<p>And you really are embarrassing yourself with these rankings, you really think UVA is as good as Duke?</p>
<p>UVA is a fantastic university, one of the best in the country.</p>
<p>Yes. I agree, to an extent. It is a fantastic university but not one of the best in the country. Its business school however is. Nonetheless, it is still not on the level as Duke.</p>
<p>SweetLax88, the Newsweek Global University ranking has Duke at #14 in the world and UVA at #80 (which actually isn't too bad -- its just below the University of Western Australia and Carnegie Mellon). So I'm not really sure where you're coming from. What's significant is when the rankings all agree that, for example, ND is not in the top 100 worldwide, or top 200, in the case of the other one. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/%5B/url%5D">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/</a></p>
<p>posterX, we get the whole ranking thing already. Yale is better than ND in probably any ranking you will ever look at, but so many intangibles go into deciding where to go to school, that rankings should have no effect on where a person decides to go. I would go to ND over Yale any day, and you would go to Yale over ND any day. Please give the rankings a break and tell us why you love Yale so much. This might actually help the person who started the thread make a decision. I am very curious as to why you are so passionate about boosting Yale up on all these threads. Do you have any affiliation with the University at all, or are you just a fan?</p>
<p>Ah man I just read that ranking and it's hilarious! The idea that Michigan beats out Princeton... that'll be the day. Even USNWR uses better criteria. That ranking is based largely on the size of the school. Larger schools will have an advantage. Of course, institutes of technology will also have an advantage since research is their primary concern. But really, ND not even ranked? HA. That's a real laugh. More than 50% of the students who are here had ND as their first choice. Our alumni giving rate is terrific-53.2% (<a href="http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2006/09/14/News/Record.Number.Of.Nd.Alums.Donate.Money-2271570.shtml)%5B/url%5D">http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2006/09/14/News/Record.Number.Of.Nd.Alums.Donate.Money-2271570.shtml)</a>, which is behind Princeton and ABOVE FRIGGIN' YALE. (<a href="http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/peers/current/research_intensive/alumgiv.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/peers/current/research_intensive/alumgiv.htm</a>). What battlefield do you want to fight on? I'll defend my 'Dame to the death.</p>
<p>sweetlax,</p>
<p>if ND is "one of the best in the country," then UVa is one of the best schools in the country...</p>
<p>UVA is a great school, no doubt about that. I still say that you should go to the school that fits you best, regardless of rankings. What do I know though, I am just a senior in college. </p>
<p>Just make a decision you won't regret, that is the best advice I can give the OP.</p>
<p>Jags,</p>
<p>Ok...NDs stats and job placement are much higher than UVA's. ND is more selective, given more respect, and has a great alum network. Of course UVA is one of the best schools in the country, ND is just better.</p>
<p>PosterX, enough with the rankings already. I assume you go to Yale since you go yale trolling. Any person with a Yale education woudl know that ND is AT LEAST in the top 300 Unis in the world. You would be a fool to believe that ND isn't up there.</p>
<p>Reading this topic it seems that people have gotten off topic and into rankings and away from what is right for the student posing the question. They do not want to know about rankings, they probably already know enough about them. What they really want to know about is the environment and that is an emotional thing.</p>
<p>New Haven vs. South Bend, First Years Studies vs Yale's advising system. Student engagement at both schools is excellent but I would suggest making a list of pluses and minuses for each school and figure out how to weigh them. This will usually tip the balance one way or the other not becase of the analysis but because the thought will crystalize what is important to you.</p>
<p>Some things that are not being said is about the strong service nature of Notre Dame and catholic schools in general. ND and other catholic schools send significant numbers of their students into the Peace Corp and other service organizations like the Jesuit Volunteer Corp. I am sure posterx can and will post about how many service opportunities there are at Yale but that may well be besides the point.</p>
<p>On a separate note, some of what we see in this thread is historical. When many Catholics emigrated to the US they were excluded from many of the incumbent schools such as Yale. While other ethnic groups and religions worked hard to assimilate the Catholics founded their own schools and own feeder system. I think that this still exists today to some extent where certain students feel more comfortable in a school that is defined as religious and other want an environment that is secular. Both have their merits and each of us must choose what is best for our own situation.</p>
