<p>Pizzagirl, I am now going to take RML’s side, at least a little. There was another thread in which the OP’s dream was to work in Japan, and he wanted to know what colleges would assist him in achieving that. (I don’t recall if you were in that thread or not.) I thought it was quite reasonable for him to want to know how different schools would be viewed in Japan. A student deciding between, say, Rice and Tufts, might want to think hard about whether he’d rather work in the Northeast or in Texas after graduation. It’s certainly not the only factor, but it can be a relevant factor.</p>
<p>Hunt and Pizza Girl, prove your claims. Provide sources and statistics.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Scratching my head over this statement…Does being rich imply having good enough stats for Berkeley? I don’t understand your logic. (My observations of some rich kids tell me otherwise.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My claims as to what? All prestige is regional (once you go beyond the tippy-top).</p>
<p>RML, why does it matter so much to you whether Berkeley is the very tippy-top in prestige, or it isn’t? It’s a fine, excellent school. Why isn’t that enough for you? </p>
<p>Why is it also important to you that everyone-in-every-region-of-the-US bow down when a Berkeley graduate walks by? Has it gotten you (or more accurately, your wife) where she wants to go? If so, then why do you care what other people think?</p>
<p>Upthread, someone tried to jab at me by saying that it was a truth that Brown & Dartmouth > NU. NU’s gotten me everyplace I wanted to be, so why would I care if Brown or Dartmouth could have gotten me farther? I wasn’t interested in them for a variety of other reasons. Other people like those schools and are happy there – great, good for them. Maybe they’d beat NU in a national survey. I don’t really know. And I don’t know why I should care, frankly. Can you tell me why I should?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, “most people” don’t walk around thinking something that shallow. They go to the medical doctor for their own needs, they go to the vet for their pets’ needs, and they don’t engage in silly trivia such as deciding which one is more intelligent. Because it doesn’t MATTER to the vet if people think “MD’s are smarter” – if he wants to work with pets for a living - then he should go be a vet.</p>
<p>“Michigan would be more prestigious than North Carolina except Michigan couldnt teach Chris Webber to count how many timeouts a team gets, ergo UNC>Michigan.”</p>
<p>Winner</p>
<p>What fun this thread has been. Thank you, RML. Been thru two tubs of popcorn already and more popping in the kitchen. :D</p>
<p>p’girl,
RML already has his mind made up about UC Berkeley or U Michigan. Don’t confuse him with the facts or any reasonable arguments or his head might explode. </p>
<p>hunt,
Thanks for your yeoman’s work in this thread and offering consistently terrific instruction to RML. Pity he won’t take it.</p>
<p>Okay, RML is at full force here on this thread again, with this Berkeley non-sense.</p>
<p>From another thread from UC Berkeley forum, RML stated that Cornell is a dumping ground full of Berkeley rejects. That is right. You heard me right. He went on to claim that Berkeley is one of the very best universities on the planet, possibly on par with HYPSM. Yet, Berkeley is not even the best school in the Bay Area. It is like third or fourth best school in the state of California… Anyone reading his over 2000 posts so far about Berkeley et al should be aware that this guy may not be able to think straight.</p>
<p>“Michigan would be more prestigious than North Carolina except Michigan couldnt teach Chris Webber to count how many timeouts a team gets, ergo UNC>Michigan.”</p>
<p>They couldn’t teach him a lot of things. I have no respect for him at all.</p>
<p>The thing about ths thread is that the thread title and the OP are quite different.</p>
<p>The thread title is “Which college in more prestgious?” Between UNC and UMich. NOT BERKELEY.</p>
<p>As I stated before, and has been stated multiple times, they are pretty much equal, and the answer will vary by region.</p>
<p>The OP states: “I was curious as to the public’s opinion on each school. The University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina. Which one is more impressive in your opinion. Academics being the main criteria. Also, which is stronger in main, core disciplines like law, medicine, business, ect. Which one overall has the better name.”</p>
<p>Academics wise, Mchigan is more impressive, even with my bias as an extremely happy UNC OOS acceptee. But Michigan pretty much wins. As proven in those disciplines and academics overall, especially their grad school.</p>
<p>“Michigan would be more prestigious than North Carolina except Michigan couldnt teach Chris Webber to count how many timeouts a team gets, ergo UNC>Michigan.” <---- Still the best post so far.</p>
<p>
I have to wonder if you’ve read anything I wrote. Prestige is about perception. My source is my own understanding, after years of being around colleges and the professional workforce in multiple cities (on the East Coast). I’m sorry that you don’t like what I’m telling you about the common perception of the relative levels of “prestige” of schools. But the bottom line, in the US, is that the prestige of a school only really matters for a tiny number of schools.</p>
<p>“Michigan would be more prestigious than North Carolina except Michigan couldnt teach Chris Webber to count how many timeouts a team gets, ergo UNC>Michigan.”</p>
<p>Unfair. Webber left in his sophomore year, and U of M athletes don’t take Intro to Arithmetic until junior year.</p>
<p>Most of these “which is more prestigious” discussions are really asking variations on questions like,
where do rich and respected families send their children?
