<p>There must be criteria before one can be called an elite college or university. What do you think are these criteria? Please name some criteria which you think are necessary before a college or university can be called elite, and probably we can make a more acceptable list of elite colleges and universities based on the criteria you provided.</p>
<p>“(E)lite” is often used interchangeably with “highly selective.” Highly selective generally means admitting less than 15% of the applicants.</p>
<p>When your parents’ friends think it is.</p>
<p><a href=“E”>quote</a>lite" is often used interchangeably with “highly selective.” Highly selective generally means admitting less than 15% of the applicants.
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<p>LOL, so UPenn is not elite then. Or Hopkins or Uchicago or tons of other greater than 15%. There are really only 5 elite schools in the US Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT and Stanford. the rest of the schools go into nameless oblivion.</p>
<p>“LOL, so UPenn is not elite then. Or Hopkins or Uchicago or tons of other greater than 15%. There are really only 5 elite schools in the US Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT and Stanford. the rest of the schools go into nameless oblivion.”</p>
<p>There is only one elite school in the world, Harvard. Everywhere else you go (no matter if it’s Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, MIT, Columbia, Oxford, University of Tokyo, Cambridge, etc.), you have to live with the fact that there’s another school that’s more prestigious than yours. That’s why if you are really into the prestige business, attend Harvard for undergrad, and you will feel better attending choosing a school you really like (if not Harvard) for MD, MBA, JD, PhD, etc.</p>
<p>No no, PLME is more selective than Harvard… </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/896571-brown-plme-northwestern-hpme.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/896571-brown-plme-northwestern-hpme.html</a></p>
<p>Get in that and look down upon Harvard then, although you are attending Brown… lol</p>
<p>When? When the elitists say it is. LOL.</p>
<p>Another superficial attempt to promote elitism. Sad.</p>
<p>. . . and it’s that “we” believe it’s elite; it has that reputation.</p>
<p>Getting “us” to agree that a school moves in or out of elite status depends on a number of factors, most of which can be quantified (examples: acceptance rates; surveys of perception by professors; numbers of gradutaes who entered professional graduate schools, number of Rhodes scholars, etc.)</p>
<p>But it all comes back to whether We (who collectively have the Conventional Wisdom) perceive the school as elite. Example: Harvey Mudd is now moving into the group of elite undergraduate engineering schools; it’s still the same excellent school that it was when it had a regional reputation for excellence but was relatively unknown on the East Coast, but now that “we” know more about it it’s moving into the elite category. </p>
<p>Same rules apply to fashion: how does a partcular brand become the “it” brand; sure, it’s good quality clothing and may be a fine deal for the money and have a forward fashion sense, but that does not explain why "we " think that Forever 21 or Hollister or Timberland (kind of dated, I know) are such hot brands. </p>
<p>I deliberately used Harvey Mudd because the designation of “elite” can be for mass consumption purposes or for particular disciplines. Someone who wants to study writing can go to one of the elite schools in the country for literature (Kenyon), but who in the the mass perception world would ever rank that small LAC over such “elite” insitutions as Wesleyan or UPenn? </p>
<p>Same with other fields: for aeronautical engineering world Lehigh is among the best; for mechanical engineering Cal Poly SLO; for turf management its OSU . . . and I do not mean that Oregon poser school :-)</p>
<p>And to illustrate how defining elite is so ineffeable . . . w/o using admission rates could someone please explain why Vassar is considered elite?</p>
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<p>LOL. Someone pulled this number out of their a… </p>
<p>I guess Carlton, Wesleyan, Swarthmore are not elite. Please. <eye roll=“”></eye></p>
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<p>LOL. Great answer, tsdad! While certainly there is a roster of colleges to which the majority of folks would accord the “elite” designation, there is also a hefty dose of subjectivity involved in these determinations … and geography can play a role as well.</p>
<p>For instance, I have a friend who went to Harvard but then moved to Florida as a young man launching his medical career. He insists that not being able to claim U. of F. or FSU as his alma mater was a professional liability.</p>
<p>Similarly, another guy I know who graduated from Vassar ended up in Dallas. He bemoaned not having a UT or Aggie sheepskin, and–even though he was a lawyer–he says that Vassar was unknown to many colleagues</p>
<p>Famous does not equate with “elite” (e.g. Paris Hilton is famous). Nor does an acceptance rate cut-off, as there is often self-selection of particularly talented students applying to, say, Swarthmore, U. Chicago or MIT. I think peer assessment is probably the closest to the truth, i.e. what is “elite” to those who actually know higher education (college presidents, admissions officers, etc.). Using these criteria, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, Harvard, Yale are certainly more “elite” than Brown, Penn, etc.</p>
<p>Eliteness is demonstrated when the mention of one’s college in a social setting typically elicits a response of more than a single sentence.</p>
<p>I think that striving for “elite” means that we have our focus wrong. Who cares? Just go to the university that best fits you, and will create challenges for you, while maintaining a fun atmosphere. That’s all it boils down to.</p>
<p>Oh, so more than, “How nice”, in that tone, you all know the one I mean. Good to know, haha!</p>
<h1>12- most people in a “social setting” are clueless. On average, more people have heard of/are impressed by Mercedes Benz, but that doesn’t make it more “elite” than an Aston Martin or Lamborghini- talk to people who actually know something about cars. But if you do go to Harvard, you’ve got to say that you “go to school in Boston”, because most people will stroke-out if you say the H-word</h1>
<p>It usually correlates to either: a)regional impression or b) rejection rate</p>
<p>Although neither of the above should be the basis for one’s decision, regarding where to attend college.</p>
<p>When int’ls present their lists on CC and they read like…</p>
<p>Harvard
MIT
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
and the rest of the ivies
…with no concern about fit, strength of major, or anything. </p>
<p>They usually don’t put down Duke or Vandy or some others because their families have never heard of those schools.</p>
<p>Here’s another take.</p>
<p>How about when a school has several famous graduates who advance high into the ranks of government and business, achieve wealth and power, and then are blamed by many for undermining the ethical foundations of commerce and governance. I doubt that many in this forum see the term “elite institution” in such a negative light, but millions of your fellow citizens think of these things when the e word is used.</p>
<p>My fearless prediction is that the e word will soon go into seclusion for a few decades, much like the word “liberal” did in the 1980s and the word “progressive” did in the 1950s only recently having been rehabilitated and allowed to roam free once again.</p>
<p>Words, like people, can wear out their welcome.</p>
<p>^ So alumni achievements are one of the criteria that should define elite schools. I think I can agree with that. But how will you quantify that? any idea?</p>