I am taking the original top 25 and the “not make the cut list” and re-ordering based on my biases having lived in the northeast, midwest and south.
A few top schools I think would be forgotten/wouldn’t make the cut:
Chicago
Penn State
BU
NYU
Rice
From where I’m from only Harvard or MIT.
If you applied or know a bit about colleges in the U.S., then Harvard, MIT And Yale. Followed by either Cornell, UPenn, Stanford or Notre Dame (too many apply to these four)
And TCU would probably make it because tons of people apply there.
NJ Prep School (not avg person, but whatevs)
Always surprised that Notre Dame is ranked so high by a lot of people. Maybe it is a midwest and football thing.
^ND has a very strong alumni network (due to football/school spirit), especially in business. How is it not a top 25/30 school?
1.Most of you are way overestimating the knowledge level of the average person with regard to top colleges. Why would they know?
Notre Dame has been largely a Catholic thing. Many Catholics would choose it over Harvard. Non-Catholics tend to rank it much lower. However, they are making progress in diversifying their faculty and students. I think they are top 25 to average Joe. Primarily because of football. Average Joe does know Touchdown Jesus. Lol
Well I’m from central california and will be attending Rice. The usual conversation goes, “Where are you going to school?” “I’m going to Rice.” blank stare “It’s in Houston.” “oh that’s cool, Houston is nice.” except for like teachers and those who went to top school. Stanford is very much the holy grail for students here and we had one kid who chose Stanford over Harvard and Princeton. I’d bet the majority of people know HYPS and almost everyone knows ND because it’s a very Christian and conservative area. People know UCLA and USC and a slightly smaller number know Berkeley. My friend got into Duke and everyone seemed to know that was a big thing. Another kid is going to Pomona and no one has any idea what it is besides maybe the top 5% or so. Cal Poly is known by a lot of people and is well-respected. Besides those football schools lol. At my school itself about 25% of kids could probably name more than 4 Ivies and and 10% could name all of them. I have a lot of friends in the Bay Area though and they seem to know a lot more schools for academic quality.
I am not sure if the average person would know this but Notre Dame is the most politically important and politically active school of the top 25 schools. Influence is far greater than football.
In CA, some people place Berkeley on the same level at Stanford (mostly asian families). Also, in general, Princeton isn’t as well known as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.
From experience at an average public high school in NYC, if you get into Binghamton everyone kisses your feet because of how smart you are. If you manage to be graced by acceptance to Baruch or Hunter you’re also a certified genius.
Other than that, people have heard legends of a school called “Harvard” (but where is it?) and probably some D1 college basketball teams, but that’s all.
*Forgot about NYU. Yes, it does have a mystical quality to it among public school kids. I used to be caught up in it.
Really, “everyone kisses your feet” for getting into Binghamton? Outside NY people have not really heard of it. I believe it is most often a safety for NY students. I think over 80% of the students offered admission turn it down. Apparently NY spends a ton promoting the idea it is “the premier university…”. Not sure this is true but someone said they are now piping that propaganda into the buildings and in the phone system. I think that means that while you walk through some buildings on campus or are put on hold if you call there you are fed propaganda about how you are enrolled in the “premiere university…”. I guess it is intended to make students feel better about being there. I’m not sure. I doubt it works. People figure out what is true and what is propaganda. People tend to appreciate the truth over lies.
It is a decent middle sized public university. The PR trying to elevate it and depict it as something it isn’t just backfires. They should stop ramming the image of it being a “premiere university” down the throat of the public. It simply isn’t that. It trails Pitt, Texas A & M, Rutgers, VT, Mass and most of the flagships of other states. Now it seems to trail Stony Brook, Geneseo and ESF and other SUNYs. It is apparently busting at the seams and the academic facilities have fallen far behind those of other schools. But it is a decent mid sized public university.
Talking about Binghamton, it seems there is no clear flagship state u in New York State.
No there is no flagship.
When the SUNY system was developed, long after the flagships of most states were well established and were attracting NY students, the officials promised that the SUNY system would not compete with private schools for students. Promising the no-compete was one of the ways that SUNY system was able to counter the resistance to establishing the system. The officials promised that the schools would be designed expressly for students who could not afford private schools and who would otherwise not have access to higher education.
The SUNY officials promised they would not target students who could attend private schools. The utilitarian look to the buildings and the general aesthetics of the campuses are probably attributable to that promise. It is ironic that the PR now seems to be geared towards trying to convince the public that SUNYs are the same as private schools, just cheaper. So do the SUNY schools compete with private ones or have they stayed true to their word?
Like I said, this is among “average public school students in NYC.” Meaning a school with a good graduation rate, high grade inflation, average SATs in the 1400-1500s, and where 98% of graduates go to a lesser CUNY. So yes, a Binghamton student is considered to be a god among mortals.
^That school description is very surprising. I’m tempted to call BS but I’ll take your word for it.
I think many of you are under estimating the public. In the 1950s most people in areas away from the coasts attended local schools. Not true anymore. So I think the various top schools are well known to the lay public. From an international perspective, I’d expect far fewer to be known except for by those who have family members who attend or plan to attend US schools or who have spent a lot of time in the US. Just like Cambridge and Oxford (but not others) are known by most Americans, I expect those from other countries to know Harvard and Johns Hopkins (maybe Stanford). Why Hopkins? Maybe because of the medical school but when I’ve traveled outside the US those two are the ones mentioned most by people who don’t know a lot about education…
The overwhelming majority of people in the country still attend relatively local schools. The median distance students with a higher range ACT (28-36) score travelled for college [was 113 miles, and that was far higher than most other students](http://www.act.org/newsroom/how-far-from-home-do-us-students-travel-to-attend-college/). When one considers that 113 miles usually means that a student will stay in state for much of the US, it’s hardly surprising that local students elevate near local schools.
By the way, I suspect people on both coasts traveled about the same distance for college as students in the middle of the country. In fact, there is some data which shows that those in the Northeast are among the [least geographically](https://www.census.gov/hhes/migration/data/acs/state-to-state.html) mobile people in the entire country. When migration to nearby, but technically out of region, states is considered, the data suggests the people become even less migratorily mobile.
I can assure you I’m not lying. That was my high school. When I took the PSAT and got a 185 people thought I was a genius.
SafefromScience. A school with high grade inflation is not necessarily a very good high school and it surprises me that the school would have average SATs in the 1400-1500 range, if you mean for the first 2 subtests of the SATs. If you are including all 3, then that is another story. Regardless of what Binghamton PR would have you believe, plenty of Binghamton students had SATs in the low 500s and 400s. That’s right, in the 400s. They apparently find ways not to count those students in the material they publish or they accept students from CC with poor academic backgrounds. These are not A students who happen not to test well either. There is some justification for discounting the scores of students with outstanding grades but who happen not to perform well on the standardized test. The students I’m talking about have grades that are consistent with their SAT scores which means that their low scores were caused by poor academic achievement not problems with test taking. If people at your high school view Binghamton to be filled with gods, they may have very low standards. I assume yours are higher.