<p>Please give your opinionated ranking of the Ivies in terms of their undergraduate programs. Please don't take their graduate programs into consideration. (When ranking Penn, please separate Wharton from the rest of Penn).</p>
<p>I think Dartmouth is high up, and maybe Yale or Princeton (I get them mixed up alot.) I think Harvard is pretty low, and maybe Wharton, but that does not mean that they are not great schools (or parts of schools).</p>
<p>Purely speculative opinion of mine based on broad generalizations and stereotypes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Columbia (I don't like the core, so this is more bias than anything else) </li>
</ol>
<p>More undergraduate-focused institutions near the top, and bigger research universities on the bottom...</p>
<p>I also neglected to put Wharton on the list ... wouldn't know where to put it.</p>
<p>opinionated, eh?</p>
<ol>
<li>dartmouth</li>
<li>princeton</li>
<li>yale</li>
<li>brown</li>
<li>penn</li>
<li>harvard</li>
<li>columbia</li>
<li>cornell</li>
</ol>
<p>this is completely not based in anything objective, just my experience and those of my friends at these schools. I don't know anything about wharton so i didn't put it up there.</p>
<p>I agree that Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth have the "best" undergrad programs, Brown is in the middle, and Penn, Columbia, and Harvard are worst, but they are not even that bad, they are just more for grad school. However, I think Cornell is in the middle with Brown, or just below it.</p>
<p>I don't really know why people feel the need to rank, but I guess I'll do it just for the heck of it. :P </p>
<ol>
<li>Dartmouth (OK, a bit biased here. . .) </li>
<li>Brown (the lax curriculum is pretty cool IMO)
3-7. The others. </li>
<li>Harvard (seems very graduate-student focused, but obviously, Harvard is still a great place for undergrads to get their education)</li>
</ol>
<p>Let me explain why we're putting Dartmouth so high up. Basically, it is an undergraduate school (hence the emphasis on Dartmouth College, when by all rights, it is a university). It has the feel of a liberal arts college, except for the fact that it has graduate schools, where you can take classes if you want to go deeper in your major. However, the focus is on the undergraduates, because they are the majority. If undergraduates want to do research, they can to a greater degree than at other schools, because professors have slim pickings when it comes to graduates. Also, few TAs teach classes, and there are small class sizes except for the introductory courses.</p>
<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, because all this information came from students I talked to at Dimensions.</p>
<p>maybe harvard's undergrad isnt perfect, but it will position you best for grad school or a job....usually</p>
<p>I think
1.princeton
2.yale
3. dartmouth
4.brown</p>
<ol>
<li>Dartmouth- based upon overall undergraduate education and experience.</li>
<li>Princeton- ditto, but very different</li>
<li>Yale- starts to get graduate level focus</li>
<li>Brown- for the right person I might swap with any of the above 3</li>
<li>Penn-</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Harvard- I have had graduates tell me not to go for undergrad, but it is the place to go for graduate</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard/ Brown</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
</ol>
<p>1 Dartmouth
2 Princeton
3 Yale
4 Cornell
5 Columbia
6 Penn
7 Brown
8 Harvard</p>
<p>1 yale
2 princeton
3 columbia
(i put columbia over dartmouth cuz it's in new york unlike "out of nowhere" other than dat i like both school equally)
4 dartmouth</p>
<p>5 brown
6 cornell
harvard
upenn</p>
<p>^I took me a minute or two to read that horrible sentence. No puntuation. Made up words. Also, there is NO WAY that Columbia is has a better undergraduate programs based on the fact it is in New York. I don't even understand that logic. Also, It is "out in the middle of nowhere"; you missed the middle part of that idiom.</p>
<p>Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth are the top three purely in terms of undergrad quality. The first two will probably turn a few more heads, so if you're looking for prestige as the average layman perceives it, they're your best shot. As has been said before, Dartmouth doesn't have much in the way of grad schools so its focus is primarily on undergrads.</p>
<p>In the second tier I'd place Brown, Harvard, and UPenn. Brown has the open curriculum so if you want to do your own thing that will be best. Harvard has the best brand name anywhere and UPenn CAS isn't bad at all.</p>
<p>Of course Columbia and Cornell are great schools but in terms of undergrad education I'd say they fall last.</p>
<p>Remember to take these opinions with a grain of salt. Your best judgment will be better than the beliefs of likely biased, detached internet forum posters :)</p>
<p>Wwoody123, I don't understand why Cornell falls last for undergrad education. Cornell has the largest and most diverse course offerings (for undergrads) in the Ivy League. Also, from a research perspective, Cornell has made it very easy for undergrads to get actively involved in groundbreaking research with professors. So what makes it fall last?</p>
<p>^ Very graduate-student focused and the larger university also means that you don't really get to know your professors. Also, I don't think there's that sense of "community" for it being located in the middle of nowhere, which Dartmouth seems to have, but that's just my opinion. :P</p>
<p>The fact that Cornell is a larger university doesn't make it not as good for undergraduate education. In fact, Cornell has the third smallest liberal arts college in the Ivy League. There may be a lot of undergrads on campus, but they are divided into seven smaller colleges, so they do actually get to know their professors well.</p>
<p>
[quote]
^ Very graduate-student focused and the larger university also means that you don't really get to know your professors. Also, I don't think there's that sense of "community" for it being located in the middle of nowhere, which Dartmouth seems to have, but that's just my opinion. :P
[/quote]
</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I got a lot of attention as an undergraduate at Cornell. Most classes were 10-20 students. The larger ones had sections that met with the professor and through them we had wonderfully intellectual conversations and got to know each other well.</p></li>
<li><p>I still keep in touch with several of my Cornell professors. Had some great times tossing a few beers back and philosophizing on life with them, both as a student and afterward. One professor even invited us out to his hobby farm for a weekend-long party every year. </p></li>
<li><p>Ithaca, New York probably has more "sense of community" than any place I've ever seen. Ithaca is a very vibrant and close knit community, with everything from the only North American seat of the Dalai Lama to many wineries to world renowned restaurants and funky arthouse theatres. It has its own money, elected the first Communist mayor in the country, and has some of the most progressive policies in the world that have served as templates for policies in other cities around the world. Agree with it or not, it is far from the "middle of nowhere".</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don't know how any one could possibly rank 8 schools that each offer such different opportunities, so I won't. I just find so many incredibly false statements about Cornell made by people who do not know anything about the school on these boards that sometimes corrections are in order.</p>
<p>Carry on.</p>
<p>Don't you guys think this list is a bit biased considering it's in the Dartmouth board? Try posting this same thread in the Harvard board and let's see what happens....</p>
<p>I think it is supposed to be biased. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I never took this thread to show exactly what schools would provide the best undergraduate education/experience. It was meant to reflect what is best for each person who compiles their rankings. For me, at least, Dartmouth is number one. I have directed multiple people away from Dartmouth though, becuase I know it isn't for them.</p>
<p>So,</p>