or
where do investment banks recruit their employees?</p>
<p>Questions like these treat the school itself as a Black Box. They side-step any attempt to evaluate the school itself, on its own merits, and its suitability for individual needs. Would you ask questions like these in buying an automobile? Would a mature person start car shopping with questions like,
- what cars do rich people drive?*
or - what cars show up in the parking lots of exclusive country clubs?*</p>
<p>Probably not. Instead, you might start off with questions like,
- how am I going to use this vehicle? To carry passengers only, or to haul cargo? For crowded city driving, or for long highway trips?*</p>
<p>In other words, you’d probably be thinking about fit. When you narrow down your choices to some models that fit your needs, then you might consider what more or less testable quality factors are most important to you. Safety? Fuel economy? Comfort? Performance and handling? etc. Then you’d read some reports and compare data to identify the best car for your needs at the right price. </p>
<p>Doesn’t a similar process makes sense for choosing a college?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Which is why RML’s response that he would choose Northwestern over Brown “because it’s more prestigious” is such a goofy answer. They’re in the same general ballpark; this isn’t Northwestern versus Eastern Montana State. So then you make the decision based on substantive criteria - this program vs that, Chicago vs Providence, whatever else comes into play. But you don’t pretend that there are meaningful “prestige differences” in a choice of that nature. And you certainly don’t pretend that minute prestige differences mean that the “winner” should always be chosen. I chose Northwestern over Penn (Wharton) because of a particular program that only NU offered. I don’t really give a darn whether Wharton was more prestigious; what’s the point of prestige if I didn’t get to study the particular subject matter I wanted?</p>
<p>Has the OP even come back to this sandbox? Or has the #@$%-measuring contest kept him away. ;)</p>
<p>i am actually back! enjoying a debate among “intellectuals”? haha, but seriously, thanks for all the enthusiam people, it seems both are revered among the public. BTW, as an east coast person, Berkelely is HIGHLY prestigious over here while many wouldn’t know what Cal Tech means.</p>
<p>PizzaGirl, I guess we live is two differnent worlds that’s why we clash a lot on our perceptions and beliefs. But one thing I’ve noticed from you and hawkette is that, you both (along with a few others on here) are too undergrad-centric. Your perception about education is heavily influenced and insanely dictated upon the strength of the undergrad that’s why you always end up in a debate fighting tooth and nail to push people to believe you on what you believe in. You are all humans and I respect you all as humans, as well as your beliefs. </p>
<p>As for NU vs Brown, yes, they both belong to the same league, “ballpark” as you call it, but that’s only for undergrad. i would even surmise that Brown’s affiliation wit Ivy League makes it a little more prestigious than NU. But then again, that’s just purely for undergrad. As a whole, I believe NU has a stronger name. Northwestern’s top departments, as well as, its several top professional schools, something which Brown severely lacks, carry the Northwestern’s name to victory in the end. So, for you and those undergrad-centric people out there, Brown is more prestigious than NU. For everyone else, it’s Northwestern over Brown. And that same explanation applies why I so much prefer JHU over Brown or Dartmouth. For me, they’re both the least prestigious ivies, not Cornell as you - undergrad-centric people - believe to be so.</p>
<p>hawkette, is Michigan law not prestigious? Is Ross not prestigious?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Isn’t that the primary focus of College Confidential? Directly or indirectly, this forum is mostly about helping high school students choose colleges. There are a few side-bar issues (such as helping parents survive with their sanity and bank accounts in tact) and vent pipes.</p>