<p>For those who are still oblivious to what is going on with the waning influence of the so called "ivy league" you might want to read this humorous take:</p>
<p>Ivy</a> League - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia</p>
<p>It has been rather obvious for those in the know and becoming more accepted in the public as well...</p>
<p>I thought the public at large was already well aware that Stanford and MIT are better than the majority of the ivies. Chicago is a newer one, but it too is better than at least a few of the ivies.</p>
<p>It would be nice to see Stanford, MIT or Chicago pry into the top 3 on USNWR, possibly dethroning Yale.</p>
<p>I think that UChicago will at least break the tie with Columbia to be alone at #4. And the following year, when the 8.8% acceptance rate and the >50% yield are factored in, we might beat Yale.</p>
<p>Harvard Yale Princeton have pretty much cemented their superiority as the top 3. Breaking tie with Columbia might be justifiable but even tying with Yale would be a stretch.</p>
<p>Even if Chicago did crack the top 3 on USNWR, I don’t think any colleges will ever truly match Harvard, Princeton or Yale’s incredible reputations and prestige in the eyes of the public at large- Certainly not any time soon.</p>
<p>I could possibly see Yale and Chicago being tied for 3 on USNWR in a year or two.</p>
<p>@friedman, so you set on coming to chicago?</p>
<p>Yeah, probably unless I get off the Columbia waitlist. I visited the school and really liked it. I just like city atmospheres better than the rural. With regards to ibanking recruitment, I’ve heard repeatedly that even though there’s a little more recruitment at Dartmouth, proportionally more students will apply to the positions, so I think it evens out.</p>
<p>I know prestige/public perception shouldn’t factor into my decision, but I really think that in ~3-4 years, nobody will question UChicago being ranked ahead Stanford or MIT. I looked it up, and as recently as 2008, the acceptance rate was 37%, then 18% in 2010 and now 8.8% in 2013. Who knows what it will be by 2017 (my graduating year)?</p>
<p>Personally, I think Cornell and maybe even Brown should be kicked out of the Ivy League and replaced by Stanford, UChicago, MIT, and maybe even Duke.</p>
<p>It is threads like these that make people perceive CC as elitist.</p>
<p>These threads show how uninformed most high school students are because even Harvard admits it is finding it harder to compete with UChicago these days:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1492144-harvard-crimson-profs-wont-leave-uchicago-harvard.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1492144-harvard-crimson-profs-wont-leave-uchicago-harvard.html</a></p>
<p>As the former head of the Harvard News Office once said to me, “You don’t want to ask the general public what they think the top schools are. I’ve seen the surveys. It’s all football schools.” Only on CC are people so delusional as to think that the average person sits around obsessing about HYP. I loved the episode of Family Feud in which the host asks the contestants to name a top school. After naming UCLA, the family struck out without ever once mentioning HYP.</p>
<p>As much as I would love to see UChicago continue to grow and prosper, unless the school can find $10 -15 billion to add to its endowment, it won’t be touching HYP anytime soon.</p>
<p>@friedman, so stanford will travel all the way to new england to play a basketball game, right?</p>
<p>The ivy league is the ivy league, and the schools in the ivy league now will most likely remain in the ivy league forever. it’s simply an association formed by 8 schools so that they can compete with each other athletic because of the proximity.</p>
<p>@truth123, lol I’d love to see that episode!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1390651-usnews-best-colleges-2013-stop-speculating-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1390651-usnews-best-colleges-2013-stop-speculating-2.html</a></p>
<p>Schools… Harv Pton Yale Chic Colu Stan MIT Duke Penn Calt
Overall Score 100 100 99 95 95 94 94 93 93 92</p>
<p>4 points difference. It seems it will take a while (10~20 years) to catch up with Yale…from #4 to tie #3.</p>
<p>What wikiCu Columbia University staff were alluding to is sort of a “fantasy league team” of MVP members made up of academic powerhouses that have held consistent sway over the past several decades on the world’s stage…the only ones missing are University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Caltech.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.metauniversityranking.com/worlds-top-50-universities-metascore/[/url]”>www.metauniversityranking.com/worlds-top-50-universities-metascore/</a></p>
<p>an anecdote:
today in class my econ teacher (HS) said “I try my best to teach the class to the standard of that in an introductory course at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and the University of Chicago.” And I live on the east coast.</p>
<p>Eh, although there might be some truth to the “Ivy Should-be’s” section, I don’t think a satirical Wiki edited by Columbia students (I highly doubt any staff was involved with this) is proof that UChicago’s status as an “Ivy Should be” is becoming more accepted in the public. Either way, even though UChicago might actually surpass some of the Ivies in academic measures (though I suspect that the gap is smaller than some might claim), I don’t think it’s worth our time or energy to prove this or let it be known to the public. The more people affiliated to non-Ivy top schools obsess over “surpassing” the Ivy league, the more the league’s image as the absolute top schools in the nation (a group which they are part of, no doubt) becomes entrenched. This is a trend I’ve seen here sometimes, as well as in the boards of other top schools, and it saddens me a bit. I personally don’t care about UChicago’s reputation as long as grad schools and professionals are aware of its educational quality.</p>
<p>@PMCM18. I respect and understand your views. I use to be a devout “idealist” like you and many of the Chicago grads from early 80s. But having read through many of the more recent graduate posts from the likes of Cue7 and Phuriku and others I also understand why Chicago needs to stay RELEVANT in the eyes of the public whether we like it or not. The rankings may not matter to you and some of the “purests” that would be happy in the “ascetic life of the mind” at either Chicago or Caltech…when you do apply for jobs in the “real world” unfortunately they do “care” no matter how superficial it may seem. Even though you may not appreciate it now…what President Zimmer and Mr. Nondorf have done to make Chicago RELEVANT in the minds of uninformed parents, uninformed students, uninformed high school guidance counselors (they have historically been the worst group to dissuade students from applying to Chicago in the past) should be commended. </p>
<p>You could have one of the best educations to offer in the world but if the “general public” does not know about it they will not apply…and the general public is “biased” toward the rankings especially in the USNWR that Chicago never took seriously until recent years. It is a vicious cycle the more people apply the higher the ranking, the higher the ranking more people apply thus lowering the acceptance rate…so on and so on. For better or worse, Chicago has finally joined other schools like Stanford and Duke in doing what it needs to do.</p>
<p>^^In all honesty, I think Harvard and Stanford will be battling it out for the honor of carrying the mantle as the top dog now and into the future regardless of what the USNWR says. With the trajectory seen in the admissions selectivity (lower than Harvard’s), more money being donated than any institution yearly since 2008, yield rate approaching Harvard’s and possibly exceeding that of Harvard’s in the near future, the shift of economic power from the east coast to the west coast due to its ties to Asian powers, becoming the #1 dream school for students and parents for the past few years…all point to Stanford. No matter how much we like to dismiss Stanford as a “technology school” for the entrepreneurs…Stanford has top programs in most other areas of study. I know how much people from the northeast love to look down on anything past New York…it is a strong wake up call what is happening in the world of competitive university “business”. Trust me, Harvard is not worried about Yale or Princeton…they are deeply worried about Stanford. I wouldn’t be surprised that Harvard and Stanford will be both ranked #1 to be politically correct.</p>
<p>…I believe Yale, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, and Princeton will be jockeying for the 2-5 position in the years to come. As for Chicago, it is still lacking an engineering program which will be its rate limiting step…</p>