I’m suspicious of any school with an overwhelmingly dominant viewpoint such as Oberlin or Oral Roberts and consider such schools to be overrated, particularly in discussion heavy majors. If a popular viewpoint which isn’t objectively nonsense (e.g. denial of climate change) cannot be expressed in or out of the classroom, how much are students challenging their own beliefs?
@LBad96, it is somewhat entertaining that you claim that NJ students aren’t irrationally down on Rutgers, then proceed on an irrational rant against Rutgers as “beneath you”. We see it all the time out here – students who want OUT of NJ, and think Rutgers is beneath them. Familiarity has bred contempt, but I am not convinced it is deserved.
LBad: Yes, but when did West Virginia become part of the “Deep South”?
I, for one, believe Rutgers is a good school. It is the flagship of New Jersey and the cash influx from joining the B1G – and the resulting academic expectations placed upon it - mean that Rutgers should be improving.
@intparent I don’t understand why it’s irrational? It’s not like I attend a super-expensive private. If you saw my story last year, then you would KNOW how desperately I wanted out. It’s not the students’ fault that they want to go out and explore other states. They don’t like Rutgers’ campus (I am not a fan of their campus), they don’t like taking the bus to class, they don’t want to stay in NJ. Why is everyone SO defensive of Rutgers?
@prezbucky just because it’s a flagship doesn’t mean it’s good. The fact that it’s NJ’s flagship doesn’t say much.
@uclaparent9, yep, that’s why I don’t put much stock in to admit rates.
A mere decade ago (and for many decades before that), UChicago had an admit rate around 40% or higher, yet it has always had alumni accomplishment metrics that were equivalent to the Ivies and among the best in the country. If anything, that makes a school even more impressive.
Not to beat a dead horse with NYU, but I think the main reason that it’s viewed as overrated is because when compared with its graduate programs, scholars program, business school, and fine arts programs, everything else just seems kind of underwhelming. I don’t think NYU is a bad school by any means, but I think a lot of people are off-put by the relatively terrible financial aid and scholarship opportunities, middling programs outside of a few specific fields, and poor opportunities for engagement of the entire student body.
I have a few friends who go to NYU and I don’t think it’s a bad school. I actually helped edit one of my friends’ essays for a few of his classes and it seemed like he was taking some really thought provoking classes, even as a first-year student. But he complained that the administration was spending too much money on things that didn’t really benefit the students (high administrative salaries, real estate, expanding the university globally, etc.) and they rode too much on the renown of their graduate programs, business school and fine arts programs. NYU is by no means “easy” to get into, but it’s not a highly selective university like one might expect based on the prestige of Stern and Tisch.
As for underrated schools, I’d say that there are a few highly specialized institutions (Rose-Hulman, Olin, Sophie Davis, Babson, etc.) that are highly respected by people who are familiar with them, but overall don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Rutgers is a gem. Unfortunately NJ’s affluent families and fairly good public high schools produce many overachieving students who want to go out of state or attend Princeton. There’s nothing wrong with that; but those of us who are educational professionals know that there are many good reasons for attending Rutgers. For example, the Rutgers Philosophy Department is one of the top departments in the world, and while I am not a fan of US News rankings, those rankings indicate that by peer assessment Rutgers departments rank as follows: English (17), History (22), Fine Arts(20), Pharmacy (30), Social Work (22), Library Science (6), and Criminology (7). These are grad rankings, but the same faculty teach undergrads. The science and engineering programs are also widely respected.
These discissions get sloppy becasuse some people mean overrated while others mean overranked. I have no idea what I mean.
Overrated:
Stanford:.Tiger Woods, John McEnroe , Chelsea Clinton. I just can’t take this place seriously.
NYU: Zach , Cody, Ashley, Mary-Kate , no campus, bad financial aid, negligible sports, rats everywhere…AND many people’s dream school? Wha??
Duke: Down the Shore meets Down South, and the result is Downright Obnoxious.
Any school where more than a few people per decade make up their own major. Look, here’s a catalog, there are 135 majors in it…pick something.
Yale: the way those folks act, you’d think Thurston Howell lll went THERE.
