<p>There is no such thing as American English as opposed to UK English. If it's correct in one, it's correct in the other...it is the same language.</p>
<p>I still spell colour with a u and neighbourhood with a u and i say and write learnt instead of learned.
Big whoop. You're an idiot if you correct me because it just shows how narrow-minded you are.
It annoys me when people correct others with accents, i've heard it done to ppl from the south all the time. It's rather funny, but rather annoying. English is english right? Then why do people do that?</p>
<p>The spelling varies a bit from one country to the other. I have no idea about others like Canada and Australia.</p>
<p>Most overrated: Georgetown
Most underrated: Chicago</p>
<p>Most English speaking nations use British English (Standard English). </p>
<p>Like someone mentioned earlier, there is a large difference between overranked and overrated. What makes the University of Pennsylvania and Duke overrated? Virtually every ranking out there, American and international, has both in the top 10-15 worldwide. I assume that everyone making comments has considerable knowledge about the educations provided by both universities.</p>
<p>dwincho,</p>
<p>there actually is a difference in american english and british english. While yes they are the same languages, there are numerous words which mean completely different things, verbs are conjugated different, spellings are different, prepositional use is different, and manner is completely different. So they arn't exactly the same. infact theres an extremely long wikipedia article on the subject...type in american and british english differences and read about it.</p>
<p>ridethecliche,</p>
<p>i suggest you read up on the differences between american and british english, too. maybe instead of calling me an idiot for trying to correct a mistake of yours (which i was doing jockularly mind you) you can learn something and become a little less ignorant.</p>
<p>I was kidding, I was referring to people who correct pronounciations...
You can't possibly do that here (unless you use those weird keys found in dictionary's, I can't even read those haha).
Woahhhh....
I saw the wink too btw, and it could be taken as slightly ignorant on your part since I am an immigrant...</p>
<p>To those who are saying people need to lighten up because they are asking where you all get the nerve to judge schools from need to calm down. For one, yes the internet and this message board is based on opinions; however, the internet, especially a board dedicated to college like this, should promote opinions that are based on fact and not a bunch of crap that you read last week and now recite like its gospel.</p>
<p>Honestly, who are we, most of us still being teenagers or in our early twenties (i said most, so don't reply telling me how old you are), have only been to one or two colleges and therefore can't compare the expereience to anything else. It amazes me how kids who aren't too far removed from puberty schore a 2300 on the SAT and think they can judge academic instutions and the teaching quality of academic minds who have been in their fields longer than most of us have even been born. Who are we to judge schools and say they are overrated? A lot of us don't even have a damn high school diploma yet, but we've suddently become experts on college rankings because we got into an ivy league school? The only reason people call schools like WashU, Emory, Vandy, ND, NYU, etc overrated is because they hear it from others and they recite it like its some type of gospel? What makes these people authorities on the subject matter? Yes, we are all going to ultimately have to rely on the word of someone else, but I think it makes a lot more sense to believe the word of professionals who have been in the business of ranking and evaluating schools for years. If USNews ranks a school somewhere, and the other rankings are somewhat similar, then who are we to call these schools into question? All these schools are fine institutions that put a lot of money to make their students happy? Who are we, mere minds who were lucky enough to score well on the SAT or ACT, to question an entire student body thousands to tens of thousands of students and say they are inferior? How do we judge the quality of a program? When were we even given the skills to do this effectively? Some of you all sit at your computer screens all day and claim a school has inferior programs, inferior faculty, etc and it baffles me because the only place you can possibly be getting it from is out of the crack of your @ss. </p>
<p>To those who mention a school is judged based on its recruitment and job placement, etc. Do we even hold students accountable? Do we look at how the students performed? We automatically assume a students failure is the school's fault and not his or her own? We don't take into account schools with grade inflation and deflation do we? So many variables, yet we only look at the names and what others have said about them in the past and we think we're ranking experts. </p>
<p>Now, this is not to say that we should go ahead and group community colleges with the ivy leagues, but my point is that if Business Week, USNews, etc rank a school a certain way. Then who are we to dispute this? Just because you thought School X was the end all and be all, doesn't make it the case. The only way we as individuals in our position can rank school is in the context of our individual selves and needs, and not on their academic merits because we are simply not qualified.</p>
<p>I don't like people that use opinions as facts but intellectual discussions about methodologies used in rankings as well as importance of varying factors that go into public perception/rankings is very welcomed.</p>
<p>Without such dialogue, CC would be much more bland and boring (merely another prboard).</p>
<p>I don't know why people call certain schools overrated but SOME (probably not many) have good reasons such as recruiter rep and job opps (example Goizetta or whatever >>> Stern?!?!).</p>
<p>Excellent post, Jeffwun!</p>
<p>who dunnit:"Vanderbilt does not have a large endowment. Stop using it as an excuse to say it's overrated when you're most likely unhappy that it's ranked higher(or much higher) than your school. Vanderbilt offers solid programs across the board and is particularly exceptional in the area of education."</p>
<p>vandy has over two billion dollars in endowment.</p>
<p>Jeff, I agree with you.
Society's turned to shift the blame from individuals to institutions and others.
We need to be accountable for ourselves and our actions, nothing will get fixed otherwise.</p>
<p>I think... Vanderbilt is overrated. USC is too. It's ghetto there.</p>
<p>i am not an expert and i am not saying im correct, this is only my opinion.</p>
<p>most overrated - cornell, carnegie mellon, rice
most underrated - caltech, harvey mudd, uiuc, umich</p>
<p>Cornell - based on the acceptances from our school</p>
<p>Good post Jeffwun. Overrated seems to me a meaningless term anyways, a way to slag a certain school without having the need to backup your argument.</p>
<p>No matter how prestigious, schools like Cornell, Virginia, Vanderbilt, Middlebury, Washington and Lee do not appeal to me because of their atmosphere. Not overrated, just not appealing enough.</p>
<p>I would say UCs, Emory, Wake Forest, Tufts, Case Western Reserve</p>
<p>MIT, CalTech, UC Berkeley, UCLA.</p>
<p>Okay, we get the point.
You don't like California, you don't like tech schools, you don't like Asians, you don't like conservatives, you don't like blah blah blah.</p>
<p>PEnn..........</p>