top 15 most prestigious universities

College Search & Selection
901

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I picked my schools based solely on its reputation in the field I'm interested in taking in the future. Let me go to Harvard for engineering. It may sound impressive, but you will be heavily looked down upon by peers from other schools who are in the know and are in the mix.

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<p>I know someone who was a top candidate for both Stanford and Harvard, and was hard-set on engineering, and chose Harvard, even though distance and financial aid weren't factors. People are guessing it was the "prestige."</p>

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His rationale is that since the uni is putting so much money into the school as we speak, an initially low engineering student body + influx of cash = more money/student.

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<p>That's an interesting rationale. But then you have to consider that at schools where the engineering program is already top, money galore is being put into the programs to sate the top people in these programs. And of course, that's not even counting the typically superior faculty, better and more plentiful facilities, the best-of-the-best grad students, amazing library collections in the area, etc. Perhaps it's just me, but I'd much rather go to a school with a top program rather than one with an up-and-coming program in my field of study. Then again, how will that up-and-coming program grow without people having faith in it?</p>

<p>I have faith in Harvard's engineering, I do.</p>

<p>(But it just ain't the same as Stanford's. :))</p>

902

<p>^^ I believe Yale has more engineering majors than Harvard (and actual engineering majors rather than just EngSci)</p>

<p>With a billion dollars invested into science/engineering and a 1:1 student/faculty ratio in the department, I have faith in Yale's engineering, I do. :P</p>

903

<p>^^ that's actually what I mean. The money is going towards the newly established (as of earlier this year) School of Engineering and Applied Science (a grad school).</p>

904

<p>

1.) It could be a slipup or the overall statistics might be exactly the same as the rate of premed acceptance at the med school center. You don't work at an Advising Center so you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. You have no proof that they are "hiding something".</p>

<p>2.) MIT's premed advising center might screen its applicants. I have no idea honestly. You're assuming too much anyway by thinking why "the same won't happen at Duke". Again, you have no proof of anything. You can only speculate.</p>

<p>A 3rd viable explanation is that this data is simply not available to the school for a variety of reasons. I have noticed that the Career Centers at private schools don't disclose as much data as those at Berkeley and Michigan for example do. Why doesn't Stanford have an exact listing of how many people are working at Google, Goldman Sachs, Bain, Medtronic, etc. etc. every year? Are they hiding something?</p>

905

<p>


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<p>You see, on this board, many Dukies often try to convince others that Duke is better than their school. Often, this fallacious statistic is used to do so. I have a problem with this because tons and tons of prospective students browse these boards and if they see how these Dukie posters incorrectly use these statistics, then they might be tricked into thinking Duke is actually better for premed than any other T25 school. That is why I want to dispel the notion that this statistic is actually valid.</p>

906

<p>
[quote]
Why doesn't Stanford have an exact listing of how many people are working at Google, Goldman Sachs, Bain, Medtronic, etc. etc. every year? Are they hiding something?

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<p>Er, they do, for all the students that respond--it's the destination survey. Check CardinalCareers.</p>

907

<p>

There are probably about 20 Duke Basketball moments that would top that shot even in the last 10 years. Regardless of what kind of prestige you're talking about, Duke stands alone at the top of the hill with regards to dominance in the modern era of college basketball.</p>

<p>

Yeah and Duke was ranked higher than Stanford in USNews several years back. That doesn't make Duke the better school academically. UNC is not better than Duke bball in the modern era. "Similar"...maybe. It has outperformed Duke of late but the way ESPN calculates the Prestige rankings, UNC would have to win the national title for the next 3 years while Duke would have to not make it to the tournament or have a winning regular season during that period of time in order to catch up. That's basically an impossibility.</p>

<p>I don't understand the relevance of Tiger Woods here. Golf isn't a money generating sport for a university and while it's cool to have a celebrity like that be an alumni, it means squat when comparing sports dominance. Football, Basketball and to a much lesser extent Hockey, Lacrosse and Baseball are really the only sports that "matter" for institutional pride.</p>

908

<p>
[quote]
1.) It could be a slipup or the overall statistics might be exactly the same as the rate of premed acceptance at the med school center.

