<p>I personally think MIT is the best school in the country. Look at the people that graduate from there. GENIUSES. Also, science and technology are especially important today. So for all the "MIT isn't well-rounded" opinions, well...the humanities aren't REALLY all that significant (granted, they are interesting.)</p>
<p>After MIT:
Stanford
Yale
Harvard Princeton</p>
<p>Oh, well by prestige Harvard wins automatically. But as far as being the best university in the country? No. </p>
<p>And the ranking (by common man knowledge) would be more like:
Harvard
Stanford
Princeton
Yale
MIT</p>
<p>I still meet people that are like, "Ohhhhh...MIT....where's that?"</p>
<p>It depends a LOT on where you live. In California, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB, and even UC Davis and Cal Poly San Louis Opisbo are quite presitgious, especially in public schools where many students go to Cal States or CCs. Schools with big-time sports get a lot of recognition, like Gonzaga, UWashington, USC, Oregon, etc. </p>
<p>In the midwest, I'd say Michigan, WashU, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue...</p>
<p>On the East Coast, the Ivies and LACs get more recognition because they are so common. Virginia, UNC, NC State, Duke, etc get a lot of respect thanks in part it major sports programs.</p>
<p>The common man isn't nearly so harsh on colleges as we are here at College Confidential. Generally speaking, a regular ol' guy on the street will praise and admire you just for GOING to college, ESPECIALLY it's a flagship state university (for ANY state) or a recognizable name.</p>
<p>Location definitely matters.</p>
<p>Where I live
1.U of Nevada, Reno
2. Harvard etc</p>
<p>who knows why...</p>
<p>but the man you typically meet isn't doing the hiring for wherever most of us want to work, so it doesn't really matter, but I do wish some people would say 'wow' when they here to all the extremely competetive, small engineering schools i'm applying to...</p>
<p>U of Nevada, Reno seems to be the Harvard of ...ah...Reno.</p>
<p>WeCareALot is right about the MIT thing, at least for me, I was like is that in Mass., or Michigan, or Maine...? I had no idea where it was, afterall, there are a lot of states that begin with "M". Now I feel kinda silly.</p>
<p>If I compare myself to the common man, which I was before my college search...when I started looking for schools to apply to, I just started searching schools that I had heard of (couldn't think of any other way to do it) and I searched Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, Rice, and Brown. I later learned that there were a lot of other great schools out there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It depends a LOT on where you live. In California, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB, and even UC Davis and Cal Poly San Louis Opisbo are quite presitgious, especially in public schools where many students go to Cal States or CCs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't agree. Cal and UCLA aren't presitgious in CA because everyone and their mother applies there. It's not so much that they didn't get in. Like I've stated before, I've known people at my high school that are barely graduating, and they apply to Berkeley ("It's so easy to get in!").</p>
<p>And then for those that do get in...we'll see how they fare, but they're not too bright. They just load up on stupid activties and take the easiest classes in HS, and they get in. CA residents don't even know how high UCLA or Cal ranks among the national unis.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnnsi.com%5B/url%5D">www.cnnsi.com</a> go to college football ... that is your answer.</p>
<p>**I took Programming courses @ Harvard and @ MIT!!!!!</p>
<p>Professors at MIT pale in comparison with Professors @ Harvard.</p>
<p>Harvard is supremely better.</p>
<p>GO CAMBRIDGE,MA!**</p>
<p>
<p>Professors at MIT pale in comparison with Professors @ Harvard.</p>
<p>Harvard is supremely better.</p>
<p>GO CAMBRIDGE,MA!
You're a winner. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Wow, this thread is really sad.</p>
<p>"COMMON MAN"?!?!?! bwahahaha. ugh.</p>
<p>ther term is "layman" or "laymen".</p>
<p>
[quote]
Originally Posted by Phead128
I took Programming courses @ Harvard and @ MIT!!!!!</p>
<p>Professors at MIT pale in comparison with Professors @ Harvard.</p>
<p>Harvard is supremely better.</p>
<p>GO CAMBRIDGE,MA!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>unless you misread the thread title... i respect your decision to endorse yourself as the "comman man"</p>
<p>smart kid</p>
<p>It is easy for CCers who are sophisticated about colleges to lose sight of some ways in which the "common man's" perceptions are important. Those who end up in the business world will fast discover that many of the most successful people did not attend a top college and have never heard of places like Amherst and Swarthmore. These same people, however, will give instant credibility to someone with a degree from Harvard, Yale or MIT. This is true whether they are looking for a partner, an employee, or an investment banker to take his lawnmower manufacturing company public. It may not make sense but this is the way it is.
I agree that the Amherst and Swarthmore education is probably as good as any, but the name Harvard (and to a lesser extent the names Yale, Princeton, MIT and Stanford) has become synonomous with a level of intelligence, competence and integrity that transcends the academic world. How important a factor should this be in one's choice of college? To me, not very, but it is a reality nonetheless.</p>
<p>my dad thinks u have to be the most amazing person in the world to get into binghamton...cannot imagine his thoughts on harvard!</p>
<p>binghamton? as in SUNY? wow.</p>