<p>UCB, Smoot was the guy I was thinking of. A few years ago the SF Chronicle had a story about how Nobel Prize winners weren’t always good teachers, and Smoot was mentioned. He’s also not rated very highly at RateMyProfessor.</p>
<p>@prezbucky I was going to mention it, but that’s where I’m going and I didn’t want to become another CC poster offended that someone forgot about/insulted their college. It’ll also be tough to include all the underrated public schools AND a college that’s #23 on USNWR (#23’s the lowest ranking in the top 25), so it’s excusable. I’m glad you noticed it, though- but the one thing I like about CMU (at least for ECE and SCS) is that our reputation isn’t prestige-driven.</p>
<p>I think many Christian colleges which require a statement of faith before admission are highly overrated by those in the communities they’re designed to serve. My roommate currently attends one and the lack of competing perspectives she’s been exposed to in many of her liberal arts courses are almost unbelievable. Of course outside of the Evangelical Christian community, most of those schools are virtually unknown. </p>
<p>This is kind of a silly exercise, because if you don’t compare to, say, success in an industry or field, how would you determine who’s underrated or overrated? Underrated vs. what? Overrated vs. what?</p>
<p>For example, while I personally am mystified by why NYU gets so much love from high schoolers all over these days, if you’re concentrating on Wall Street recruiting, NYU Stern is much better for that than JHU (but JHU blows NYU out of the water in all STEM fields).</p>
<p>Different schools have different strengths and weaknesses in different aspects. </p>
<p>It’s a multi-dimensional world. No need to fit all schools on to a one-dimensional line, whether that be USN rankings or “general perception” or whatever.</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan Good point! I don’t even know why people look at general rankings so closely since major/field-specific rankings are way more useful- there’s plenty of upsets like big state schools outside the top #25 (USNWR) clinching the top spots for certain majors (like UMich, #1 with PoliSci). Even though admission is typically on a school-wide basis, college data is tough to compare until you start looking at specific portions of the school.</p>
<p>@whenhen Yeah. I have absolutely no idea why Mormons treat BYU like it was Harvard (not just because it’s designed for them; quite a few I know talked about its “academic quality” and whatnot). It’s nowhere near HYPMS in any field I know of, except perhaps LDS Studies.</p>
<p>Accounting. BYU accounting is suppose to be pretty strong. In actuality, while I wouldn’t say BYU’s academic quality is on par with HYPSM, it is good value for the money (so long as you are willing to put up with the Mormon rules).</p>
<p>Most people look at general rankings because there is a very high probably that a student will get a degree in another major than that which they started in.</p>
<p>Except that whether prestige matters depends on an occupation, and not everything is reflected in rankings. Plus, for most high-acheivers with high familial income, there will be a big variance in terms of how much to shell out. By the start of college, most kids have some inkling as to their interests and talents (for instance, very few kids are equally interested and talented in both CS and music theatre) and sometimes you’re forced in to a subfield just by choosing a school within a university.</p>
<p>If you are undecided, you should look at how well different schools stack up in your fields/occupations of interest (and how much brand or network matters in them). Relying on a one-dimensional factor of “general prestige” still doesn’t make much sense to me (other than for bragging rights; which only interests those who are insecure, IMO).</p>