<p>Isn't it, though? It's the spice to life ... if you don't have a life yet.</p>
<p>I wonder what it says about the respective populations of the schools that the MIT posters immediately cried "********" to this question, while the Harvard posters seriously analyzed it. Somehow, I'm not terribly surprised. I'll let you draw your own conclusions; I certainly have mine. ;)</p>
<p>hehe perplexitudinous, that's why im going to MIT now =P</p>
<p>Maybe because harvardguy was clearly biased against MIT to begin with...</p>
<p>Edit: Responding to kcastelle</p>
<p>No he wasn't, Perplexitudinous. None of the departments he asked about were humanities or anything to which the answer is very obvious. The schools are truly comparable in most of them. I'm afraid I don't see the "clear bias".</p>
<p>well... something could conceivably be inferred from the username</p>
<p>I actually had an argument to that typed up, but I decided it's not worth it. <em>doesn't bring up what can be inferred from Location: Pasadena, CA</em></p>
<p>;-) point taken.</p>
<p>btw, have you heard of Pasadena Community College? that would scuttle the inference <em>giggle</em></p>
<p>kcastelle, if you had read harvardguy's posts on other threads, it would be obvious to you that he is a troll..
<a href="http://z.about.com/d/collectdolls/1/0/l/G/troll.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://z.about.com/d/collectdolls/1/0/l/G/troll.jpg</a></p>
<p>ATTENTION MIT COMMUNITY ...</p>
<p>kcastelle-- </p>
<p>"I wonder what it says about the respective populations of the schools that the MIT posters immediately cried "********" to this question, while the Harvard posters seriously analyzed it. Somehow, I'm not terribly surprised. I'll let you draw your own conclusions; I certainly have mine. ;)"</p>
<p>Extraordinary point. I never noticed it!</p>
<p>Don't Personalize, Rationalize.</p>
<p>I don't think anybody cried **********, I think the MIT (and caltech) people really just don't care a whole a lot about "reputation", and are passionate only on the subject of eliminating the incessant trolling...</p>
<p>Everybody (until now) is overlooking a significant positive side effect -- MIT and Caltech are now firmly united against trollishness and snobbery.</p>
<p>Thanks harvardguy and mdx49!</p>
<p>And there's an even better side effect: I've been declared by <em>BEN</em> to be an embarrassment to College Confidential. I feel so prestigious.</p>
<p>Guys, how about some relevent data?</p>
<p>From here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology</a></p>
<p>Comes this:
Ranking and reputation
MIT is ranked #2 overall among the world's top 200 universities by The Times Higher Education Supplement (2005) and #1 worldwide in technology.[7] According to the US News and World Report undergraduate rankings, MIT's composite undergraduate ranking has fluctuated between #3 and #7 in the nation. However, it is the only school to be ranked #1 in "academic reputation" every single year (often, but not always, tied with Harvard and Stanford, and in the last several years, also tied with Princeton, Yale and Duke University).</p>
<p>The National Research Council, in a 1995 study ranking research universities in the US, ranked MIT #1 in "reputation" and #4 for "citations or awards density" for all programs. [8] The Atlantic Monthly ranked MIT in 2004 as the most selective university in the United States, and it is consistently ranked #1 or #2 in terms of selectivity in most rankings. Nevertheless, undergraduate attendance at MIT has not carried the same type of social cachet as attendance at Harvard, Yale or Princeton.[9] This has been attributed by MIT's representatives to its longstanding traditions of meritocratic admissions, stringent grading standards, and comparatively low emphasis on admitting children of alumni and students from the upper class.</p>
<p>afriend-- Bravo! That was the second most important data I received in this forum.</p>
<p>
Okay, after looking back through his posts to find something previous to this thread, I'll concede the point. You win that one. :)</p>
<p>Also, to clarify what harvardguy quoted me on, I mean that if prestige is your motivation, you go to Harvard, and if you're looking for a school that cares more about merit than prestige (and is of course also very prestigious), you go across the bridge to MIT.</p>
<p>harvardguy, it would be very easy for you to use Wikipedia yourself to look up MIT and Harvard and read what is written there about their respective reputations and rankings. Just as would going to the library and looking them up in the encyclopedia. As the representative of "an academic", surely you have access to more valued research tools than a school-specific discussion forum on CollegeConfidential.com, if you are in fact looking for studies in these areas. By the way, not everyone makes their college choice by looking at surveys and ranked lists.</p>
<p>I would like to suggest to readers that it might not be worthwhile to prolong this discussion.</p>
<p>kcastelle-- I never said it IS NOT a compliment to MIT. I guess YOU MISSED my point.
Come to think of it, I NEVER SAID A THING AGAINST MIT. But still the MIT community has a whole thread with lots of posts about it. But I am not complaining. I kinda like it.
Just a thought. Why the comparision thing is so, let's just say, controversial, particularly against Harvard, let's not forget Yale.</p>
<p>P.S. Sorry about the quoting thing. Your post was the last one before that thread was closed, the one I was beginning to like.</p>
<p>mootmom-- You look like a wise person, and I might add a pretty sharp observer too. But I can assure you that this discussion IS wothwhile. The sources you quoted like wikipedia, library books and the "more valued research tools"; I actually have exhausted them all. Trust me. I DID my homework. And all that has led me to this. This anonymous poll is REALLY WORTHWHILE. So I implore the readers, DO pay attention to this thread. Your post and your criticisms are really appreciated by us.</p>