Ranking Colleges by Prestigiosity

College Search & Selection
201

<p>Do the new posters realize the initial tongue in cheek origin of this almost 4 year old thread?</p>

202

<p>OK, hereā€™s my revised list, taking into account recent developments:</p>

<p>Harvard: 1000 mH
Yale/Princeton: 998 mH
MIT (or Caltech): 997.365782322119 mH
Stanford: 995 mH (998 west of the Mississippi)
Penn (Wharton): 992
Duke: 990 mH (995 south of the Mason Dixon line)
Columbia: 990 mH
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore: 988 mH
Brown: 987 mH
Penn (other than Wharton), Dartmouth: 985 mH
Cornell (CAS and engineering): 980 mH
Chicago: 980 mH
Northwestern, WUSTL, Rice: 975 mH
Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Emory: 950 mH
Tufts, Georgetown, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Bowdoin: 925 mH
University of Virginia: 900 mH (950 in Virginia; 990 in Virginia excluding Northern Virginia)
UC Berkeley: 900 mH
Michigan 890 mH
UCLA, CMU, Notre Dame: 880</p>

<p>CC Darlings (in alphabetical order):
Alabama (for merit scholarships)
Carleton
Claremont Colleges
Deep Springs
Grinnell
Harvey Mudd
Kenyon
Macalester
Oberlin
Reed
Smith
St. Johns </p>

<p>Changes and explanation: Penn (Wharton) has been bumped up. It appears to me that it continues to grow as a hot ticket. Iā€™m also reading more about Vandy, so it gets a boost. I added Middlebury and Bowdoin to the Tufts, Georgetown and Wesleyan level. Canā€™t honestly add Colorado College. Maybe itā€™s a CC Darling, but I just havenā€™t read too much about it. I donā€™t see much change in interest in Chicago in the last couple of years.</p>

203

<p>And jym, although this thread is, in a way, tongue in cheek, I continue to maintain that my ratings method is just as good as the others.</p>

204

<p>Stanford should at least be at 998! Itā€™s gaining more and more in prestige, especially since this year was its lowest admit year ever. 5% or something crazy like that. </p>

205

<p>Donā€™t confuse prestige with prestigiosity.</p>

206

<p>Baruch has been mentioned several times now a days. What prestigiosty do you assign to it? 99.99? ;)) </p>

207

<p>Isnā€™t Harvey Mudd one of the Claremont Colleges? Also, Iā€™ve been reading a lot about Pomona on this site - I think it needs to crack the list and I suggest placing it higher than the Middlebury, Bowdoin, Tufts, Georgetown and Wesleyan level.</p>

208

<p>Didnā€™t Pomona fudge its stats? I donā€™t want to use my immense power to reward that behavior. Harvey Mudd is indeed one of the Claremont Colleges; I list it separately because it is often discussed in connection with STEM schools and programs.</p>

209

<p>Stanford: 1000 mH
Harvard: 1000 mH
Yale: 995 mH
Princeton: 990 mH
MIT: 986 mH
Columbia: 980 mH
Chicago: 977 mH
Penn: 975 mH
Duke: 975 mH
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore: 970 mH
UC Berkeley: 955 mH
Brown: 950 mH
Dartmouth: 950 mH
Cornell (CAS and engineering): 941 mH
Northwestern, WUSTL, Rice: 940 mH</p>

1 Like
210

<p>I believe @giantman @Findmoreinfo @InkeDotLy have it rightā€¦Stanford and Harvard are at the top. </p>

211

<p>

No disagreement there, Hunt, Just concerned that some pore newbie reading along might miss the irony.</p>

<p>This is my personal favorite ranking system. Please refresh it several times to enjoy it to its fullest <a href=ā€œCollege Ranking Service, A Peerless Evaluation of Colleges, rankyourcollege.comā€>http://www.rankyourcollege.com/ddmethod.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

212

<p>Emory on the same level as Vanderbilt and JHU? And above Tufts, Georgetown, and Berkeley? PSHHH no way. Iā€™d have to put it at 890, tied with Michigan. Both large Jewish populations that didnā€™t get into an Ivy, NYU or Tufts. </p>

213

<p>I donā€™t want to be mean about this, but nobody with fewer than 10,000 posts can have a truly informed opinion on prestigiosity.</p>

214

<p>^^Hunt, are you sure CC calculated your posts correctly? I remember there was one poster who had over 2 million credits.</p>

215

<p>Iā€™m a bit embarrassed to say my numbers are real. Iā€™ve been posting here since (I think) 2007 or 2008.</p>

216

<p>@Hunt, no, it was not Pomona that fudged its scores, but its neighboring school, CMC. Both HMC and Pomona are equally tied for SAT scores, Pomona has a lower acceptance rate, and Mudd has the higher SATs. Both are the top two most selectives LACs in the country</p>

217

<p>One reason I added the ā€œCC Darlingsā€ list is that I think there are a number of schools that are recognized on CC as being great schools, but perhaps are not that well-known elsewhere (or even on CC among new members). Pointing them out is one of the great opportunities and pleasures of posting here. That list is a little less tongue in cheek than the other one.</p>

218

<p>Stanford: 1000 mH
Harvard: 1000 mH
Yale: 995 mH
Princeton: 993 mH
MIT: 990 mH
Chicago: 988 mH
Columbia: 987 mH
Caltech: 980 mH
Penn: 975 mH
Duke: 974 mH
UC Berkeley: 970 mH
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore: 965 mH
Brown: 950 mH
Dartmouth: 950 mH
Cornell (CAS and engineering): 941 mH
Northwestern, WUSTL, Rice: 940 mH</p>

219

<p>With the recent upsurge on Stanford selectivity, should it be 1001 mH? lol</p>

220

<p>Note: selectivity may affect prestigiosity, but it isnā€™t the same thing. Harvard is still in a class of its own in this respect. Itā€™s still (for example) the name used most when what is meant is ā€œa really, really top college.ā€ That pains me to admit, as a Yale grad, but itā€™s the truth.</p>