<p>up and coming schools</p>
<p>for instance,a school where in 10 years or later, will be recognized as among the elite and make you proud to be an alumnus</p>
<p>The Ohio State University - Columbus</p>
<p>OSU will be almost on the same level as Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, etc?</p>
<p>I hear the word “prestige” tossed around on CC, especially in April, and I think it’s used much too loosely. To me, tangible evidence of a prestigious affiliation that would actually be of benefit to someone would be: 1) the likelihood that their resume gets a longer and more thorough glance after the reader catches the name of the alma mater; 2) the conferring of a sense of identity due to the affiliation, to the extent that the alma mater is one of the first things one notes in describing you to others; 3) the potential of the name of the institution to stop and redirect a conversation, putting your experience at the institution at the center of a discussion. All those things could be of assistance in networking and job searching, as opposed to merely a bragging point.</p>
<p>By that definition, I would guess that there are no more than 20 “prestigious” colleges and universities in the country, maybe a few more if you add the top 3 service academies. That prestige has been there for generations and I don’t see any schools joining that group any time soon.</p>
<p>How would a huge university like OSU transform from what they are today (above average school) into the likes of a Duke, Cornell, etc… I don’t see it…</p>
<p>University of Alaska</p>
<p>Not all that long ago Duke was just a decent unspectacular southern school. NYU was a commuter school advertising for students on the subway, USC was just football and rich kids rejected from UCLA, WUSTL was unknown, Emory ???-never heard of it. Need I go on. A few lucky breaks and some great leadership can make huge changes in a generation.</p>
<p>The truth is that there is very little movement in the identity of “prestige” universities. Compare the latest US News rankings with the first—you will find scant difference.</p>
<p>The top 25 in 2010 will be the top 25 in 2020.</p>
<p>Well, there are at least 5 colleges in the Top 25 that were not there 30 years ago (pre US News). It might not change much in 10 years but over 25 years you will see some changes. Bill Gates alone could start or select a school and make it Top 25 in 10 years if he wanted to.</p>
<p>Barrons, if we’re standing in a room full of networking people, and you tell me that you just graduated from USC, UCLA, WashU or Emory, would I likely switch the topic of the conversation to talk about your university? Do I then walk over to someone and point you out and say s/he just graduated from there? I don’t think that’s the case, though I might certainly want to talk football with a USC grad, basketball with a UCLA grad, etc. NYU has certainly gained a lot of attention in recent years, but I think that most NYU discussion is really talk about Lower Manhattan. I think that out of the half-dozen schools you named, Duke would be the one that I would claim has that kind of name cachet. That’s come over the past 3/4 of a century thanks to an infusion of tobacco dollars.</p>
<p>Are you for real?? You must live in some alternate universe where people are THAT concerned over college cachet. Top 10 vs Top 20, vs Top 30, oh my. I’ll talk football because you went to USC. I’d think you were a king-sized putz and move to the other side of the room.</p>
<p>Quote: “Not all that long ago Duke was just a decent unspectacular southern school.”</p>
<p>Really? It has been a top 10 national school for at least 25 years, maybe more.</p>
<p>Based on what I have researched the last few months, you are going to see UCSD continuing with its climb in the ranking. Already it has some #1 and top five departments. The acceptance rate will start approaching that of UC Berkeley and UCLA in the years to come, as the yield will begin to increase.</p>
<p>In say, 200-300 years, the Mars Institute of Technology will be VERY prestigious. Also expected to become top 10 schools: Integrated University of the Moon, Uranus University, University of the Milky Way - Sol, and Norwalk Community College.</p>
<p>In the math area, you started seeing Duke’s name in the early 1990’s, probably around the time that it cracked the top 10-15:</p>
<p>[William</a> Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lowell_Putnam_Mathematical_Competition]William”>William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I’m surprised at how few thoughtful responses there have been, as I find the topic interesting. Maybe it takes more than 10 years for a school to become very prestigious, but it will happen for some others. Back in the dark ages when my friends and I were all going to college, there was one family that sent all their kids to Vanderbilt. They were all bright kids who were invovled in ECs, but they were by no means at the top of the class at my very mediocre high school.</p>
<p>Stanford - very good regional university until the latter half of the 20th C.</p>
<p>Hey, I told you what I think. It’s probably as accurate as anyone else’s guess :)</p>
<p>“Really? It has been a top 10 national school for at least 25 years, maybe more.”</p>
<p>UH, not so much. I was going back to the early 70’s when it was nowhere near a national player. It improved in the 80’s with the help of basketball.</p>