<p>unalove is such another big Duke troll...haha</p>
<p>^ unalove probably lives in the Washington D.C. area based on his or her list.</p>
<p>Is it just me, or do Hawkette's ratings seem to follow USNWR?</p>
<p>I don't know how you can rank Wash U so high, except by their ranking. </p>
<p>Also, Many more people know Virginia, UNC and Notre Dame than most colleges, so they should be higher than you say</p>
<p>^ I think Hawkette has a good point regionally. Virginia and UNC are in the South.</p>
<p>For the Midwest ranking, I would say U Michigan and U Wisconsin are more prestigous than Notre Dame.</p>
<p>bentley89,
I do think that USNWR gets the big stuff right in identifying the top schools in the country and so you are correct that I am pretty closely following the list of schools that they rank. However, I might rank them differently in a national ranking and I would definitely rank them differently by region in a poll on prestige and/or recruiting/networking power. </p>
<p>As for regional power, I think that those in Chicago would argue long and hard in favor of the prestige/power of Notre Dame. Personally, I would place it ahead of all of the Midwestern publics and, for Chicago, I would probably rank U Illinois equal with U Michigan and U Wisconsin. Those public schools, however, would be significantly stronger in the major cities in their home states, ie, U Wisconsin grads would be strongest in Milwaukee, U Michigan in Detroit and both would probably trump ND in those locales.</p>
<p>I don't know, Hawkette. I mean U Michigan has top ranked engineering and business programs. Notre Dame does not seem to have any "exceptional" majors. Sure, Notre Dame is smaller and you get an excellent undergraduate education, but that really doesn't translate into prestige for a school - IMO.</p>
<p>About U of Chicago, coming from a student who goes there and does not live in the Chicago metro area (nor does she live in the DC area, for that matter), many in my neck of the woods have never heard of the U of C if they haven't opened a USNWR (many haven't). My most frequent comments from the unaware are along the lines of, "Chicago.... WHY ARE YOU GOING TO SCHOOL IN THE MIDWEST?!?!" or "Isn't your school a big football school?" (once upon a time, it was). Occasionally, I'll get the "Didn't you guys win the NCAA basketball tournament a few years ago?"-- right state, wrong school-- sorry, we're not the Fighting Illini of UIUC.</p>
<p>My impression is that people in the midwest have a VERY positive, if frightening, image of UChicago, but back on the east coast, it's just another "University of" school. As you see, the U of C doesn't make my prestige list-- it doesn't even come close.</p>
<p>Anyway, recap on my prestige list and some explanation:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Harvard</p>
<p>Duke</p>
<p>Yale
Princeton</p>
<p>Notre Dame
Michigan
Georgetown</p>
<p>Berkeley</p>
<p>William and Mary
UVA
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Harvard is the only true name brand, and it's the only school I know of (besides Duke and Notre Dame, a bit) where people who have no relation to the university wear its apparel. Harvard is instantly recognizable. If Harvard were Calvin Klein, Yale and Princeton would be Dolce and Gabana, and the rest of the ivies would be haute couture brands you'd never heard of.</p>
<p>ND and Gtown have "conservative values" (very important in my area) plus a sports presence, plus strong academics. Berkeley is also sort of looming-- its logo is also on a bunch of apparel (for the longest time, I thought the "Cal" was for "Caltech"...)-- and for a long time it was my pie-in-the-sky school. UVA and William and Mary appear in your history textbook-- they're as old as time itself and enjoy prestige simply by virtue of being associated very strongly with the nation's beginnings.</p>
<p>^ I can't complain unalove, you included Berkeley and left off Stanford...LOL I agree that the different names for Berkeley (i.e. Cal, University of California, Berkeley) make it confusing. I would guess that a majority of Californians don't know that Cal = Berkeley.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I pity the poor fool
[/quote]
</p>
<p>hawkette, sans the poor and you sound like Mr. T :)</p>
<p>Berk is so much better than Stanford anyway. I mean, really, who wants to be a tree? :-P</p>
<p>^ Although I believe the Tree is a much more entertaining mascot than Cal's decrepit Oski the Bear...Oski's screaming for a makeover.</p>
<p>I mean come on...is that even a bear?! </p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oski%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oski</a></p>
<p>Oh man. Worse than Mr. Met.</p>
<p>I don't know how many CC-ers have done college tours the way my brother initially did them-- football stadium first, everything else next. He really liked Berkeley's stadium.</p>
<p>But what does prestige actually mean? So Harvard is the most prestigious school, does that translate into dollars or future opportunities? I must admit I am proud to have that window sticker, but what does it really mean?</p>
<p>unalove,
UC Berkeley's stadium is awesome and now that they've finally got a team, that place rocks more than ever. It was a long time coming as the 1960-2000 period was pretty awful. Good luck to the Bears this weekend in their rematch with U Tennessee. Win or lose, it should be a ton of fun. :) :)</p>
<p>^ LOL...UC Berkeley's stadium is awesome. If only they can get the naked tree huggers out and be able to renovate the place.</p>
<p>DeVry
ITT TECH
Katherine Gibbs
Sanford-Brown
Phoenix Online
Delaware County Community College
University of the Clowns</p>
<p>You guys have it all wrong: Where are the Service Academies?</p>
<ol>
<li> Harvard College</li>
<li> Yale University</li>
<li> Princeton University</li>
<li> Stanford University</li>
<li> MIT</li>
<li> Columbia University</li>
<li> United States Naval Academy (Annapolis)</li>
<li> Brown University</li>
<li> Dartmouth College</li>
<li>United States Military Academy (West Point)</li>
<li>Duke University</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Georgetown University</li>
<li>United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs)</li>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>Williams College</li>
<li>Cal Berkeley</li>
<li>Amherst College</li>
<li>Cooper Union</li>
</ol>
<p>In CA:</p>
<pre><code>For pure prestige (no further explanation or geographic reference needed):
Harvard
Stanford
MIT
Yale
Princeton
Berkeley
Caltech
Duke
UCLA
West Point
Annapolis
</code></pre>
<p>for academics-football combination prestige (which is powerful here): </p>
<pre><code>UCLA
USC
Notre Dame
Michigan
</code></pre>
<p>I agree with jazzymom.</p>
<p>The existence of football helps a college's prestige rankings.</p>
<p>And overall, her rankings are pretty close to what an employer would look at.</p>