<p>I am curious which schools offer best academics, best social, best prestige,best alum connections compared to Ivies? ( If not more than)</p>
<p>I say Stanford, but I am prejudiced ;) My son was admitted to several of the "top" Ivy league schools and chose to attend Stanford. He had a great experience and has never regretted his choice.</p>
<p>This is sort of a silly question. A decent number of private and public universities and colleges are comparable to "the Ivies" in most or all of those dimensions. Depending on (a) where a kid may want to live, (b) what he or she might want to do, and (c) what kind of person he or she is, some of them may even be "more than" some or all of the Ivies. Listing them ought to evoke a big "Duh!", because for the most part (like the Ivies) they are the schools you hear about all the time. </p>
<p>People tend to like the Ivies because they offer a great mix of academics, social life, connections, and external prestige, as well as great facilities and endowments supporting education. You can't measure those things precisely (except for the money parts), much less their combination, and one person can't take advantage of everything any half-decent institution of higher education has to offer. All one kid really needs are a few good, helpful professors and good facilities in a field that interests the kid, some other good students interested in similar things, some friends, respect in the outside world for his or her degree, and maybe some help getting a first or second job from a network. There are hundreds of schools that offer those things to a kid who reaches out to grab them.</p>
<p>-the Ivy's do not offer the "best social"
-most would agree that you can get incredible academics at any of the top 30-50 schools but maybe not have the same bragging rights.
-best alum connections, depends on what you want to do and where you want to live. Grad school is probably more important for those connections than undergrad (if you plan to go to grad school) But, for example, if you want film, go to USC; if you want theater, to to NYU, etc......, if you want IR go to Georgetown or Tufts/Fletcher,
-prestige.......well, if you really care, go to an Ivy</p>
<p>I agree with JHS and blucorr. There are many excellent schools which offer just as much as the Ivies (and Stanford) and each student has to carefully find out which school is best for him or her. I just wrote "Stanford" as a quick reaction, since I am so pleased that my son (a 2006 grad) had such a great experience there!</p>
<p>blucroo's post was excellent</p>
<p>Mathson decided that in Computer Science, at least, Carnegie Mellon offered more courses, more connections, easier access to internships, extensive joint programs/minors with the engineering school, an entire school (not just a department) devoted to making computer geeks comfortable, and fantastic job placement. What he won't get is as well-rounded a class, or kids who are tops in fields outside the particular strengths of CMU. (Which I would say included drama, architecture and music along with the various engineering disciplines.)</p>
<p>I will not disclose the name of the lovely poster who has revealed to me her daughter's choice (among admission offers, which included upper-level Ivies), but it is an awesome choice. In their case, it is an unbeatable combination of a great particular program in the student's area of interest + awesome merit aid, and with a view to saving money for a professional program later, while not sacrificing undergrad quality now. She chose a public U with a great program. </p>
<p>Only one of many examples. There are so many "top" schools. Your question about "best academics" is just too general. Like USC, Florida State has a great film program. Etc. U of Chicago is scholar's heaven in many academic areas, and it's not an ivy. (Some people think it offers more than Ivies in terms of academics). Certain publics like the U.C.'s and UT and Michigan and UVA have so many "top" programs, that it's hard to know where to begin. Whitman in Washington State, University of Iowa: where to begin?</p>
<p>I think it depends entirely on the area of interest as well.</p>
<p>My kid's own area of interest and expertise has narrowed the field to a whopping six possible schools...none of them Ivies, but all of them stellar for him, personally.</p>
<p>I think if prestige is the end game, shoot for Ivy. If there are other considerations, there are many other good schools from which to choose.</p>
<p>UGA- honors program is really good... there are summer research opportunities...also if u get the foundation fellows. scholarhsio.. you get to travel abroad in spring break and in summer.... for all 4 years... it's like a 9,000 dollar renewable traveling stipend.- no other school can beat it.</p>
<p>schools like Stanford and Duke provide the same academics but have big time D1 sports, too.</p>
<p>Williams, Amherst, Chicago- many, many others along with these.</p>
<p>Programs that I think are worth applying to, based on my son's interests, are at </p>
<p>MIT </p>
<p>Stanford </p>
<p>Caltech </p>
<p>U of Chicago </p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon </p>
<p>UC Berkeley </p>
<p>our state university's honors college, and a few other nationally known non-Ivy research universities. It's up to my son to put together his college application list when it's time to do that for class of 2010 high school students. He has friends going to most of the colleges mentioned above, from summer programs or math competitions or debate teams. </p>
<p>Reasonable minds can differ about this, because different students have different interests and preferences. Your own most fitting list might like quite different from the list above. There are only eight colleges in the Ivy League, all quite selective, so everyone applying to an Ivy ought to apply to some non-Ivy colleges too, in my opinion, especially to have a reasonable safety school on the application list.</p>
<p>Rice, Smith, Wellesley, Swarthmore</p>
<p>Because it often gets overlooked, I'm going to add WUSTL, where S1 just finished a wonderful, Ivy-like freshman year. He took classes in a year-long freshman seminar called Text and Tradition and also language and math and none of the classes had more than 20 students, a couple had only 10. He got to know professors, including one who wrote a recommendation for him for an internship. He's had excellent advising, including guidance in seeking out undergraduate research grants in the humanities. And he's had a great time socially from what I can tell from the pictures he has deigned to email --- freshman barbecues, organized mud wrestling, dorm holiday parties, snowboarding excursions, and some non-drinking shots of the big on-campus concert and carnival. In everything shy of name recognition for the university, I would say my son is getting an Ivy-league education at WashU.</p>
<p>M.I.T. <em>filler</em></p>
<p>How about one of these:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14325172/%5B/url%5D">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14325172/</a></p>
<p>25 New Ivies
The nation's elite colleges these days include more than Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Why? It's the tough competition for all the top students. That means a range of schools are getting fresh bragging rights.</p>
<p>fyi: my D thought she wanted an Ivy but chose Tufts (one of the 25 new ivy's) and loves it for all the reasons you mentioned, except the prestige thing. Unless, you are from the NE where Tufts has an excellent reputation. While it sits in the "shadow" of Harvard, they are actually on a hill looking down on Cambridge :)</p>
<p>MIT and Stanford are obvious. </p>
<p>Many LACs will offer often better educational experience then Ivies, and are well respected in the academia, but most of your neighbors will not be impressed...</p>
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but most of your neighbors will not be impressed...
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<p>Lol how unfortunate. But that's what grad school is for.</p>