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<p>If the overall statistics were the same, why doesn't Duke just release the overall statistic? You just completely beat around the bush here, this is the question I was asking you. Do you really think they "slipped up" every year for the last 10 years? Seems like a shoddy argument to me.</p>

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You don't work at an Advising Center so you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. You have no proof that they are "hiding something".

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<p>You don't work there either. See? It works both ways. You have no proof that they are not "hiding something." </p>

<p>And by the way, let me reiterate, THE STATISTIC DID NOT PERTAIN TO THOSE WHO USED ADVISING. THE STATISTIC PERTAINED TO THOSE WHO APPLIED THROUGH THE PREMED CENTER. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS BEFORE YOU KEEP ARGUING!!! IF THEY PROVIDED THE STATISTIC FOR THOSE WHO USED ADVISING, IT WOULD BE SLIGHTLY MORE REASONABLE THAN THE STATISTIC FOR THOSE WHO APPLIED THROUGH DUKE'S PREMED CENTER, because a larger number of people use advising rather than applying through their medical center.</p>

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[quote]
A 3rd viable explanation is that this data is simply not available to the school for a variety of reasons. I have noticed that the Career Centers at private schools don't disclose as much data as those at Berkeley and Michigan for example do. Why doesn't Stanford have an exact listing of how many people are working at Google, Goldman Sachs, Bain, Medtronic, etc. etc. every year? Are they hiding something?

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<p>This is utterly false. Every other top 25 school in the nation offers these statistics. Why won't Duke release them?</p>

<p>You see, I would have no problem if Duke actually released the overall acceptance rate in conjunction with the rate for premeds who applied through Duke's center. But Duke only releases data for those who apply through the premed center thereby inflating their premed acceptance rate, thus encouraging prospective students to think that Duke's premed is better than the premed of other T25 schools when in actuality it is not.</p>

909

<p>Even I'll agree that Duke basketball > Stanford basketball. That's kind of dumb argument. Look at all the quality NBA stars Duke has produced.</p>

<p>Heck most people here in the Northeast know Duke for its basketball team rather than anything else. Duke basketball is amazing.</p>

910

<p>But what about beyond basketball? Stanford athletics > Duke athletics, because Stanford has the money, the quality, and the prestige to attract the strongest athletes who also happen to be strong students as well.</p>

911

<p>
[quote]
they might be tricked into thinking Duke is actually better for premed than any other T25 school.

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<p>so u don't think that duke is better for premed than any other top 25 school.....?</p>

<p>i mean, sure... duke people may make duke sound a lot better than it really is... but making duke sound worse isn't any better... </p>

<p>people, like you, doing that is what makes duke students feel like they have to raise their school up...</p>

<p>not many (real) duke students honestly think that duke is on par with hypsm.... duke's real peers are schools like non hyp ivies, jhu, northwestern, chicago, etc.... you have to understand that many of the people who say duke is as good as harvard are trolls... if you've been on these boards a while, you would notice that there have been many trolls that are OBVIOUSLY trying to ruin duke's reputation... </p>

<p>the real students just hate how people put duke in a lower light than it deserves... </p>

<p>some may call it an inferiority complex... but i call it pride</p>

912

<p>

Well, Duke is better than most of the T25(as measured by USNews right?) schools with regards to the premed experience and placement. It's definitely top 10 in this area, maybe even top 5. The top-notch premed advising, medical internships, health-related service learning opportunities, lack of a cut-throat culture among students, lack of major grade deflation, fantastic med school placement, etc. all contribute towards excellence in this area.</p>

<p>If I were a premed, I would much rather go to Duke than say MIT, where there is serious grade deflation and a cut-throat student body. Less competition is a good thing.</p>

