<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Well... I applied to certain schools and I am trying to figure out which school I should accept provided that I get accepted from all of them... Could you please rank the following schools in mainly Academics, Undergraduate Focus and Prestige! </p>
<p>The schools are:</p>
<p>USC, Tufts, Emory, Vanderbilt, Brandeis and Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>If you want, you can assign number from 1-10 to make clear how close/ or different they are from each other. Thanks!</p>
<p>Keep in mind that these are good schools but there are certain differences. In terms of academics, undergraduate focus and prestige, I would have to say(from best to worst):</p>
<p>Emory/ Carnegie Mellon (I think Emory is more undergraduate focused but I’m not sure but both are great schools)</p>
<p>Vanderbilt (good as well)</p>
<p>(slight gap)</p>
<p>USC/ Tufts (USC is probably more well known but Tufts academics is underrated)</p>
<p>Brandeis (good school overall but, in my opinion, the last in this bunch)</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>They are all respected schools but the only one that really has significant, Ivy-like prestige is Carnegie Mellon, and that only for Computer Science. One can imagine HR people in an IT firm saying, “Gosh, Joe, things are really bad. We’re not getting any resumes from Stanford or Carnegie Mellon types this year.” Substitute any of the other schools into that sentence, and it does not make much sense in any career-field context I can imagine. Maybe Tufts for International Relations, or someplace else for a field I just don’t know about.</p>
<p>For undergraduate focus, Brandeis seems to be the smallest, most LAC-like. By class size alone, the rank would be (smaller to bigger classes): Tufts, Vanderbilt, Emory, Brandeis, CMU, USC. Though they are all pretty good.
(<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html?highlight=class+size[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html?highlight=class+size</a> , post #50)</p>
<p>They are all above Brandeis, that’s pretty much the only definite distinction you can make. USC might not be as undergrad focused cause of size</p>
<p>
Undergraduate Focus------------Academics---------------Prestige
Vanderbilt------------------------USC----------------------------USC
Emory-----------------------------Tufts-------------------------Tufts
Carnegie Mellon-----------------Emory------------------------Vanderbilt
Tufts-----------------------------Vanderbilt--------------------Emory
USC------------------------------Carnegie Mellon-------------Carnegie Mellon
Brandeis-------------------------Brandeis---------------------Brandeis</p>
<p>Overall, all are great schools.
Score ( base off ranking):
USC 14/14
Tufts 13/14
Vanderbilt 13 /14
Emory 12/14
Carnegie Mellon 8/14
Brandeis 3/14</p>
<p>tk, I disagree with your assertion that Carnegie Mellon is the only one which demands respect in certain fields… Emory is top 20 for law, med, business (arguably top 10 for undergrad business) and I would say top 5 for public health and so on and so on. Yes, I mentioned grad schools but that does fall under prestige… also, to name a few of its great programs : psycology, religion, pharm etc. I am sure that in these fields, Emory is very well respected and in some fields, I would bet it surpasses the lower Ivies in reputation. This, however, can also be said for most of the other schools on the OP’s list… and it is misleading when you say Ivy-like prestige… since you were commenting on particular departments ( CMU’s Computer Science). Sure, Brown and Dartmouth have an overall high prestige for one could make the argument that it is for their long tradition and Ivy Label rather than particular programs… In terms of talking about specific departments (and not the university as a whole), the “upper ivies” are miles ahead of the two I just mentioned. Back to topic, all are great schools but I just disagree with your notion that, in certain academic fields, they do not have Ivy calibre prestige (maybe not HYP prestige but what about the others?).</p>
<p>EDIT: Coolbreeze, since when does Tufts and USC have more prestige than Vandy, Emory and CMU… ??? Also, since when is USCs academics the best out of the bunch… If I were to rank like you did I would say…</p>
<p>Undergraduate Focus:
Emory/Tufts
Vandy
Brandeis
Carnegie Mellon
USC</p>
<p>Academics:
Carnegie Mellon/ Emory/ Vandy (too hard to tell IMO)
Tufts/USC
Brandeis</p>
<p>Prestige: (assuming it is prestige in the “academic” world)
Carnegie Mellon
Emory/Vandy
USC
Tufts
Brandeis</p>
<p>Interesting… does not seem to be a consencus here… would love more opinions</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Fair enough. If you want to say that Emory is just as prestigious (or respected) in one field or another as CMU is in Computer Science, I’m not too interested in arguing the point. Though I would think you would want to point to a field in which it is more like top 3 (not top 20 or top 10) according to a particular measurement. CMU held the #4 spot for CS in the last NRC rankings, behind Stanford, MIT and Berkeley. USNWR currently assigns it the same rank. The new, nearly $100M School of Computer Science Complex, including the Gates Center, was initiated with a $20M grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (one indication of the prestigious money-magnet CMU has become in this field).</p>
<p>My main point, though, is that I do not see any principled basis for distinguishing these schools according to school-wide “prestige” (not without getting into specific academic fields). Prestige is hard to deny when your school becomes part of an acronym synonymous with selectivity (“HYP”), or a globally recognized brand (“Ivy League”), or is an acknowledged national/world leader in some field of universal interest (e.g. Johns Hopkins in medicine). Outside of such a select few, it’s very hard to say which of 6 schools is more prestigious overall in 1st-6th order. We can call a school “prestigious” or “very prestigious”, but it’s hard to argue that it’s the 18th most prestigious or the 23rd most prestigious.</p>
<p>So just look 'em up in the US News rankings. They’re all good. Pick the one that best fits your personal needs and interests.</p>
<p>“Prestige” for these non-Ivy League schools often depends on locale. The closer you are to a school, it is more likely that it will be perceived as prestigious.</p>
