<p>I dont care about silly international rankings. For all I care, people are shocked that some Ivies are below 50 and I believe others are below 100. USNEWS does a great job taking everything into account to come up with our rankings. Apparently, Vanderbilt is BETTER and higher ranked than Berkeley. Sorry that your school died down over the past few years. Other schools are paving the way ahead.</p>
<p>Vandy has great law, medicine, and business programs. I do not actually attend Vandy so I do not know. But I would pick Vandy over BERKELY any day. Sorry, I am just spelling it as it is pronounced. Why? Because it is a school where I can rely on those student:faculty ratio to actually work in my favor when I need help. It is where I can have a great time and do research on the campus where many of its grad schools are right there. It has a great curriculum, the campus is absolutely gorgeous, the girls are hot, the work is not MIT hard, and mostly its the people that comprise the university that succeed well beyond undergrad that truly make this institution absolutely amazing. </p>
<p>If you wanna go go to a large public institution like Berkeley, go ahead and have fun with the thousands of people you plan on mingling with, because I apparantely would get lost there. The public universities are dying down because of this life it is creating. I doubt they will rise above seed number 20 in the coming years. This is why LACs are taking more popular command as small colleges have become the new alternate Ivies.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you wanna go go to a large public institution like Berkeley, go ahead and have fun with the thousands of people you plan on mingling with.
<p>BTW, uvajoe is alot more appropriate for COLLEGE confidential then the title of a decent-at-best video game, also what else am i supposed to base character on in this forum, i mean generally you choose a user name to demonstrate something about yourself, or is that logic absurd maja?</p>
<p>Devil, I don't stand a shot at Harvard with my background. I may simply put up a shot but in essence, I would not want to go there. When I sent my stats to you, it was because I wanted to go to Duke for Fall 2006. I have friends at all the top schools when I mentioned that 33% of the kids in my school go to Ivies. However, it is Duke that I had done a lot of research where I could find myself at in terms of the extracurriclars, academics, and most importantly the social/community life that I would love to be part of in an environment such as Duke.</p>
<p>"Hmm...considering this is a COLLEGE forum my name is somewhat appropriate my college+my first name, right??"</p>
<p>Wrong! Look around you, how many people have followed that formula? Geez by your rationale, my name should be DUKEFORLIFEJOE and Collegekid's should be CORNELLOFFTHEHEEZYFOSHEEZYMICHAEL. :)This is really quite pedantic. Let's talk about these rankings like the thread suggests. </p>
<p>Does anyone feel that Yale should be number one for a change? What about Rice? They have been close to top 10 before, but Usnews keeps holding them down.</p>
<p>Edit: Harvard, your stats are just fine for Duke. Quite frankly, I'd be surprised if you were just flat out rejected. It happens, but you seem fine. I have seen people with your stats land Harvard. Plus, if you like Duke, apply to Penn as well. Both schools attract similar applicants and you will have LOTS OF FUN at both.</p>
<p>So as long as you live in America for the rest of your life, you'll be fine right, considering the rest of the world's opinion does not count.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt? Research? Honestly, I have never heard anything notorious or famous about Vanderbilt's research facilities. Actually, I haven't heard anything prestigious about Vanderbilt in general. </p>
<p>And yes, I prefer a larger environment. I like the urban scene and plan on living in NYC after graduate school, but hey have fun "mingling" with the 4 people at your university. </p>
<p>Oh, and I saw his stats too. They aren't good enough for Harvard.</p>
<p>Also, Harvard2400 is trying to "play the race card" to get into universities. He's Indian, and he thinks he can "play the race card"????????</p>
<p>That's NOT an underrepresented minority group.</p>
<p>uvajoe: So basically he's not cool, because his moniker is derived from a videogame? Way to go--that is obviously a great way to decide who is cool, and who is lame.</p>
<p>I would rather label someone who insults an individual on something so trivial as lame...well well...</p>
<p>So you think that names are an indication of character? Good for you.</p>
<p>My point is that POSTS are more indicative of an an individual's character. </p>
