<p>"Move Harvard to Ithaca and Cornell to Cambridge, and you will see their fortunes reverse"</p>
<p>here's where I see a problem though. How many students go to harvard because it's located in cambridge? Same for MIT. Harvard will be harvard no matter what. Cornell may or may not change if you stick it in a big city, I'm not going to assume or judge. Yale has a huge yield as well, but New Haven leaves much to be desired!</p>
<p>Today Harvard and MIT are clearly more prestigious than Cornell so it will be hard to tell how many people go to Harvard or MIT because they are located in Cambridge.</p>
<p>But I would argue that one of the main reasons why Harvard or MIT has become a more sought after school (from the perspectives of students, parents, faculty, businesses, etc.) than Cornell is the location--or more precisely, easier access to the location.</p>
<p>Cornell has a lot of things going against it (none of which relates to the quality of its education) that lowers its standings in these revealed preference rankings: its location, the bad weather, the perceived suicide rates, lack of big time sports, perceived grade deflation, stereotype that it lacks hot girls, etc. For a student who is smart enough to do some research into these things and/or visit the campus, I think they can get a bargain of sorts because Cornell has a relatively high acceptance rate for the quality of education it provides. Let's face it, Cornell really should get more applications than it does.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a fake name or pw I could use to log into that linked site? thnx</p>
<p>whoops, i think the study actually takes financial aid into account, as well as a lot of other stuff. it tries to use the same algorithms that are used to rank professional chess and tennis players. i think the nytimes article is referring to this journal article from 2005. i haven't read the whole thing yet. </p>
<p>you can download the full article pdf from that page. Figgy, the nytimes article is free, but if you don't want to setup an account try <a href="http://www.bugmenot.com%5B/url%5D">www.bugmenot.com</a> for a userid/pw</p>
<p>as for whether or not this study actually measures "prestige" i never claimed it does, but i think it comes closer than anything else i've seen. i.e. shows students' preference after attempting to normalize out for a bunch of other factors.</p>
<p>My point is that I don't see "prestige" being determined by high school seniors -- who haven't even attended college yet.</p>
<p>You don't need to have driven a BMW to determine that it's a prestigious brand. Similarly, you don't need to have lived in Beverly Hills, CA, to call it a prestigious residential area. People hear and read about things and form their opinions accordingly. High school seniors read the school rankings, hear what people say about the different schools, and develop their own preferences, which they may feel pretty strong about even without stepping their feet into any of the school campuses.</p>
<p>I was addressing the idea of creating a "prestige" RANKING based on the preference study. I wasn't addressing whether something -- a school, a car, a location-- has "prestige." I just don't think I would agree that, using your example, a BMW has more prestige because more people buy them instead of buying Mercedes cars.</p>
<p>"a BMW has more prestige because more people buy them instead of buying Mercedes cars."
I think the appropriate term should be "choosing to buy... instead of... given the ability to buy either one."</p>
<p>But one have to take into account personal opinion. For example: Rolls Royce and Ferrari attracts different crowd.</p>
<p>"I just don't think I would agree that, using your example, a BMW has more prestige because more people buy them instead of buying Mercedes cars."</p>
<p>OK, it looks like you didn't get my point. A BMW has more prestige, therefore more people buy them. It's not the other way around. Similarly, Harvard has more prestige, therefore an overwhelming number of high school seniors prefer Harvard than any other school. These high school seniors do not determine Harvard's prestige; they use it (and some other factors) to set their preference.</p>
<p>No one cares about prestige except for dumpy high schoolers.</p>
<p>Where it maters, among the educated elite, there is relatively no difference in prestige levels among the top 20 or so universities and LACs.</p>
<p>And the top 20 or so would be, IMHO:<br>
HYPSM
SWAMP
Other 5 Ivies
G-town
Duke
CalTech
Top 3 States (Cal, UVa, Michigan)</p>
<p>HMs: JHU, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, WUSTL, Vassar, Colgate, NW, Chicago, CMU, NYU, Carleton, Tufts</p>
<p>I mean to 20 LACs and top 20 research universities. So the list would look something like that:</p>
<p>Amherst College
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Bryn Mawr College
Carleton College
Claremont McKenna College
Colby College
Colgate University
Davidson College
Grinnell College
Harvey Mudd College
Haverford College
Macalester College
Middlebury College
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Smith College
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College</p>
<p>Brown University
California Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Rice University
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Washington University
Yale University</p>
<p>When one really stops and thinks about it, there are many awesome universities out there. .</p>
<p>Can't argue with your list. Think there's an LAC spot there for Washington & Lee (but at the cost of Bates or Macalester?). Also, am guessing that Vandy's there instead of Notre Dame or Tufts since it has a medical center & the others don't.</p>
<p>And yes, you're right that there are many awesome colleges and universities out there. No wonder the world wants to come to America to be educated. You really can't go wrong with any of them.</p>
<p>I forgot about Washington & Lee, Tufts, Notre Dame and BC. All of those (and a couple more I am sure, like UIUC, UNC, UT-Austin and Wisconsin) were left out unintentially. My point is, there are over 40 colleges and universities that rock.</p>
<p>^ well said</p>
<p>the truth is, if you can get yourself into any of those schools mentioned - you're simply limited by how much effort you want to put in. having a degree from one of those schools proves you are the best that there is to offer.</p>