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I, too, seriously doubt that students are choosing Brown over Columbia, since Columbia is far better academically, but apparently that's what's happening.
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</p>
<p>Please. No school is "better" than another academically. I've been to a school on par with HYP (one "better" than columbia), one that isn't even in the top 100, and one that's top 25....all for UG. There was not one single difference between the academic quality among the three.</p>
<p>ElderCookies wrote: "I-banking jobs, and admission to excellent grad schools etc is open to someone with an elite degree. "</p>
<p>Man, wake up from your dream! Students with high GPA and High (GRE/MCAT/LSAT/GMAT) get into good grad schools. It does not matter where the applicant went to school, so long as the school is in the top 150 or so, but even then I'm not sure.</p>
<p>I take it you don't get out much?</p>
<p>I attended a Top 20 B-school. The students in my class were from every conceivable university and college... more than 100, in a class of 300. Somehow the students who didn't go to a top 50 undergrad figured out how to impress the adcoms!</p>
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I, too, seriously doubt that students are choosing Brown over Columbia, since Columbia is far better academically, but apparently that's what's happening.
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</p>
<p>I am amazed at how some people make statements like that. Neither school is "far better academically" than the other. Are you for real??</p>
<p>Back to the OP and his "inferiority complex" (per title of this thread) about...Georgetown?? My remarks are mostly a reaction to all the students who feel panicked at their future and tie it all to making the right school choices. Perhaps we should start a new thread where we can share success-story anecdotes of those who went to low tier schools but still succeeded, found love, have wonderful families, etc. Such a thread might buck up all you talented students who are feeling anxious. We all know lots of these stories because it so commonly occurs among hard-working, smart ambitious people--no matter where they go to college. </p>
<p>I understand how hard it is on kids born in 1990, with such tough competition for the few spots at the most elite schools, but I hope you know you will be fine. In fact, I would love to read about kids who feel empowered, good about themselves, accomplished, and psyched to take on the world. Alas, unless a student finds themselves at HYPMS, it is sad to see they can often feel the opposite.</p>
<p>Hey, you had a choice between good undergrads so no need to feel depressed.</p>
<p>I know many people from my high school who couldn't afford college--naturally scored 1450+ on the SAT without studying a wink--and ended up going to a school that's not even ranked just for the full-ride. The school they ended up going to was my local university, which accepts 99% of applicants. (Yes, 99%). Now that is a shame.</p>
<p>So out of 300 possible spots only 100 came from unknown colleges and universities? This seems to indicate the opposite of your statements. If the overwhelmingly large majority of colleges got that many seats while far less schools (top 50) go the rest then this indicates that they have smarter students yes, but I would argue also that they are given better chances for admission, since they obviously got the jobs to get the work experience to get into business school.</p>
<p>MBA admission is based around nothing but work experience basically and is NOT representative of academia in any sense.</p>
<p>My daughter has a very different take from most of those posting on this thread. She has taken great satisfaction from choosing Carleton over better known colleges and universities. It is easy to choose a Harvard, Princeton, Yale or U. of Chicago. Very little explanation is required. But she wanted to find that quirky gem where she wouldn't run into anyone from her high school. She wanted to choose a college that screamed that she was a deep thinker who could look beyond and through the rankings. A college that was known for excellence but wasn't pretentious. She wasn't very impressed by the usual rankings, but did put a lot of stock in Carleton being ranked number one in percent of students entering the peace corps (from the Washington Monthly), and being ranked in the top 5 in percent of undergrads who go on to earn a Ph.D. -- higher than any of the Ivies, U of C and Stanford (this from the Reed College website). The true beauty of using statistics to rank colleges is that you can create your own ranking and weight the variables to fit your interests and your perceptions of what is important. </p>
<p>CC is filled with posters exhorting applicants to find the best fit. For my daughter, she decided what she most wanted in a college, and then ranked schools accordingly. At the top of her list was Carleton, and yes, it was at the top of her list before acceptance letters were mailed. In fact, her list was a work in progress through most of the fall and into January. At one point, Brown was at the top, and so was Swarthmore. In the end, she didn't apply to either. I can also share that even after being accepted by Carleton, my daughter was mature enough to follow the advice of Loren Pope, and act like a consumer. She didn't make her ultimate decision until she had spent three days on campus attending classes, playing with the band, and most important, meeting lots of people. For those three days rankings meant very little.</p>
<p>A good analogy is that of buying a car. Consumer Reports and others rank cars much like U.S. News, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Kiplinger's and others rank colleges. So ... do you obsess if you choose to drive a car that isn't the highest ranked in its respective category? Or do you drive a car because it fits your lifestyle, your aesthetics, and your subjective ranking of important features, including price? </p>
