with full profs. One of them literally did nothing more than read the textbook aloud in lecture, clearly demonstrating that he was putting in the absolute minimal level of effort in his teaching.</p>
<p>overrated: ivy league schools (they are good but not as good as different from other schools as their hype)
underrated: Ohio State, Purdue, CalTech</p>
<p>Most overrated: NYU</p>
<p>Most Underrated: Rice, CIT, Binghamton</p>
<p>Overrated: WUSTL, Dartmouth, Brown, NYU</p>
<p>Btw, Have any of you guys taken classes at Harvard? I have....they were excellent. I really don't know where you guys are talking about.</p>
<p>Have you taken classes at WUSTL, Dartmouth, Brown, and NYU?</p>
<p>If not then S T F U :-D</p>
<p>Most overrated: NYU</p>
<p>Most underrated: SUNY Geneseo</p>
<p>Most overrated: UC Berkeley/University of Michigan
Most underrated: Georgetown/Northwestern/Rice</p>
<p>Most underrated: Schools outside of the top 100 on USNWR</p>