<p>stoompy 312 wrote: "For a more intellectual atmosphere: Penn > Dartmouth > Brown</p>
<p>I realize this is a silly thread, but your post at least makes some attempts to define attributes of each school that are important. I don’t understand this statement. How are you defining “intellectual”? My impression is that Brown may offer the closest of these schools to the experience offered at UChicago, which always seems to top the “Intellectual” list.</p>
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<p>Huh??? Penn is arguably the least intellectual ivy, if not Cornell…</p>
<p>stompy’s list has as many things totally backwards as it has in the right order.</p>
<p>True. The Open Curriculum is most appealing to those students who possess genuine intellectual curiosity. The D Plan at Dartmouth draws a heavy share of pre-professional banking/consulting/finance types. And, Penn is notorious for pre-professionalism.</p>
<p>I don’t see how anyone can really PROVE that one school is superior/more prestigious than the other. Neither school is Harvard (in terms of prestige) and everyone is going to have a biased opinion. For undergraduate education, it’s all a matter of preference. Do want a big school? Go to Penn. Do you want a smaller school? Go to Dartmouth/Brown.</p>
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<p>Yeah, surveys tend to be as “credible” as some CC parents… </p>
<p>Does anyone here want to take a wild guess where hmom5’s kid goes to school???</p>
<p>Nowadays, Penn undergrad = Dartmouth. Maybe even better for some programs such as business, engineering and computer science. </p>
<p>hmom5 must have graduated from Penn a very, very long time ago that she lost view of the real caliber and standard of Penn undergrad nowadays.</p>
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<p>It wasn’t THAT long ago that Penn occupied Cornell’s current ivy position, if you know what I mean…</p>
<p>It was over twenty years ago, about.</p>
<p>who cares</p>
<p>you don’t go to school to gain status or prestige
you go to school to learn and gain life experience and decide which school to go to based on if it fits you
by your thinking, relying on the USNWR rankings seems appropriate for you.
UPenn>Dartmouth>Brown</p>
<p>“you don’t go to school to gain status or prestige”</p>
<p>Wait, what?</p>
<p>I do see the importance of one choice of school due to prestige and quality of education but one should also factor the gain of learning and life experiences.</p>
<p>For the overwhelming majority of the people in this world Penn = Dartmouth = Brown (in nearly all aspects) unless they have a bias/preference towards one, or more, of the universities. </p>
<p>So, essentially, it just doesn’t matter. At least not to me.</p>
<p>Undergrad: Dartmouth > Brown > Penn
Grad: Penn > Brown > Dartmouth</p>
<p>Honestly though, why does it even matter? Go for fit, not rankings!</p>
<p>“For the overwhelming majority of the people in this world…”</p>
<p>You speak for the overwhelming majority of the people in this world?</p>
<p>Dear God.</p>
<p>[ARWU</a> 2009](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2009.jsp]ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2009.jsp)</p>
<p>Here’s what some Chinese people think about these schools. n.b., Harvard has a perfect score in five out of six criteria–LOLtastic!</p>
<p>Prestige: Penn > Brown = Dartmouth</p>
<p>Undergrad Education: Dartmouth > Brown > Penn</p>
<p>kwu, lets be honest here, outside of America, do you think MOST PEOPLE know and/or care about the difference in Brown, Penn and Dartmouth? No.
And within the states, do you think the average person (the majority) knows and/or cares about the difference in these schools? No.</p>
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<p>It’d be tough for these rankings to have less to do with undergrad prestige, unless you really believe chicago>oxford, berkeley>>yale/princeton, and pretty much every notable flagship state u in america>brown/dartmouth. This looks to me like a ranking of research potential and graduate schools. In that respect I think it is worthwhile, but for this discussion (which is about UNDERGRAD prestige), I really don’t see how it applies.</p>
<p>People who live by so called “prestige” rankings are shallow. If they attend these universities, it really calls into question the admissions process, in my view. Though I would surmise the colleges would be gravely disappointed their admitted students would engage in such sophistry.</p>
<p>^^^ Thanks for your public service announcement. </p>
<p>Self-righteous indignation can be such an endearing personal quality…</p>