<p>So ... stop being academic sheep and start thinking for yourself. All of the colleges and universities named in this thread are terrific institutions, and no one is the best fit for everyone. Harvard or Princeton (my alma mater) are not one size fits all. If Georgetown fits, dont fight it, embrace it.</p>
<p>im<em>blue,
That NYT page, according to you, says Duke would lose cross-admits battle to GT. But that's not the case according to Duke: The Chronicle
Of course, you can say the Duke person was lying or exaggerating; but I don't think that's more plausible than what you think the NYT page shows.</p>
<p>In that survey, the high seniors were asked to rank bunch of schools and it's likely they were not even familiar with many of them. That's completely different from the real cross-admits who actually have done a lot of research on their school choices. This is also how geographical bias can play a significant role, especially when it comes to viewing schools people haven't even done much research on or aren't familiar with because they are further away. Do you know anything about the geographic distribution of those 3000 seniors?</p>
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says Duke would lose cross-admits battle to GT
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The NYT survey sample had a high concentration of potential chemical engineering majors...Duke doesn't have a ChemE program...so they chose Georgia Tech...;)</p>
<p>
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A good analogy is that of buying a car. Consumer Reports and others rank cars much like U.S. News, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Kiplinger's and others rank colleges. So ... do you obsess if you choose to drive a car that isn't the highest ranked in its respective category? Or do you drive a car because it fits your lifestyle, your aesthetics, and your subjective ranking of important features, including price?
[/quote]
Exactly! Yet some on this site are so focused on student/faculty ratio, class size and average SAT scores, they fail to see the forest through the trees.
It's analogous to buying a car based on cargo space and headroom only...</p>
<p>UCB, I think GT refers to Georgetown, not Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech isn't even in the survey..</p>
<p>But, anyhow, I don't think anyone should feel "inferior" when going to a top school like Georgetown. It is one of the most respected schools in the East Coast and is among the 'dream schools' for many high school seniors and parents. Btw, Donald Trump's son and daughter both went to Georgetown. (i am not sure if this helps.)</p>
<p>^ Ooops... :o</p>
<p>"So ... do you obsess if you choose to drive a car that isn't the highest ranked in its respective category?"</p>
<p>No one is hiring you, accepting you to grad school or in any way implying your future will be shaped by what car you drive; not to mention where some magazine ranks that car, which is even more of a disconnect and certainly isn't given the credence of USNWR, BW or Forbes with regards to schools.</p>
<p>Could you guys please stop bashing other schools to put Georgetown on a pedestal? This is definitely revealing of an inferiority complex. The truth is... Georgetown's endowment of $1 billion cannot compete against that of many other top schools, including the ones you were accepted to. Georgetown is inferior to them in many ways (as I'm sure you know) and not just because of US News. However, despite Georgetown's shortcomings, you chose it for a reason... maybe because you like the environment there, or the chance to get close to DC or whatever. There's no shame in that. Congratulations and move on!</p>
<p>Treeman I applaud your daughter's maturity in college selection.</p>
<p>And for those whining about Gtown's endowment...when I was your age, Georgetown's endowment was...negative</p>
<p>Size of endowment is among the worst and meaningless reasons to pick a college. It may be relevant in Harvard vs UMass, but certainly not in Georgetown vs Northwestern or wherever else the OP was considering.</p>
<p>Wow. You could have opened so many doors by going to one of those higher ranked schools but you chose to shoot yourself in the foot. I hope you can sleep at night knowing that you could've gone to a much more prestigious school.</p>
<p>Of course, I'm joking. Georgetown is an incredible school and I seriously worry about anyone's mental stability who feels "inferrior" because they're going to Georgetown. I have an idea. Next time you take a dump, wipe your rear with that U.S. News of yours.</p>
<p>I would have taken gtown over uchicago/northwestern. You're not going to have any worse job prospects plus you'll also get some good basketball :). Chicago is a great school but I've also heard it's brutal in terms of academics and for anyone from NW to rip on Gtown is ridiculous. How are those "employment prospects" from the 2nd best school in town?</p>
<p>Since you like posting in IB threads, I guess "employment prospects" means placement on Wall St? Is that the only thing you are interested in? People like you are the ones that make this board so tiring. Regardless of how Chicago/NW fair in it, since when schools are meant to be IB factories? Apparently, that NU had the 4th highest number of Fulbright fellowships this past cycle means very little to you. There's no worse or better choice among these peer schools. It all depends on what one looks for. I don't think sanjenferrer should make endowment an issue but your comment isn't really better either!</p>
<p>hahaha laxattack you are the man. i liked the NU being 2nd best comment. im biased though, being chicago 2012.</p>