<p>Hello world, I come to yall today with a nice question!
I am too lazy to go search for my answers, however maybe even some common sense can derive the answers!
Anyways..
I want your perspectives on the quality of education of lower tier colleges opposed to prestigious colleges. These branded colleges such as Harvard, Yale... etc versus some community college or state colleges, whats the difference besides the "brands", ain't the quality of education similar etc?
Well one can say that... lower tier colleges, are where all the "dim-witted" students go, so if you study alongside them, your somewhat similar, and what-nots.
Prestigious school are filled with genius, and other low school are filled with other?</p>
<p>An answer I’ve offered before:</p>
<p>It’s all about the college peer group which when all is said and done, has a greater influence on a student’s goals and aspirations than any other factor.</p>
<p>If you’re intellectually gifted you may have opportunities to join college communities in which there are many similarly-gifted students or some in which there are (for the most part, but not entirely) less-gifted peers. Imagine if your gift was not in academics but in tennis, and you were deciding to go to a live-in tennis academy to develop that talent. You could go to the Bollettieri Tennis Academy where you’d play with and against the top emerging talent, who would in the coming years be the stars of the pro tennis world. Or perhaps you could go to another tennis academy where the students weren’t so motivated by tennis, but had attended primarily because others told them they should. At the lesser academy, you might play against your fellow classmates and find that no one could return your serves. You’d hit average ground strokes and your opponents would whiff instead of returning competent shots. You might find that you were underchallenged, and accordingly, weren’t getting any better. You might show up for practice and find that your opponent was a no-show, having blown off class for the day. You might be thrilled to learn that Roger Federer or Serena Williams was coming to campus to speak to students and then find that other students weren’t interested in seeing them and weren’t interested in talking with you about the visit that you attended. A really talented tennis player either wouldn’t be satisfied in that kind of environment or may eventually dull down his or her passion and goals to match those of the classmates.</p>
<p>The same dynamic works with academically-talented students. And it’s not just about compiling a resume in order to land a job. It’s about developing yourself to the fullest in order to enjoy your life to the maximum. To me, that’s the main benefit of a top-level college.</p>
<p>While I agree that there is something to competing with highly competent learners I DON’T agree it’s all about the peer group. I believe it is more about the individual. If a student is driven to learn they can do so at virtually any school. I have seen a study that stated students with Ivy level stats did just as well out of lower level schools as those out of Ivies (I can’t find the reference at the moment). As an another alternate measure of the value of Ivy level schools you can look at the percent of PhDs from different schools. [REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College) Many schools compete very well with Ivies.</p>
<p>
That actually serves to reinforce gadad’s point. Take a look at the schools in that link – Carleton, Reed, Swarthmore, Caltech, Bryn Mawr, Pomona, Grinnell, Mudd, Chicago, Wesleyan…all top schools. You won’t find Florida A&M in the list for top PhD production.</p>
<p>
Depends on the schools in question. A go-getter at Wake Forest could probably do as well as a student at Yale. If you’re comparing Yale to AcceptsZombies State U…yes, there’s probably a highly significant difference in the education received.</p>
<p>I outlined the reasons for this [in</a> another post](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064063859-post5.html]in”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064063859-post5.html).</p>
<p>A lot depends on the particular student and the particular field. As just one example, if you’re in the honors program at a public university like U Arizona (US News rank #120) and you’re majoring in a field like geology or astrophysics, there’s a very good chance that your education in your field can be as good as or better than that at many private universities that are much more selective and prestigious.</p>
<p>
Amazingly enough, there are a few people with brains at the “other low schools” too. Who knew?</p>
<p>
Let’s take a closer look. Wabash, Wooster, NM Inst Mining, Simon’s Rock, St Johns, Lawrence, UNH Manchester, Thomas.</p>
<p>I see now that lovecolleges used Ivies as his example, but I was referring to top colleges in general. I would definitely put Reed among any list of top schools and on a par with the Ivies.</p>
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<p>Without a doubt! (And get to tailgate for seven games a year instead of just one!) - Gadad, WFU '76</p>