<p>A quick note on service organizations. Yale's mission statement is to generate leaders for service to society. It pays off because Yale is arguably the most service-minded school in the country, and the vast majority of students there participate in at least one service organization. The Truman Scholarship is the nation's highest honor for college students who do community service or show leadership in their work with service organizations - about 70 are given out to juniors every year, nationwide, and it is an unbelievable opportunity. Even though Yale is a very small school, Yale students annually win more Truman Scholarships than students from any other university in the country. Also, for what its worth, Yale sends more of its graduates to Teach for America than any other university, by a huge margin, and many also participate in the Peace Corps or work in government positions after graduation.</p>
<p>SweetLax,</p>
<p>Are we talking about the same schools? With the exception of ND ranking marginally better than UVa in the USnews rankings due to financial resources...as well as having a better football team, UVa has better rankings in practically any academic discipline (ranking ahead of ND in 40 out of 41 disciplines according to the NRC rankings), as well as being a better feeder school according to the wall street journal, having universally accepted better professional schools than notre dame, and is significantly cheaper than notre dame, I think you have little to stand on in your ascertation. If ND has "more respect" why does UVa get a 4.3 in PA score and Notre Dame only a 3.9? The PA score is strictly opinion of university presidents!</p>
<p>jags, I agree, but I think your point has already been made clear in all the previous posts which dissect the academic quality of ND.</p>
<p>posterx,</p>
<p>i havn't dissected ND's academic quality at all in this thread until my previous post...if you can even call that dissecting. All I said was is that I would got Yale over ND....jeeeeeshh. Besides, I wasn't even responding to you, I was responding to SweetLax. I don't understand what your point is.</p>
<p>Peer assessment scores are extremly biased, especially against Catholic schools. ND has a crappy peer assessment score which is BS when you compare it to other schools. If you eliminate that one score, ND ranks 12th. I believe that is more where it belongs.
The truth is that most academic institutions avoid religion like the plague. Most people in acadamia are very liberal and ND isn't and our ratings suffer b/c of it.</p>
<p>posterX,</p>
<p>Your focus clearly is based upon rankings, whether academic or numbers of scholarships including your reference to service components at Yale. While at a certain level rankings are important because it can help inform, the final decision is more of an emotion that only a particular student can make.</p>
<p>About the rankings and scholarships you just mentioned, those are nice but secular in nature. If the student is interested in the Catholic aspects of a university it would be more important to cite the Catholic organizations where Yale and ND placed their students. I would suspect that the numbers would change dramatically if the numbers cited were in reference to more Catholic organizations like how many became Maryknoll missionaries or joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corp.</p>
<p>Though these things may not be of interest to the original poster it is one of the things that make a Catholic University like ND what it is.</p>
<p>Not to take this too far in another direction I would note that Harvard's new curriculum requires classes in Religion. Something that has been required at all Catholic colleges for a long time along with Philosophy. This may be another component in the students decision.</p>
<p>I would also ask the original poster whether they have been accepted to ND and invited to be part of the Honors Program. It may be another thing to place on the list of pluses and minuses while they are making their decision.</p>
<p>Eagle, yes, I agree with your points, however, it is worth pointing out that classes in religion are nothing unusual. Yale has a fantastic religious studies department that offers all kinds of courses in every major religion, as well as a well-known divinity school. The classes are among the most popular at Yale, and some students even choose to major in that department.</p>
<p>While religion courses may be strong at Yale (the department is very strong) the atmosphere is important as well. Yale is probably a secular environment, is it not, whereas ND is a very Catholic environment. This should be kept in mind as well when making the decision.</p>
<p>sweetlax,</p>
<p>"Peer assessment scores are extremly biased, especially against Catholic schools. ND has a crappy peer assessment score which is BS when you compare it to other schools. If you eliminate that one score, ND ranks 12th. I believe that is more where it belongs."</p>
<p>funny thing is, you copied this word for word from a post by irish+#s.</p>
<p>Also, I happen to think the peer assessment only rankings are better than peer assessment free ones. How does freshmen retention rate or a 4 year graduation rate affect the education i'm going to receive? yet those factors play huge roles in the usnews formula. under a peer assessment only ranking, ND chimes in at 31...</p>
<p>also, whats up with this ridiculous notion that theres an "anti-catholic" bias. thats just what people say who...don't like what they get. According to various people on CC, theres an "anti-LAC, Catholic, private, west-coast, middle america, southern, small research institution, common misconception" bias.</p>