<p>So far, I like TheDad's best. :)</p>
<p>"yes definitely choose cornell engineering over harvard and princeton engineering. but definitely not over MIT and probably not over stanford. "</p>
<p>I agree. If you want an Ivy-league education in sciences/engineering, then Cornell/Princeton are the only schools to go to. Also, in terms of name recognition, I just don't think the other Ivies have much impact on the west coast.</p>
<p>John Hopkins/Northwestern/UChig/Georgetown/Caltech are either too obscure or too specialised for Californians to care about (not me, but in general it is true), which tells me that international students don't think much of them either...(i.e. they're not on high priority lists).</p>
<p>LACS -- they have no recognition whatsoever beyond the tiniest self-selected group of people. The vast, vast majority of people wouldn't know which one is better: Amherst or Deanza community college. It is assumed that if you go to a LAC, you don't give a damn about prestige ,and that you're in it for the education. So in conclusion, you get a great education but zero-presige in most corners of the world.</p>
<p>By definition this argument is baseless, firstly what criterion is prestige based on exactly the scientically dervied wow factor. If you wanted prestige, the answer is simple, it varies by trade, proffession and region. For the most part all top 25 schools are virtually as prestigious but some lack name recognition with the general public. Secondly prestige is a departmental issue, I mean a general rating of a university rates the quality of the student body and some other arbitrary stats. The most important rating is the rating of your area of study which you would presumably choose to continue or pursue.</p>
<p>Dude, you've missed one of secrets of rankings: if Harvard is #1, then the list is invalide because everybody knows Harvard is #1 and if you don't do that you won't have any credibility. I realized that I need to refine the list...not which schools are on it but the order...but I don't have time at the moment.</p>
<p>For those who are interested, criteria include: percentage of applicants accepted, SAT/ACT median scores, hs class rank for acceptees, student/faculty ratio, average class size, accessibility of professors, and student assessments of how interesting the proffessors are and the quality of on-campus life.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That's not correct! A lot of international students actually know more about American colleges than Californians. I was a foreign student myself and it's its reputation that drew me to Northwestern. All these schools, esp U Chicago, has good reputation aboard. I do agree that Californians, esp the southern ones, don't know much about those schools. Well, living in Los Angeles where people seem to read only "People" magazine, I could care less if they know about my school. They don't seem to know anything, let alone the names of good colleges. LOL!</p>
<p>Bucknell and Uva over Yale and Princeton?? Come on.</p>
<p>Preceding post should read "if Havared <em>isn't</em> #1".</p>
<p>Corrected rankings:</p>
<ol>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Dartmouth</li>
<li> Williams</li>
<li> Amherst</li>
<li> Pomona</li>
<li> Smith</li>
<li> Macalester</li>
<li> Bowdoin</li>
<li> Colby</li>
<li> Barnard</li>
<li> Bates</li>
<li> McGill</li>
<li> U/Virginia</li>
<li> U/Richmond</li>
<li> Washington&Lee</li>
<li> Claremont McKenna</li>
<li> Bucknell</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li> Davidson</li>
<li> Georgetown</li>
<li> Carleton</li>
<li> Brown</li>
<li> Duke</li>
<li> Columbia</li>
<li> Penn</li>
<li> Wellesley</li>
<li> Vassar</li>
<li> Rice</li>
<li> Whitman</li>
<li> Yale</li>
</ol>
<p>There you have it...now we can put this topic to bed and never worry about rankings anymore.</p>
<p>I don't think rankings can ever be put to bed... there is no way to quantify and "solve" it... but, it provides entertainment, for some, I guess...</p>
<p>And I really don't agree with your rankings... heh</p>
<p>College Rankings for Non Engineers and Non LAC schools:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>University of Michigan</li>
</ol>
<p>Rankings for Engineering/Science Majors</p>
<ol>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>UMichigan</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
</ol>
<p>TheDad,</p>
<p>Your ranking sucks! LOL! Where's MY Northwestern?????? Just curious, which school(s) do/did your S/D go to? Bet they are on THAT list. :)</p>
<p>Creative_Name:
[quote]
I don't think rankings can ever be put to bed... there is no way to quantify and "solve" it... but, it provides entertainment, for some, I guess...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Shhhhh!!! I bet you give away the plot at the movies, too.</p>
<p>Sam Lee, I'm sorry...I missed it (working from data in non-ranked order). Northwestern would be at #18, just ahead of Princeton. Is that okay? ;)</p>
<p>West Side (aka California 1600?),</p>
<p>Why do you HAVE to include UCLA? You don't need east coast bias to exclude it from top 10. I've almost never seen them in top 10 in any individual dept ranking. Perhaps it's the west coast bias?? I live in Los Angeles by the way. :)</p>
<p>TheDad,</p>
<p>You gonna tell us where your S/D went/go to? ;)</p>
<p>TheDad, I question your ranking methodology, since I do not believe it's accurate.
Although I'm a student at UVA, I don't think I'll put UVA higher than Yale and Princeton.
Also, bucknell better than princeton? whitman better than yale??</p>
<p>I must protest TheDad, on behalf of my beloved Carnegie Mellon. Our engineering and science programs are quite on the mark of Cornell's!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
That's not correct! A lot of international students actually know more about American colleges than Californians. I was a foreign student myself and it's its reputation that drew me to Northwestern. All these schools, esp U Chicago, has good reputation aboard. I do agree that Californians, esp the southern ones, don't know much about those schools. Well, living in Los Angeles where people seem to read only "People" magazine, I could care less if they know about my school. They don't seem to know anything, let alone the names of good colleges. LOL!"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I disagree, I bet over 90% of the people outside of the U.S havn't heard of schools lile UCSF, or Caltech. While more than 50% of Californians actually know about CalTech. If you told someone in California you were accepted into UCSF graduate or professional school they would be very impressed, but if you told someone in England that you are going to UCSF in California most would think it is second rate school.</p>
<p>For some reason, I don't think TheDad is serious. Hey, he's a nice guy, I am sure he will listen and likely accommodate your opinion. LOL!</p>
<p>VTBoy,</p>
<p>I meant "international students", not average civilians...:)</p>
<p>What about Swarthmore, TheDad?</p>