<p>I've been around this forum for quite a while, and I've seen countless people categorizing colleges into three groups: 1st-tier, 2nd-tier, and 3rd-tier.</p>
<p>I think I have a very general idea on what they are (from my understanding, it's a way of categorizing colleges into "ranks"), but I don't fully understand what exactly determines which college falls into certain category.</p>
<p>I mean obviously, most people will agree that HYPS and MIT all fall into the 1st-tier school. So ok, people seemed to have met a kind of consensus regarding the 1st-tier schools. But for 2nd- and 3rd-tier schools, each person seem to have different opinion on certain schools. For example, some people will put UC Berkeley in the league of 2nd-tier schools while many will put it in the 3rd-tier.</p>
<p>So I'm just curious, what kind of factors do you use to "formulate" the categorization of colleges? Do you mostly base it off from US Newsweek ranking?</p>
<p>Oh i forgot to mention: we are talking about undergrad. program, if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>Anyway, I've actually seen more people reserving the 1st-tier spot to the top private universities (top 20 according to US News) while putting Berkeley in the 2nd-tier category with the top public schools and some privates like Ann Arbor, Virginia, and USC.</p>
<p>US News is a good start. You might argue the exact ranking but all the Top 50 schools listed are at least very good in many areas. I have seen many people buying rap records--does not mean they are any good.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What are tiers, and why are some schools listed in tiers and not number ranked?</p>
<p>In order to focus on the best schools, U.S. News publishes the numbered rank of approximately the top 50 percent of schools in all the categories. The remaining schools are placed in tiers or broad groups, based on their overall score in their category (the third and fourth tiers), and listed alphabetically.
<p>tier is an arbitrary term thrown around here by many people. You'll hear people go "Tier 1 HYPM, Tier 2 Caltech, Brown, Dartmouth, Chicago, Tier 3 the rest..." or something stupid like that.</p>
<p>its complete bunk. USNEWS tiers are as follow, Tier 1 1-100 (1-50), Tier 2 (51-100 they don't actually list a tier 2, they just jump from 1 to 3), Tier 3 101-150, Tier 4 151-the bottom.</p>
<p>"So ok, people seemed to have met a kind of consensus regarding the 1st-tier schools. But for 2nd- and 3rd-tier schools, each person seem to have different opinion on certain schools."</p>
<p>I think it's the opposite, actually. There's much contention over what's first tier, and little contention over second and third tier, from my experience. As others have said, Berkeley is a good example: many place it in the first tier (I definitely would), while others in the place it in the second. I've never heard Berkeley put in the third tier.</p>
<p>I agree with tiers, because it's a lot easier to group colleges than it is to say "Princeton is better than Harvard [by one point]" -- that sort of thing. I'd consider the top 25-30 to be first tier, while 30-55 or so to be second tier.</p>
<p>tier 1 if talking about first 50 univeristies/lac then ucb will definetly be on it and i think kyle what jags was saying is that tier 1 for univiersities in his definition is only the top 6 schools and tier two probably the next top 10 or so and probably tier 3 the next top 10 or so hence why jags would put ucb in tier 3, i don;t think he meant ucb was not a top 50 school</p>
<p>^^ I'm aware of what he meant, but I was clarifying what a 'tier' is, which generally isn't a three-college grouping. A tier tends to be a larger group of schools -- a concept which few on this site grasp. But the meaning of 'tier' has changed and now it comes to mean "HYPSM-1, Dartmouth blahblahblah-2 ..."</p>
<p>Just so I'm clear, why does anyone care? You don't put "I went to a first tier school" on your resume or CV....
How about picking a school that is a good fit for you and be done with it.</p>
<p>darkhope, i wouldn't put berkeley in tier 3, its most definately a "tier 1 school."</p>
<p>I was making fun of people who make ridiculous comments like "only Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are tier one schools and nothing else matters" - which there are several people who think that.</p>
<p>This is a bulls*** thread, and I don't really believe that someone actually posted this with real curiosity. Are you telling me that you don't understand the concept of 1st, 2nd, 3rd-tier? If you wanted to posit that HYP are in tier 1 and you think Berkeley is in Tier 3 and that's your opinion, or that all publics are in Tier 2, why don't you just say that rather than asking a rather transparent and simple question? Clearly you're not going to be Tier 3 material if you can't understand those concepts. I just don't buy the question. What's not to understand in Tier 1, 2, and 3? The question is where the cut-off is and how or by what source its determined. The person who posted this thread already has opinions about this, so what's the point?</p>