<p>No, this thread wasn't designed with the intent of ranking the Ivy's according to their prestige, social seen, teachers, acceptance rates--none--but rather by their course load. Of course, all of these schools are academically rigorous and quite stern, but aren't some schools more rigorous then others? For starters, list the Ivy's in descending order; from toughest to well, less tough. Afterwards, provide a valid justification of each school's position.</p>
<p>This is a useless exercise... the differences in courseload have infinitely more to do with your major and not any real difference among any of the Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>well some seem to think that the ivies that are the hardest to get into are the easiest in courseload and vice versa....so i guess the list would go something like:</p>
<p>"well some seem to think that the ivies that are the hardest to get into are the easiest in courseload and vice versa"</p>
<p>I have heard this too, but sometimes I wonder if they are all equally competitive except the students at say Harvard are stronger than the students at say Cornell. But I have no basis to this...just a thought.</p>
<p>stambliark - yea that is a fighting argument =P
1 - most difficult, 8 - least difficult
1. cornell
2. princeton
3. dartmouth
4. columbia
5. yale
6. brown
7. penn
8. harvard</p>
<p>=P my friends at harvard say its very relaxing haha</p>
<p>I don't know about that. My teacher who graduated from harvard called dartmouth a 'safety school.' He said if you fail in harvard you're under probation while in Dartmouth it is ok. But he was in harvard in the early 90s.</p>
<p>
[quote]
well, i will work my A$$ off at cornell, and one day, you guys will look me up, as the President of Morgan Stanley or Bank of America.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>President? Of which Division?</p>
<p>I guess your aspirations don't take you all the way to the top seeing as any other position other than the Chairman of the Board and CEO would be at best a No. 2 position (and even then a COO / CFO position many times outranks "President" depending on the bank / firm / division in question).</p>
<ol>
<li>Brown (come on no reqs, and I hear most of their classes are blow offs anyways)</li>
<li>Harvard (grade inflation -90% of the class grads with honors)</li>
<li>Yale (same as H although honors % is lower)</li>
<li>Columbia
5.Dartmouth</li>
<li>Penn </li>
<li>Princeton </li>
<li>Cornell (tough, from what i hear the avg gpa is a 2.8)</li>
</ol>
<p>that's not true, they just came out with something, and it said the average GPA for 2004 was 3.33 for Cornell and part of this is b/c Cornell lists the median GPA next to each class when you sign up hehe!!</p>
<p>As far as the ivy with the hardest courseload, I would probably say that it would be Cornell. According to "The Fiske Guide to Colleges," Cornell may accept more students than the other ivy league institutions, but it has the saying of being the "easiest to get in," yet "the hardest to get out."</p>
<p>As far as the ivy with the easiest courseload, I couldn't say. However, I have heard that Harvard and Yale have a lot of grade inflation. I don't know if this makes them "easier," but this is just what I've heard.</p>
<p>Grade inflation is rampant at almost all schools around the country. Recently, Harvard changed the requirements for honors because over 90% of Harvard College received honors, making the distinction meaningless. Some professors who were at Harvard as students or professors from anytime from the 50's-today note the total grade inflation at these schools. Even a former professor at UC Berkeley says that it was so much harder when he was a student and the GPA progressively rose when he was teaching there.</p>
<p>Even Columbia now gives A+'s (which are hard to get but if you get a couple of them, they can really boost GPA).</p>
<p>I would definitely put Brown as the easiest (almost no requirements, an unlimited number of classes taken pass/fail). The core curriculum at Columbia makes it a decently hard school. Cornell, in the Humanities as well as the Sciences is a hard school to get through, perhpas the hardest but the average GPA is still over 3.0.</p>
<p>Cornell might be harder than those other grade inflated places, but it certaintly isn't as hard as some of those state schools like Mich and Berk. Those schools have no problems giving out Cs and Ds.</p>
<p>The most selective schools (HYP) have the ability to pick and choose their students in such a way that almost everyone that gets in is capable of getting high marks and they have no need to "weed" the "weaker" students out, so they don't try to. Or that would seem to make sense. </p>
<p>Anyway, I've heard from multiple people that the hardest part about Dartmouth is getting in, and after that its relaxing and enjoyable. Not sure about others.</p>