<p>“The Ivy League Plus Society is a good networking opportunity for grads of elite schools to network with successful alums from other esteemed universities.”</p>
<p>Actually vengasso, I am an alum of Cornell and of the many alums that I know living in NYC, not a single one is a member. In fact, none of them ever heard of it. My best friend did his undergraduate studies at Cornell and has a much larger network of Cornell friends (I did my undergraduate studies at Michigan and grad at Cornell), mostly in NYC and DC. He lived in NYC from 1996 until 2010. He also never heard of TIPS. By the looks of it, it is a relatively small group that is intended to get singles together.</p>
<p>“Emory, Swat and Pomona shouldn’t have been left out I admit.”</p>
<p>It is not just those three schools. The Ivy Plus Society is inconsistant and has left out more than a dozen legitimate members. For example, universities such as Geogetown and WUSTL are members, but universities such as Emory, Notre Dame, Rice and Vanderbilt are not. LACs such as Amherst and Williams are included, but LACs such as Bowdoin, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Colgate, Middlebury, Pomona, Swarthmore, Vassar and Wesleyan are not.</p>
<p>“Michigan and UNC aren’t prestigious schools however. The overall population of these universities are simply not as accomplished as the schools included.” </p>
<p>I am not sure how you came to that conclusion. Michigan is considered one of the 5 most prestigious universities in the Midwest, on par withChicago, Northwestern, Notre Dame and WUSTL. I am an alum of both Cornell and Michigan and from my experience, I would say the two are equally prestigious. UNC is also prestigious. And the student population at Michigan and UNC is no less accomplished than the student population at Cal or UVa. Comparing any of those universities to private universities is pointless because private universities report admissions statistics very differently from public universities.</p>
I mean there isn’t that strict of a membership requirement. There are just various social gatherings planned around the country by TIPS and you can attend if you attend the affiliated universities. TIPS also was recently established so I wouldn’t be surprised if your Cornell friends had not heard about it till recently. It is a marker of social prestige however. When a concept such as “prestige” is so nebulous at times, social clubs like this help illuminate the difference between the “in” schools and the “out” schools.</p>
<p>
Who cares? No system is perfect. Notre Dame is not that revered outside the Midwest and is somewhat a niche school and those other three southern schools are not that well-regarded outside of the South. Duke is the only school located in the southern part of the country that has international appeal. As I said though, not including Swat and those three Southern private schools is a glaring error, but other than that its not too bad of a list.</p>
<p>
Uh no, Michigan is not par with Chicago. UChicago has produced close to 25 Rhodes Scholars over the past 25 years and Michigan has produced like 3 over that same period. The same can be said if you look at any other fellowship including the Marshall, Truman, Gates, etc. Also, it has higher selectivity, a smarter student body, more financial resources, a bigger tradition of scholarship among undergrads, etc.</p>
<p>
Absolutely not. Cornell Alums don’t attend TTT law schools like Wayne State, Michigan State, Cooley, Loyola, etc. They attend T14 schools for the most part unlike Michigan undergrads according to a coworker who went to UofM told me. This is just one example but nevertheless, no informed young adult in this country considers these two schools to be on a similar footing. Even all my Michigan friends admit that the school is a top 25 one at best. Here in India, Cornell is extremely well regarded. Michigan is well thought off too due to its strong business and engineering programs, but its simply not on the same level.</p>
<p>UNC is nowhere on the map. It’s prestigious in North Carolina and nowhere else really.</p>
<p>
If you’re referring to superscoring of standardized tests, I can assure you that its common knowledge that even schools that claim to not superscore tests for admissions purposes do so when they released the data to the CDS, USNWR and other independent sources.</p>
<p>For instance, at your alma mater Michigan, here is how two new SAT scores of 2230 (800M, 720V, 710W) and 2250 (770M, 740V, 740W) from a student would be treated: For admissions, the score of 2250 will be used to decide whether to admit or deny the kid. However, when Michigan sends its test score ranges to UNSWR, it would count the student’s overall score as a 2280 (800M, 740V, 740W) since it is the most beneficial for the university to boost its rankings. So for the purpose of what you see on the internet, Michigan does superscore, as does every other college in the country.</p>
<p>The vast majority of people aren’t aware of this nefarious practice but my relatives have been admissions officers at various universities so luckily I know.</p>
<p>Wow…there’s so much information. Everyone is saying something or the other. I feel I’m just going to stick with US News because my advisors recommended me to look into them. </p>
<p>To answer my own question, I’m just going to think Stanford, MIT, and Caltech. Then Duke and UChicago</p>
<p>Thanks for your help RML. I also feel I should look into Berkeley. Because it IS Berkeley. But I think I’m getting a clearer sense of universities I should I apply to. </p>
<p>I’m not too sure about WUSTL because I hear from my sister that it’s an Ivy reject school…lol not sure how credible that is, but even my friends don’t get why its above Brown and Cornell. I don’t know much about it to make that judgement though. Do you know anything?</p>
<p>This is actually my first time hearing about Notre Dame lol. I have seen it in the US News though.
Well, before, I would think of the hunchback of Notre Dame or Notre Dame High School for girls…</p>