Underrated:
Transylvania, Kalamazoo, Slippery Rock: their names are punchlines, yet they still fill the seats. They must be doing something right.
Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska: nice folks, serious academics, fun sports, nice towns. What’s not to like?
Mississippi: easy to dislike if you’ve never been there. Hard not to like if you have.
Canadian universities: good academics, low price, no frills. You might want to bring along a light jacket.
U of Aberdeen: Oxbridge, st Andrews, Edinburgh get so much attention.
What’s wrong with Aberdeen?
U of Hawaii: spend 4 years where other people save up their whole lives to go.
Clark, Union, Lafayette: NESCAC intimacy without NESCAC smugness
@PurpleTitan, Cincy’s co-op program is older by a few years… but it’s certainly ranked a whole lot lower, as is the school itself. And it may have older co-op program, but it’s still in Cincinnati… which doesn’t offer a fraction of the research, tech or academic opportunities in NEU’s own back yard. You’re not going to convince me that the two are similar in anyone’s mind but your own. Hence this very discussion. NEU is a school people talk about – Cincy not so much.
@katliamom, well, NEU’s rankings are higher because they game them, so I can’t take that seriously as a point in their favor.
@moooop: “Yale: the way those folks act, you’d think Thurston Howell lll went THERE.”
Perfect.
@moooop you are spot on for the most part. NYU and Duke are the most overrated schools in the country tbh (along with WUSTL). Quinnipiac (Yale’s athletic rival) and Hofstra are not overrated academically (one could even raise an argument that QU is a bit underrated), but from personal interaction as an accepted student last year, the students there are more than a bit snobby themselves. The schools also give relatively poor financial aid.
One school that I’d like to nominate for most overrated is a school that I’m genuinely surprised hasn’t already been mentioned: Notre Dame. Overly expensive Catholic school that gives terrible financial aid, HAS to have an 80% Catholic student body, and students seem very full of themselves and obnoxious to boot.
I don’t have much to add really, but I’ll give it a shot. I think overrated/underrated isn’t a meaningful/set measurement in assessing whether a school is worth its salt or not. It feels very similar to deciding whether a particular musician/band is overrated/underrated. People have different tastes and that definitely influences people’s opinions.
But I would have to say I worked/interned with students from William&Mary, Cornell, James Madison, and Virginia Tech.i never noticed a difference between any of them. Of course I wasn’t constantly comparing them so maybe I missed something? No one blew themselves up, caught on fire, etc so I guess in the end it doesn’t really matter.
@moooop, Aberdeen is an Ancient Scottish uni and quite cheap (4th year tuition-free as well). It’s main drawback is that it’s in a northern part of Scotland off the North Sea far from everywhere. It’s as if a uni was located on the north side of Labrador. Then again, St. Andrews is in a tiny isolated town in Scotland, so shrug.
I don’t believe Duke and ND are overrated as schools at all*.
But are they obnoxious about their basketball and football team, respectively? Most definitely.
- Duke is a true Ivy-equivalent by alumni achievements. ND is a near-Ivy, matching up well in professional success but not on the scholastic measures.
@PurpleTitan it’s not just their sports that they’re obnoxious about…it’s the way they seem to generally carry themselves.
“NEU’s rankings are higher because they game them” @PurpleTitan
Oh please. Of course it games rankings. All schools do. Unlike most of them, NEU does it while undergoing an extraordinary expansion and executing a stunningly ambitious agenda in this era of university cut backs.
I ask again: name ONE other university that’s hired more than 400 tenure or tenure-track professors in the last 9 years.
There are probably stats that flatter Rutgers and stats that don’t. I imagine part of its rep problem in New Jersey has to do with an affinity (?) for private schools – many perhaps see Rutgers as the “cheap/krappy” option.
I don’t know how good Rutgers actually is – grads and dropouts could tell us – but being in the B1G should help.
@prezbucky Rutgers’ stats are about average; not the greatest, but certainly not the worst. Certainly an above average school. I never said it was terrible, not by any means. Rutgers isn’t cheap for in-state, though. The total COA is BARELY less than UNCW OOS.