<p>underrated: UMass Amherst. Yes, it has a very visible party atmosphere, but there are plenty of chances for motivated students to excel and get a great education.</p>
<p>After reading through many pages of this thread...i think it is very interesting.</p>
<p>Every other post contradicts the one before them...its actually pretty funny because one person says X school is underrated and then the next post says it is overrated....kinda confusing</p>
<p>But as a generality it seems as though the most underrated schools are:
Georgetown, Rice, Northwestern, Chicago....all funny considering they are top 25 schools. I think the difference between being 20th in the country and 10th is miniscule. either school is a fine choice and it is better to look for fit at that point than how the school is perceived.<br>
It is kind of sickening to think how much these rankings effect decision. everyone will deny it but it is true...in the back of their minds they think abouut rank</p>
<p>Overrated: Ivies
Underrated: UNLV, U Miami, U Col. Boulder, Pace, FAU</p>
<p>Overrated: Boston College/University, NYU, Georgetown, and USC
Underrated: Armed Service Academies, Georgia Tech, UW-Madison (and other publics, but UW is most underrated)</p>
<p>What is Georgetown good at besides polisci? If being very good at one thing made you a great school, then Davis and Cal Poly SLO would be top 25. Schools with a strong regional bias tend to be overrated as well.</p>
<p>Overrated: Notre Dame,USC..etc(So many colleges with good sports teams that lack academics)
Underrated:University of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>BTW Cal-Tech is NOT underrated, They do a lot(run JPL) and produce Ph.Ds</p>
<p>most overrated- NYU </p>
<p>lol. so many ppl are agreeing on this one. but i dunno. NYU still sounds cooler than other top 30 schools...in fact, much cooler.</p>
<p>most underrated- rice, WashU</p>
<p>I think, it weren't for JPL, Caltech would be without NASA funding, it would be dead. =-p, Why do you guys get JPL??</p>
<p>berkeley underrated</p>
<p>NYU can be the best college in the world... if you have the $$$ to enjoy it.</p>
<p>Gotta agree with saxonthebeach6 here:</p>
<p>Underrated: Cornell, Service Academies (USNA, USMA, USAFA), Washington University at St. Louis, Georgia Tech, Boston University, Bucknell, Lehigh, UNLV</p>
<p>Overrated: Brown, Tulane, Florida, Michigan, Vanderbilt, CalTech, Cooper Union</p>
<p>Refer to Token Adult's list of noteable colleges:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/4808603-post61.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/4808603-post61.html</a></p>
<p>University of Oklahoma....no joke.</p>
<p>after mention of an mba program, i couldn't resist jumping on this thread. i wouldn't underestimate kellogg's finance program just because their hugely reputable in consulting/marketing. most specialty finance rankings place kellogg in the top10 and they have a very strong asset/investment management program. the only schools that place substantially more students into the most prestigious finance positions (i.e. venture capital) are harvard and stanford. anyways, i hope a lot of you apply to bschool later down the road. good luck!</p>
<p>Michigan is definitely <em>not</em> overrated since over 70% of its 200+ programs of study are ranked in the top 10. What other universities in the world can claim such a wide range of outstanding programs besides Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and perhaps Harvard? If anything, it is underrated because it is a big public school located in the Midwest (you know, fly-over country that many Coasters ignore).</p>
<p>overrated: Harvard (the toughest admissions in the U.S., but once you're in you're basically guaranteed a 3.4+ GPA.)</p>
<p>underrated: Georgia Tech (Incredibly difficult and good school, with all but 1 of its engineering programs rated in the top 10, but outside the south it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.)</p>
<p>Underrated: University of Texas at Austin. Engineering programs are top five/ten, structural engineering is damn near #1, pharmacy #2, petro eng. #1, business has several ranked top five, and other departments are pretty damn good. and it's such a wonderful college town and city. I think it isn't too well known in the Northeast among the general public, but neither is Stanford to a degree. So many of my professors are from MIT, Berkeley, and Harvard. Also, their international rankings are decent.</p>
<p>I think UT Austin should be considered like UC Berkeley and UMich, but there's that freaking top 10% rule and they don't take too many out of staters. But I think that'll disappear soon and the rep will rise.</p>
<p>Overrated: NYU, I like it because it's in the village and Stern/Tisch are great, but other than that, I dunno, especially for the price.
Georgia Tech: I don't know why it's got such a high national ranking, it's a great engineering school but that's it. And also, no offense, but I found Atlanta ugly. Nobody is in the city walking around anything, I I didn't find any hospitality they talk about. Actually people were rude.</p>
<p>But yeah, UT Austin is def underrated outside of Texas.</p>
<p>Overrated: HYPS - obviously they are great schools, but at the undergraduate level, the opportunities for and education provided to students is comparable to any other top 20 school.</p>
<p>Underrated: Rice, Emory, Vandy. I think the Southern schools are often overlooked on CC.</p>
<p>Overrated-NYU</p>
<p>Underrated- Purdue</p>
<p>Overrated : Emory, Vandy, Notre Dame, NYU, WUSTL</p>
<p>Underrated: Caltech(highest SATs), CMU (top 10 or higher for business, engineering, cs, drama, design, psych, creative writing, etc)</p>
<p>^
ooo nice info for CMU, didnt know that</p>
<p>I agree that UT Austin is completely underrated. I'm from TN and everytime I tell people where I go they say, "Austin....Tennessee???". Then when I explain it is UTexas, they think I am wasting my money and going to a glorified party school. UT is insanely hard to get into OOS, and for some of the higher ranked programs, its insanely hard to STAY in. </p>
<p>I gotta go with NYU for overrated too. Other than Stern and Tisch, the only reason people go there is to feel like cool hipsters and live in New York.</p>