<p>Stanford is amazing and its sports are great for a top school. However, I noticed it receives a lot more hail mary apps now from people who somehow think Stanford they will be that "unique" applicant that Stanford lets in (which it apparently does every year with 1700 SATs getting in). Stanford has thus been pegged as being a land for "unique" students, but this has unfortunately taken on to mean "unique" but not quite exceptional enough for HYP (whose students are both unique AND exceptional). </p>
<p>Yes, people who value unique students with less OK stats will go to Stanford and those who don't like that should maybe go elsewhere, but in sending this message, Stanford is losing its prestige FAST. Or maybe it doesn't matter to them that HYP will always surpass them? Anyway, I care because I want to attend Stanford and don't want it to constantly be seen as being behind HYP. Columbia is now Stanford's equal here on the East Coast, for example, and the rankings only further cement this perception.</p>
<p>Cornell is also slipping in prestige. The Chinese who used to consider it prestigious are now dismayed by its lackluster performance in rankings (and you know how much they care about rankings). People here on the East Coast constantly make fun of its "state" schools and hotel school. What the heck? People now with marginal stats from my school are applying. Ugh. Duke is now seen as far superior to Cornell for example.</p>
<p>It is well known that Stanford puts its thumb on the scale for the quirky student. I have had conversations with basically just ok academically peers who got in and wondered how they did it until they read me their roommate essay, or five words to describe you, etc. and in all cases they were truly weird and (for that) memorable. If you are a normal kid and want to increase your chances, dial up your strange answer quotient and startle the bored Stanford adcoms who get a bit tired of admitting football recruits imposed on them.</p>
<p>ARWU
[Academic</a> Ranking of World Universities | ARWU | First World University Ranking | Shanghai Ranking](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/]Academic”>http://www.arwu.org/)
Harvard > Stanford > Princeton, and sorry I could not find Yale in top 10…</p>
<p>And in terms of prestige globally, both THES & ARWU are superior to USNEWS.</p>
<p>@goldenboy8784, I echo you.
Now I know why silicon valley can ONLY survive on the west coast in US. And I really surprised and dissapointed by the reasoning ablility of some US students, like the author of the article. If test score == exception, trust me, none of the US universities can even break into the top 50 in the world.</p>
<p>Also, in my HS, the kids with the highest SAT socre went to HYP, but the REAL legendary students turned down the offers from HYP and attended Stanford, MIT, Berkerly, Duke…</p>
<p>I’m not sure why people try to draw such a meaningless distinction. Does anyone really think the education offered at Harvard is that much better than at Yale or Stanford?</p>
<p>@monk414, hahah, I know you will act like this. Thank you very much, otherwise, I don’t know how to continue this game. lol</p>
<p>Remmber, I am not the one who claim X is better than Y or Z. You did. I just simply followed YOUR logic and end up with totally different results. So I got confused… Please enlight me, okay?</p>
<p>The haters are created by you, not others on CC. Of course Stanford students would not approve of my defensive attitude about the school, and please show us your perfectly organized argument with solid and authoritative data to prove that HY students are indeed superior to those at Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Berkerly, Michigan, Duke… Just please don’t bring up any rankings or SAT socres, and please don’t let CCer down again…</p>
<p>I do not understand the OPs points about Stanford. At least as they pertain to what the OP posted. Stanford was ranked second behind Harvard in yield (not counting religious schools). What about that suggests that Stanford is slipping?</p>
<p>In two or three decades of sort of paying attention to this sort of thing, the only change I’ve noticed is a readiness to attend schools in urban settings. They used to be regarded as dangerous, and schools like Chicago and Columbia (always great) suffered in applications as a result. Not anymore.<br>
LACs in rural settings, in comparison, haven’t had the same boom in application numbers. I don’t think it is a coincidence that rural and small town elites have been the most ready to go SAT optional to increase applications.
But to think that any of the schools mentioned by the OP have slipped in prestige is silly.</p>
<p>Prestige <> quality of education. The various rankings (and opinions of CC posters) may be valid indicators of prestige, but that is all they are. They say nothing about the quality of education.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>– Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini, “How College Affects Students, Volume 2: A Third Decade of Research.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005</p>
<p>Meh, the two great schools in Massachusetts (Harvard and MIT) are rivals with the two great schools in California (Stanford and CIT.) That’s pretty common knowledge. If someone chooses stanford, they’re not automatically going to be labeled as a harvard reject (especially since their yields are basically the same) for all relevent purposes, all four schools are pretty equal in quality and resources. </p>
<p>The only odd-school out is Caltech, but anyone in the know for STEM knows that it’s one of the best universities in the world.</p>