No thanks, Harvard

<p>No financial issues involved just a better fit. BU, like some other schools, has smaller sections or colleges within the school. You can check out the University Professor's Program on their web site. From what I can tell its for top students who work intensly with top names in a variety of fields, Nobel winners, noted authors, scientists, business people, etc. and you are able to design your own majors and programs at a vetry high academic level. Thats about all I know since our S is in the Honors Program there but not Uni.
Two kids at our HS chose Schryers over Ivys, but not Harward, just a better fit and wanting to be a big fish in a small pond perhaps. I think the point of the thread is that some people, certainly not all, choose less "elite" schools for a variety of reasons. (geography, campus, feel, fit, proximity to home or specific interests like music, skiing/boarding, for some its money.)</p>

<p>wow haha it seems like lots of people chose BU over harvard</p>

<p>i'd be willing to bet that most people at williams, amherst, or swarthmore, if they didn't apply early decision, turned down an ivy or a comparable school (e.g. duke). </p>

<p>p.s. not ego-stroking because i don't go to williams, amherst, or swat.</p>

<p>yeah, but again, it goes both ways</p>

<p>(i.e I turned down the three for Duke)</p>

<p>If you choose to go to Duke over LAC, or Columbia over Duke, or LAC over Columbia, it is because the social scene and atmosphere suits you better, not because the academic quality is different</p>

<p>i agree completely. i think the quality of academics at all of these schools is comparable...which is why i don't think it's a huge deal for someone to have turned down harvard for a school of duke or williams' caliber.</p>

<p>but many people would see turning down harvard/yale for duke is somewhat turning down a "more prestigous" school</p>

<p>I would, although they are relatively comparable. I'm from california, and i think of duke as this mysterious, dubious institution in the south . . . haha, kidding. But it isn't so well known to those that i know out here. Therefore, I would say it is. Same as Northwestern and U of Chicago, although they are comparable.</p>

<p>i always used to think duke was this great prestigous college but then all my friends are like, it's not THAT great; not HYPSM prestigewise</p>

<p>So???????????</p>

<p>HYPMS are like titans in prestige. They have had like a 100 year head start on Duke (with the exception of Stanford and MIT), so should they not have garnered more prestige?</p>

<p>Duke is very very prestigious, and your friends are just shortsighted.</p>

<p>'Nuff said.</p>

<p>yes, especially when everyone is going to die anyway. Even people who go to Harvard!!! And a lot of people just don't know about any "prestigious" school, and many also don't care. I'm sure most kids in my school have hardly heard of Mass., let alone M.I.T. Shall we move on with our pointless lives?</p>

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<p>By this logic, William & Mary and Rutgers should also be more prestigious than Duke. No one needs to make excuses for why Duke isn't HYP. It's Duke, which is to say that it's objectively fantastic, and objectively well-respected, and once you've decided where you're going, that should be the end of the story. Dithering over its place relative to other schools is really moot at this point (and not that productive even when you're picking a school).</p>

<p>DRab,</p>

<p>I weep for the future if students at your school haven't heard of MIT. I mean, that's like not knowing where New York is on a map...</p>

<p>Oh, right.</p>

<p>That's a good point Hanna. However, William and Mary and Rutgers do not have Richard Brodhead!</p>

<p>A lot of kids at my school haven't heard of MIT, I don't think average high schoolers pay attention to which colleges are hot and which ones are not.</p>

<p>Most of the AP kids have though.</p>

<p>Crap. And here we are worrying about the difference between #15 and #5.</p>

<p>They've all heard of PSU though, which is the most popular college at my school (its my second favorite, after Lehigh).</p>

<p>A friend at my school is turning down Johns Hopkins for Case Western and while CWRU probably offered him way more money, the kid is loaded so I think it's a pretty bad choice</p>

<p>hey, to each his/her own, eh.</p>

<p>But I have never seen it equated with HYPSM. And according to US News and World Report (which some people really respect and adhere to), it's ranked above MIT and Stanford. </p>

<p>Where I'm from, you can tell someone that you're going to Duke. They'll be very happy for you, because they know how great it is. But you say Stanford, or Princeton, or even MIT, and they'll be ECSTATIC. And we're in the South, here-- NC is just a few states away. It's beyond some sort of regional favoritism. Duke just isn't what HPYSM is, even IF they like to call Harvard the "Duke of the North." It's just not happening.</p>