913

<p>Kyledavid, </p>

<p>Arguably basketball and football (don't know which has the better team here) have more influence than other sports among laymen (I don't know why we are arguing laymen's prestige here though, since laymen don't really matter in terms of our employment).</p>

914

<p>

There's no way that's true. Please show me the evidence that every other top 25 school reports the med school acceptance rate in the exact same fashion. If Duke is really the only exception, then it would have been called out for it. There is some level of accountability between the offices of various schools you know.</p>

<p>Either you're a little Einstein who discovered Duke's "dirty secret" when no one else has or just a big fool for falsely doubting an institution's integrity.</p>

915

<p>
[quote]
so u don't think that duke is better for premed than any other top 25 school.....?

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<p>
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Well, Duke is better than most of the T25(as measured by USNews right?) schools with regards to the premed experience and placement.

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<p>T25 schools include MIT, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Rice, JHU, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, etc. Maybe Duke is better for premed than some T25 schools on the lower end of the Top 25, but many Duke students claim that Duke is better than Cornell, Northwestern, and JHU just because of the flawed premed acceptance statistic that they release. I want to dispel this notion because there are many prospective students on these boards. </p>

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[quote]
people, like you, doing that is what makes duke students feel like they have to raise their school up...

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<p>When the hell did I ever put down Duke? I put down the Duke students on this board who claim that their school is as close to HYPS as possible and claim that their school is in a whole another tier than schools like Chicago, Brown, Cornell, JHU, Northwestern, etc. and I acknowledged that not all Duke students are like this.. Those that feel the need to state their school is as close to schools like HYPS as possible and put down academically similar schools like Chicago, Cornell, Northwestern, Brown, etc. definitely do have an inferiority complex though.</p>

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duke's real peers are schools like non hyp ivies, jhu, northwestern, chicago, etc

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<p>You're one of the first Duke students I've met on these boards who admits this. I'm impressed.</p>

916

<p>
[quote]
There's no way that's true. Please show me the evidence that every other top 25 school reports the med school acceptance rate in the exact same fashion.

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<p>Show me other schools that report their premed acceptance rates like Duke does, please. This works both ways. </p>

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[quote]
Either you're a little Einstein who discovered Duke's "dirty secret" when no one else has or just a big fool for falsely doubting an institution's integrity.

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<p>What is with the ad hominem attacks? I am a fool for doubting an institution's integrity? How old are you? Aren't you like over 30 years old? What is with the namecalling? You need to grow up. </p>

<p>You can't seem to understand the basic flaw in that statistic, no matter how hard you try. Go pick up an AP statistics book at your local library to simplify matters for yourself and learn how to interpret statistics. It is because of haughty Duke alums such as yourself that many harbor an attitude of ill-will towards Duke on these boards.</p>

917

<p>The educational quality of all the top schools are roughly similar because they all have at least adequate teachers, facilities and advisors.</p>

<p>However, with regards to prestige, selectivity, resources and undergraduate focus, one can draw a finer distinction between the top 25 schools. I think schools like Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Chicago and Columbia are a notch higher than Northwestern, Michigan, Cornell and JHU. Just my 2 cents.</p>

918

<p>
[quote]
However, with regards to prestige, selectivity, resources and undergraduate focus, one can draw a finer distinction between the top 25 schools. I think schools like Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Chicago and Columbia are a notch higher than Northwestern, Michigan, Cornell and JHU. Just my 2 cents.

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<p>How do you define undergraduate focus? How do you define prestige (USNWR? You're over 30. How many people who have graduated college actually look at these outside of CC? Not many.)? How do you define selectivity?</p>

919

<p>

No, the burden of proof is on you because you are the one making this outrageous claim. You are at odds with the entire educational community. </p>

<p>I haven't been on these boards long enough to know what you're talking about, but you clearly harbor ill-feelings towards Duke and some other good schools. You don't speak for everyone though.</p>

920

<p>Please go look at these two threads: "UC Berkeley VS. Duke" and "The Case for Duke." Then you will know what I am talking about.</p>