<p>That being said, the fact that you decided to attack someone because of an ONLINE name is indicative of how "not cool" you are in my eyes. Is there nothing else productive you can do with your time being so cool and all.</p>
<p>EDIT: I dont' see anything wrong with that logic. What I see as wrong as the necessity to lash out at someone, because they may not take your logic into account when picking something as trivial as an online moniker.</p>
<p>Zipzoo, I guess thanks for taking the time to click on my user name and look at my previous posts. I am simply curious as how the college process works. I mean a lot of people, particularly foreign students who had attended college in another country would say how ridiculous our process is today. It isn't about merit anymore but rather all the ADDITIONAL factors. I was simply starting threads to get more perspective into these issues and how they have shaped our opinons of the college process.</p>
<p>That's true. I remember the bickering that sparked when Caltech was first. LOL I want to see a school like Stanford, MIT, or Yale first for a change. When I say first, I don't mean tied with Harvard. No...none of that. USnews needs to sell copies, doesn't it? :)</p>
<p>Devil, I actually am applying to Penn RD and Duke ED... Penn is and has definetely been my second choice as I have contemplated between which of the two I should apply ED. I am choosing Duke and I really hope I get in. I am actually limiting myself to only a few colleges especially since this is my second time around. </p>
<p>Speaking of admissions, does anyone know about BS/MD comined programs. Since this thread gets more hits than Ichiro Suziki, I guess I can get all my answers here. I was hoping if anyone knew of any "safety" or "match" BS/MD programs. I am not applying to Brown or Northwestern so I really only want a few backups to apply to beacuse for me, a guaranteed seat into med school is what's important to me at this moment.</p>
<p>yeah, thanks for the encouragement, :)
I really hope to max out this year in the college process and just hope to get it over with once and for all. Thanks for your help on everything.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I dont care about silly international rankings. For all I care, people are shocked that some Ivies are below 50 and I believe others are below 100. USNEWS does a great job taking everything into account to come up with our rankings. Apparently, Vanderbilt is BETTER and higher ranked than Berkeley. Sorry that your school died down over the past few years. Other schools are paving the way ahead.</p>
<p>Vandy has great law, medicine, and business programs. I do not actually attend Vandy so I do not know. But I would pick Vandy over BERKELY any day. Sorry, I am just spelling it as it is pronounced. Why? Because it is a school where I can rely on those student:faculty ratio to actually work in my favor when I need help. It is where I can have a great time and do research on the campus where many of its grad schools are right there. It has a great curriculum, the campus is absolutely gorgeous, the girls are hot, the work is not MIT hard, and mostly its the people that comprise the university that succeed well beyond undergrad that truly make this institution absolutely amazing.</p>
<p>If you wanna go go to a large public institution like Berkeley, go ahead and have fun with the thousands of people you plan on mingling with, because I apparantely would get lost there. The public universities are dying down because of this life it is creating. I doubt they will rise above seed number 20 in the coming years. This is why LACs are taking more popular command as small colleges have become the new alternate Ivies.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Good for you. Nice to know someone out there with high stats wants to go to a school for reasons other than high ranking or prestige. I think your reasons for liking Vandy are VERY relevant and will make you happy in the end. Academics is only one part of your college experience. </p>
<p>I picked my school over Berkeley as well, and I haven't had a single regret since. Goodluck to you.</p>
<p>Ok, firstly large universities give you a more realistic view of THE REAL WORLD. I wouldn't choose to go to a LAC because it'd be smaller than my high school (and seeing the same people over and over again isn't fun).
I love attending a large university, and 30,000 isn't really that big anyway.</p>
<p>Man, if I want to live in a small town or hang out with 1000 people, I'd move to the Midwest.</p>
<p>what are you talking about real world...drugs, street life, college is college man. I guess your definition of real world is how many people are there. Then go ahead and call ANY Public a real world scenario. Personally, I am actually applying to DUKE ed this fall and you can see my bias go towards either school. At least agree with me that you would pick DUKE over Berkeley?</p>