<p>For example, if you asked a guy in LA if USC was more prestigious than Tufts, he’d probably answer “yes”. But, it is important to remember that the root of this assessment was reliant on the fact that USC is located in LA.</p>
<p>Hence, I rank the following universities in this order, based on prestige, from my perspective as a native of Massachusetts:</p>
<ol>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Brandeis</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>Emory</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
</ol>
<p>I see your point but once again, I want to point out that this time you used “top 3” as a judgement of what is extremely prestigious. Last time, you used “Ivy Prestige.” The point I was trying to make is that these two labels are vastly different as schools like Brown, Dartmouth share a lot of “Ivy Prestige” despite having many “top 3” programs…and yes, if we are speaking “top 3” perhaps most of the schools on that list do not stack up (although I hear religion, pharmacology etc are all top 5 at Emory). </p>
<p>I do agree that all are great schools and that the OP should visit them all.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I totally agree with this.</p>
<p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Um, As a native Massachusetts myself, USC is definitely more prestigious than Tufts.</p>
<p>Tufts is mainly boasted by a LAC type atmosphere + Boston locale which happens to host major powerhouses like Harvard/MIT.</p>
<p>Tufts’ national prestige does not come close to USC.</p>
<p>IMHO:</p>
<p>Group 1: Tufts, Emory, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon
Group 2: USC
Group 3: Brandeis</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And that’s only because its Peer Assessment score was 4.9. With regards to CS, it is a peer of MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, not “#4.”</p>
<p>I would laugh if one were to argue that Yale doesn’t belong alongside Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford because its PA score is 4.8 instead of 4.9.</p>
<p>^Hmmm, I wonder why Yale’s is even lower than the others in PA score…</p>
<p>pointoforder, I mostly agree with that except I would probably put Tufts in Group 2 … but between Emory/ Vandy and CMU, it is really too hard to call and to each his own… I personally loved Emory and so I’m attending next year… but someone else may like something about CMU that the others may lack and vice versa… so I suggest to the OP to maybe narrow it down to CMU, Emory, Vandy and visit and choose accordingly.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Tufts shouldn’t be in Group 1 with Emory, Vandy, CMU.</p>
<p>Emory, Vandy, Carnegie Mellon each are represented in ‘CC Top Universities’ section. Tufts? Not.</p>
<p>I agree with Alam1, Tufts is def in Group 2.</p>
<p>If you’re a computer science major than Carnegie Mellon…
If you’re into dentistry or English than Tufts…
If you are from California and/or plan to live in California than USC…</p>
<p>Other than that…
Emory/Vanderbilt for sure…</p>
<p>For academics, here’s a link to some NRC ranking lists:
[United</a> States National Research Council rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Research_Council_rankings]United”>United States National Research Council rankings - Wikipedia)
By number of top-30 programs, or by average of all scores, none of the 6 make the top 30. By average of non-zero scores, only CMU makes the top 30 (at #22 overall). </p>
<p>Areas of strength (top 20):
Vanderbilt ( #7/Religion;#6/Pharmacology;#15/Physiology)
Emory (#15/French;#5/Religion; #15/Pharmacology)
Brandeis (#13/Music; #17/Biochemistry;#19/Neuroscience)
CMU (#4/Computer Scence; #11/Psychology)
USC (#12/Linguistics)
Tufts (none in top 20?)
(Source: [NRC</a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41indiv.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Each of 41 Areas))
Note: NRC-95 is an old (1995) ranking of graduate departments. It may be relevant if you think graduate department excellence is reflected in undergraduate programs, and if you think relative program strength does not change too much over time. It is very hard to come up with a comprehensive department ranking system for undergraduate programs, so these rankings should be considered “suggestive” only.</p>
<p>I still say, all these schools are close enough in academic quality/prestige that you should focus on personal “fit” issues, unless you have a strong, clear interest in a department you know is especially strong at one of the schools (and you like that school in other respects, too). If you are asking which schools are more likely to open doors in a job search, well, I’d say Vanderbilt and Emory stand out more in the Southeast (compared to other strong schools like Duke, Wake, Davidson) than Brandeis and Tufts do in the Northeast (compared to Ivies and top LACs), or than USC does on the West coast (compared to Stanford, some of the UCs, or the Claremonts.) It would not be too controversial to say Vanderbilt is the best in Tennessee, or that Emory is the best in Georgia. You cannot make the same claim about any of the others in their states.</p>
<p>If the OP is looking for lay prestige, none of these schools will provide that. So I’m only going to comment on academics. I agree with some others in this thread that only Carnegie Mellon’s best programs are among the elite in the country. The strongest programs that the others offer are good but not among the very best. Plus, they tend to be in non-prestigious fields.</p>
<p>For academics: Carnegie Mellon > Emory > USC = Tufts > Vanderbilt > Brandeis</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was citing NRC-95 (National Research Council) departmental rankings, which scored CMU at “4.76” for Computer Science. Strictly by the numbers this was the 4th highest score, behind MIT (4.97), Stanford (4.91), and Berkeley (4.88). But I agree, these appear to be very close ratings and I do think many people consider CMU a “peer” of the others in Computer Science. </p>
<p>The US News “Peer Assessment” scores look very similar to the NRC scores (same 5-point scale), so let’s not confuse them in this discussion. Overall US News PA scores for these 6 schools:
CMU, 4.2
Vanderbilt and Emory, 4.0
USC, 3.9
Tufts, 3.6
Brandeis, 3.5
(<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/797962-college-comparison-xxii-usnwr-peer-assessment-ratings.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/797962-college-comparison-xxii-usnwr-peer-assessment-ratings.html</a> post #1)</p>