what is the MOST overrated school??

<p>NYU, BU, BC are all good schools, but overrated.</p>

<p>I understand that the US isn't China/Japan/India, but how can you say a school is overrated when it has some amazing programs? I think rankings for colleges is overrated, while rankings for their programs is not.
If someone went to NYU for finance/film/theatre etc, why is that overrated?
(I do think that too many people think that NYU is overly spectacular, which isn't true even though it's a great school.)</p>

<p>Wake Forest.</p>

<p>:P</p>

<p>Duke, Vanderbilt, and Notre Dame... Overranked at least.</p>

<p>i agree. NYU is sooo overated. ppl (especially in the south) try to put it in the catogory of an ivy. It's an awesome school, but completely overated.</p>

<p>What's with all the Duke hate?</p>

<p>It is tied with Stanford and above M.I.T?</p>

<p>Everyone has heard of HYPS or HYP+MIT but HYP+Duke?
It is also 4 spots above Columbia..</p>

<p>That's just my guess....</p>

<p>
[quote]
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.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Dwincho, just curious, what is that you don't like about this particular group of schools? I can see almost nothing in common between them...</p>

<p>Preppy, conservative, pre-professional.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Wake Forest.

[/quote]

I don't appreciate that jPoD :)</p>

<p>The University of Chicago is underrated, and I am not just talking about rankings. It is such an amazing academic institution, yet so many people get it confusing with University of Illinois-CHicago ( a third teer state school) and I live only an hour away!</p>

<p>mmkay I'm not going to pass judgments on other schools because, never having attended them, I wouldn't know.</p>

<p>But in response to whomever said that Duke is overrated on US News because people have heard of "HYPMS" and not HYPduke, and thus, Duke should not be above MIT....that is an utter argumentative fallacy. The popular "HYPMS" acronym is not a mathematical, statistical analysis of the quality of a school, as is the ranking system. Rather, it is <em>largely</em> based upon prestige (not entirely, but largely so).</p>

<p>HYPMS is kinda like the WASP thing, it's not as true as it used to be a few years ago.</p>

<p>Overrated: Penn, WUStL, Cornell, Vandy
-my 2 cents</p>

<p>To whoever said that American English and British English are equally correct (and I'm not going to search back through after reading all 7 pages), one of the first great steps of America away from Britain was Noah Webster's publishing of the American English dictionary. If there were no differences, he wouldn't have bothered adding the "American" in there. There are huge differences. Since this is an international board, there is no reason to correct British/American differences, but to say they don't exist or are unimportant is absolutely ridiculous.</p>

<p>On another note, the word is "jocular," not "jockular." Don't bother correcting others if you're not going to correct yourself ;)</p>

<p>As far as opinions of overrated schools go, there's nothing wrong with presenting them, but it's always nice if you're willing to back up your conclusions with solid evidence. "Everyone's entitled to their opinion," but uninformed or mimicking opinions are meaningless. If you have a reason, give it. However, I understand the argument that many prestigious schools are perceived as leagues above other institutions when in reality the academics and atmosphere are somewhat similar to less prestigious schools. That argument applies to most, if not all, overrated schools.</p>

<p>I don't appreciate that jPoD </p>

<p>I dont appreciate what you did either mr. Wave ;)</p>

<p>Washington definitely</p>

<p>would it be pushing it if i said, umm...ALL the Ivys?</p>

<p>I think Duke and Penn are both great schools, but I would agree that the stats and methodology they are using now de-emphasize academic quality and thereby place them above schools that are <em>academically</em> superior across a much wider range of departments. From an academic viewpoint, Cornell and Chicago should be above these two. Chicago should be top 10 and Cornell should be top 5 or 6. I think Cornell was #6 a few years back before they changed the methodology to favor smaller schools. And for the person who said Cornell is overrated, you are speaking from ignorance; the opposite is true. Cornell might be the best "all-around" school on the list if you look at all the humanities, social sciences, engineering, life sciences, etc....it ranks the highest of all the ivies in the number of departments where it is rated as one of the top four in the country...see the posts from "collegehelp" about the Gourman Report. US News, stupidly, pays no attention to diversity or strength of curriculum, and big schools like Berkeley and Michigan are also ranked much lower than where they deserve.</p>

<p>ivies are inherently overrated, and evil as well. (don't ask.)</p>

<p>most overrated? harvard.</p>