<p>
[quote]
i agree with sakky that percentage of undergrads is a poor proxy for undergrad focus. some schools really go out of their way for undergrads--for example, at MIT the most famous professors teach intro classes and simple recitations. such things would never occur at harvard. it really varies by institution.
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<p>If we're talking about undergraduate focus, Dartmouth is probably the best at that. The last time I checked, professors 99% of the time teach the classes.</p>
<p>Most people would tell you that Duke is in the Ivy League and look at you with shock when you say.. no the 8th Ivy is actually Cornell/Brown.. :p</p>
<p>If we're talking about undergrad focus, go to a LAC!</p>
<p>i would say cornell is the best cos of thier engineering program. I know you guys are gonna be trippin now and post ****. But seriously cornell has such solids programs all around. Harvard etc are full of "intellectuals" who just think but don't solve problems.
My ranking
cornell
U penn
Princeton
Columbia
Harvard
Dartmouth
Brown
Yale.
this list is prolly very disputable. I guess these are the ranking that are best for engineering.</p>
<p>at MIT the most famous professors teach intro classes and simple recitations. such things would never occur at harvard. - this statement is simply not true. There are a number of well known scholars teaching freshmen seminars and science courses at Harvard.</p>
<p>Here are my rankings, taking everything into account. I agree with the fact that cornell is really under-rated (just because it has a high acceptance rate), though I don't think it should be number one.</p>
<p>So here's my ranking:</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton (way over-rated, honestly. imo it's < h+y. A truly strong student doesn't need their hand held)
Columbia
UPenn
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown</p>
<p>
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you have an audience of 1300 for each and every lecture (in 2 continents).
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<p>No, that's how you know it's an overcrowded class in which nobody will ever know your name.</p>
<p>let me clarify something. by considered the best, i meant by the average joe on the street. I, and other people on CC and the academic world, certainly know that the top LACs are as equally hard, if not harder than some top ranked schools. i know that LACs are as rigorous as those schools and are great schools. I meant: "why is the Ivies considered the cream of the crop by the public/media ??"
the catylst for me posting the question was my aunt, actually. when she heard i was going to visit Claremont McKenna, she looked like someone had stuck **** up her nose. She was like, "you should go to HARVARD" instead. and looked incredibly shocked when i told her LACs were as hard to get into as some ivies. </p>
<p>so, if what i gather from these posts, it's apparently better to go to grad school at ivies than for undergrads ??</p>
<p>maybe the networking, good for your career in future</p>
<p>people say cornell has some high acceptance rate, but it was below 20% this year</p>
<p>u konw that true. I mean a dude at amherst which is really hard to get into and very prestigous has no meaning to the avg joe. If someone says they goto amherst the other person will be like ok..... The person can try to explain that amherst is like an ivy but they will think you are just trying to play up the college.</p>
<p>JP, how does Princeton hold undergrads' hands?? i've never heard of this !!</p>
<p>
[quote]
u konw that true. I mean a dude at amherst which is really hard to get into and very prestigous has no meaning to the avg joe. If someone says they goto amherst the other person will be like ok..... The person can try to explain that amherst is like an ivy but they will think you are just trying to play up the college.
[/quote]
or they confuse it with Umass Amherst</p>
<p>Ivy Leagues are not the best schools in America. Most top colleges are comparative in almost every single aspect: academics, the quality of their professors, alumni network, etc. People simply consider Ivies the best because they are too caught up in tradition to realize that the Ivy League is an athletic conference and nothing more. This isn't just coming from me. I talked with a woman on Columbia's admission team and she that exact phrase.</p>
<p>JP_Omnipotence:</p>
<p>Princeton hardly coddles any of its students. I think its "strong undergraduate focus" often becomes twisted to mean that for people who are unfamiliar with the school. In fact its a very "sink or swim" place. I learned that the hard way my freshman year. Princeton is also very comparable with Yale in most of its departments (and better in many of the sciences); Yale is just a larger school with a larger graduate/professional population, much like Harvard.</p>
<p>Here's the real deal on what colleges are the best, and why they are the best: The best colleges are the ones that have been considered to be the best over the last ten years or so. This makes them the actual best now, because they are able to attract the best students and faculty (which, in my opinion, is the real measure of what is "best"). Since the Ivies are considered the best, or at least among the best, they remain the best, or among the best, because that image helps them attract top people. As the reputatoin of other schools, such as Duke, Wash U., etc., have gone up, so has the quality of the people going there. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem, but what originally made a college have a reputation as being one of the best is irrelevant. Once it is considered to be one of the best for a number of years (I say 10), then it really is one of the best.</p>
<p>It might also be geographically significant. In Texas, UTAustin (and AM to a certain extent) are where you make your professional connections. Harvard is nice and all that, but they are viewed with a certain amount of suspicion (yankee!!! :) )</p>
<p>Ivy Rankings</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Wharton
Columbia
Dartmouth
Cornell, Brown, Penn (minus Wharton)</p>
<p>Simply incorrect. Have fun in Durham.</p>
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[quote]
Harvard is nice and all that, but they are viewed with a certain amount of suspicion (yankee!!! )
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<p>Oh, I don't know. Seems to have worked out quite well for our President: not only a product of Phillips Andover, Yale, and Harvard but was also actually born in New Haven. Nevertheless, Texans twice elected him to be their Governor.</p>