<p>Over in the College Search Forum, I started a thread questioning the USNWR rankings as I believe that they consistently underrate the top schools of the Midwest and the South in favor of the more prestigious schools on the coasts, particularly those of the Northeast and the Ivy League. </p>
<p>IMO, Northwestern, Rice, Emory, Vanderbilt, and Notre Dame are all excellent schools that provide an undergraduate experience arguably superior to that offered by several higher ranked Ivy institutions. I attribute this under appreciation to a) much greater (and more fawning) media coverage of the Ivy schools; b) the Ivy schools having much greater proximity to major population centers which leads to greater numbers of applicants and higher selectivity statistics; and c) the ranking systems that perpetuate the status of the Ivy League. </p>
<p>Now, a few questions for this forum:<br>
Do you agree with this premise that the Midwest/Southern schools are underrated and deserve to be ranked more highly than many of the Ivy schools?<br>
If Vanderbilt were located in a major northeastern city rather than Nashville, how do you believe its ranking and public perception would change?
If Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn or Columbia were located in Nashville, how do you think their ranking and public perception would change?</p>
<p>I am bit surprised by your seeming acceptance of the superior status of some of the Ivies. Do you really believe that Cornell and Brown deserve a higher ranking than the Midwestern and Southern schools I mentioned, including your own Vanderbilt? Based on the resources dedicated to educating undergraduates (Faculty Resources, Student Selectivity, and Financial Resources), Vanderbilt (as well as Rice, Northwestern and Emory) ranks higher on the objective data over these more prestigious schools. Why do you think Cornell and Brown deserve the higher ranks? My own belief is that Cornell and Brown (and perhaps a few more of their Ivy brethren) are living off of their historical reputation and association with the top tier schools of the Ivy League and that this is reflected in their higher Peer Assessment scores.</p>
<p>I think that, in general, there is a stereotypical perception of the Northeast(well, actually just MA and NYC area) as being intellectually stronger than the rest of the country. This is a tired and pedantic stereotype as intellectualism can prosper everywhere. But this stereotype definitely makes schools with high concentrations of the top students from NYC and MA seem better than schools with kids from the Mid West and the South. </p>
<p>But seriously, the US News and World Reports don't make the school. Their meaningless. They are just trying to write stuff that people want to read. You've got to find out what's best for yourself.</p>
<p>I do agree that Rice is severely underrated. It’s not top 10, but should be around there (I can’t believe my school’s ranked #17). I think Rice is as good as Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell but not as Columbia and Upenn. Seriously, almost all of my friends at Rice have at least gotten into any one of those Ivies (some even got into Harvard and Yale but chose to come to Rice, which surprised me). For those good Southern schools, I think it’s Duke > Rice > Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I have always agreed with the suggestion that the peer review score is biased in favor of the two coasts. It will take some time to make inroads.</p>
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<p>I think a lot of high school seniors from the northeast would kill to attend Vanderbilt if it were in the northeast.</p>
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<p>They would be slapped with the label Southern School, and more than a few coastal folks would make a lot of assumptions about the quality of the student body and faculty without bothering to do any research.</p>
<p>I’ve never lived in the south, but where I live in the midwest Vanderbilt has a very good reputation (I hang out with academics, so maybe that is a biased group). I spent a couple of decades in New England, and I’m quite familiar with the assumptions a lot of people make about all things southern (and midwestern as well).</p>