<p>Personally, I think rating the Ivies is stupid because they are all so different from each other. For example, Cornell has so many many majors and concentrates on offering everything they can. On the other hand, Dartmouth concentrates on being a smaller, liberal arts school; they emphasize a balanced undergraduate education. Then look at Brown University; Brown has an open curriculum unique in the Ivy League. There is no point in rating the Ivies because Ivy-qualified people will always choose the ones they like best; there is no set way of deciding which one you'd apply for, but they all are great schools and they differ a lot. I didn't even know if I wanted to apply for an Ivy League school until I started looking at Cornell; many would not go to Cornell, but that's the place I want to do ED. It's useless to rank them.</p>
<p>Undergrad
My ranking is based on (1) academic quality, (2) teaching/advising, (3) social reputation, (4) avenues for individual research/leadership/service [ie, personal growth], (5) range of total activities - intellectual or not - available at the school</p>
<p>(Stanford)
1. Yale
2. Princeton
(MIT)
3. Harvard
4. Penn
5. Columbia
(Duke)
6. Cornell
(Chicago)
7. Brown
8. Dartmouth</p>
<p>Graduate
(Heavier wieghting for academics, research budgets, post docs, publishing stats, libraries)</p>
<p>Stanford
Harvard
MIT
Yale
Penn
Princeton
Columbia
Chicago
Duke
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>(tie) UPenn and Columbia (dont forget Penn CAS students can take advantage of Wharton, without experiencing all of the bitter, unappealing, cutthroatness) </li>
<li>Rice (GREAT school imo would have taken it over any school other than the above)</li>
<li>Duke, Dartmouth, etc</li>
</ol>
<p>I think throughout these 9 pages of nonsense and narcissism, a pattern emerges (organized alphabetically):</p>
<p>THE TOP
Harvard, Princeton, Yale</p>
<p>JUST SHORT OF GREATNESS
Columbia, Penn</p>
<p>THE WORST (OF THE BEST, SO KEEP IT IN PERSPECTIVE)
Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth</p>
<p>JohnnyK, switch Cornell with Columbia and Dartmouth with Penn and I'd agree.</p>
<p>silly posterx....</p>
<p>i agree totally with johnnyk</p>
<p>Cornell looks for more than your average Ivy wannabe, the student who has a 4.00 GPA, a 2300+ SAT score, and does things only to get into college, not for the fun or excitement of the experience. Cornell has more diversity than any of the other Ivies could ever have, and that counts for something, and to many, that diversity is very important. </p>
<p>Anyway, I'd rate the Ivies in the following way.</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Brown</li>
</ol>
<p>And ranking the Ivies is useless because no one will make fun of you if you go to Cornell while your colleague went to Dartmouth or something. Both of you will be respected.</p>
<p>And also remember that the Ivy League label means nothing anymore. So what if the Ivies are some of the top universities. By not including Stanford or MIT, are those schools discredited? No, they are not...they are perfectly viable schools as well.</p>
<p>tabulated from link above</p>
<p>Harvard 34
Stanford 18
Caltech 17
MIT 17
U. Cambridge 16
Columbia 15
U. Chicago 15
UC Berkeley 15
Rockefeller U. 14
Princeton 10
Cornell 8
Oxford U. 8
Yale 5
Penn 4
Johns Hopkins 3
Brown 1</p>
<p>Harvard's number includes medical school professors at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass General Hospital, and Children's Hospital Boston.</p>
<p>I don't know how accurate the Wikipedia numbers are - I know there are omissions. For example, Craig Mello, who won last year's Nobel in physiology/medicine from U. Mass got his Ph.D. from Harvard, but he is not listed among Harvard alums. I suspect Harvard will easily top the list even when all affiliates are considered.</p>
<p>My list (I am going to Cornell)</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton (I hated the feel of Princeton's campus, but I still think it can't be beat academically)</li>
<li>Harvard/Yale</li>
<li>Columbia/Cornell
4.Brown
5.Penn/Dartmouth</li>
</ol>
<p>The admit stats shown above are silly for one reason - the poster (as so many Columbia boosters do) is only quoting the admissions ratio for Columbia College. Thats like Yale only quoting the admit stats for its humanities programs or Penn only providing info for Wharton. Either way, if you're going to lean on admit ratios, then also weight it for the types of students who are let in - SAT scores, average GPA, etc. </p>
<p>The Atlantic Monthly did just such an analysis. If you really want to "rank" a school by this borderline metric, then MIT and Caltech are tops. Columbia is only seventh. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200311/peck%5B/url%5D">http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200311/peck</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
i agree totally with johnnyk
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As do I.......</p>
<p>it's silly calling penn the easiest ivy. It has a higher rate because like cornell it has more people, thus accepting more and it doesn't get some of those bogus apps like columbia or brown get. Especially for columbia, a lot of people simply apply because it's in new york, and brown because it has name and people for some reason think they can get in easier, thus more apply.</p>
<p>Here are my completely arbitrary opinions based on preference.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>UPenn (3rd if Wharton)</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Brown</li>
</ol>
<p>Columbia's accept rate is 10.4%, but it can be argued that Columbia isn't as self selecting as some of the other Ivies.</p>
<p>Red&blue,</p>
<p>Your list is bogus. Dartmouth's focus is on undergrads completely! As someone who has attended two Ivies during undergrad, there is no comparison. When it comes to undergrad related factors (teaching, recruiting, endowment/ student, grad placement, access to grants and research, personal attention, friendly and helpful faculty and administration, loyal alumni network) Dartmouth stands out.</p>
<p>If anything it's the opposite. People will apply because it's a school IN NEW YORK CITY.</p>
<p>I run into people who apply to Columbia and NYU because they feel they simply <em>HAVE</em> to be in NYC. I don't find many people applying to Yale and the University of New Haven...</p>
<p>1) I agree with JohnnyK</p>
<p>2) Slipper.....my list isn't bogus. Grow up. All of the rankings here are people's opinions. So....my list is COMPLETELY fine. If I hurt your Dartmouth pride...so be it. </p>
<p>And since you brought up the point abt undergard focus....Yale and Princeton are both very undergrad focused. At least as much as Dartmouth (per your claim). But Y and P easily trump Dartmouth in quality of academics, range of majors, overall wealth (endowment per student and research funding), etc etc. Columbia College also dominates Dartmouth per these same metrics. Ditto for Harvard College.</p>
<p>I could easily continue to trash your "undergrad focus" theme. But, to try this from another angle, if you bothered to read my ranking methods, you'd notice I weighted it towards schools with lots of opportunities for intellectual and personal development; that by definition favors the bigger schools. Some people want small LAC atmospheres----for those people, they can go to the LACs (or LAC type universities). </p>
<p>For MY ranking, scale + scope + great advising wins out. And that means Dartmouth is at the bottom (albiet, of the best). Cheers</p>
<p>I like this one shirt made by yale. What does Harvard and poop have in common? </p>
<p>They are both #2!</p>
<p>I think it's funny how people who haven't gotten in to ANY of the Ivies try to rank them. Was even the worst too good for you? Stop trying to sound like you know them without being at any of them. It just sound. stupid. they are all great schools, any one of them will give you great education and opportunities. what's the point of ranking them, especially if you are among the rejectees.</p>