<p>University of Chicago is the only school that significantly bucks the trend of selectivity=quality. Thought I would still say UofC suffers some in this regard. Look at the 15 most selective schools in the country and tell me that they are not among the best/most prestigious there is. Take out the military schools and the small speciality schools (cooper and Julliard) and look what you get.</p>
<p>Curtis Institute of Music</p>
<p>Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 9 %
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 10 %
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 10 %
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 10 %
Columbia University
New York, NY
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 11 %</p>
<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 12 %
Brown University
Providence, RI
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 14 %
National-Louis University
Chicago, IL
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 14 %</p>
<p>Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 15 %
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 16 %
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, CA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 16 %
Pomona College
Claremont, CA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 16 %
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 17 %
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 17 %</p>
<p>Amherst College
Amherst, MA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 18 %
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, PA
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 18 %
Williams College
Williamstown, MA</p>
<p>But Bescraze, that's the point. These institutions are highly-regarded and truly excellent schools. But the reason to attend a school is NOT "it's selective." As proof of the quality, "it's selective" is NOT a valid statement.</p>
<p>These schools are so popular BECAUSE there is something great about them. If it's so obvious, then there's no need to use the selectivity as evidence. If they are so wonderful, explain how. That way you won't miss very good institutions, such as UofC, that are not as selective simply because they are self-selecting. </p>
<p>In addition, public schools such as UVa, UMich, and many UCs are excellent and highly-regarded (many with T10 grad programs) but are not as selective.</p>
<p>My point is that selectivity indicates popularity. Sometimes this popularity is due to academic quality. Other times it's not. Why not focus on the actual issues?</p>
<p>Back to Brown, what makes it so academically superior to other institutions? To argue that the "chill" people are a plus is not a really strong position, in my opinion. I'm looking for people who aren't necessarily chill. Is the campus safe? How are the internships? Placement into grad school? Average salary of a Brown grad? Curriculum options?</p>
The humanities departments in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences:
Anthropology
Comparative Media Studies
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Literature
Music and Theater Arts
Philosophy
Science, Technology, and Society
Women's and Gender Studies
Writing and Humanistic Studies</p>
<p>MIT is not missing with the arts. And even if a student there believed this, they could just register at ANY Harvard or Wellesley class that they wanted to</p>
<p>
[quote]
The humanities departments in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences:
Anthropology
Comparative Media Studies
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Literature
Music and Theater Arts
Philosophy
Science, Technology, and Society
Women's and Gender Studies
Writing and Humanistic Studies
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What about classics? What about French? Or German? Or Spanish? What about the many other languages (Portuguese, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Latin, etc.)? I wouldn't want to major in general foreign languages and literatures. Why are music and theater arts put together? What about comparative literature? What about art history? What about history? What about geography? What about sociology? What about religion?</p>
<p>You get the point.</p>
<p>
[quote]
MIT is not missing with the arts.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Refer to the above. ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
And even if a student there believed this, they could just register at ANY Harvard or Wellesley class that they wanted to
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't know about you, but I don't want to register at another school. I want would to go to MIT, dammit. Not some neighboring university.</p>
<p>And what about all those students who want to actually major in those subjects--they can take courses elsewhere, but they can't get a degree in it, can they?</p>
<p>
[quote]
What about French? Or German? Or Spanish? What about the many other languages (Portuguese, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Latin, etc.)? I wouldn't want to major in general foreign languages and literatures.
[/quote]
The undergraduate majors are French, German, and Spanish, and that's what students get a degree in. The departmental structure is just such that all of the languages are combined into one department.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why are music and theater arts put together?
[/quote]
Again, it's a department structure thing -- there are two separate majors available, but the faculty are under one department.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What about history?
[/quote]
It's there, I just forgot it on my list. :)</p>
<p>In the same vein, though, I could ask where the separate engineering programs are at a school like Harvard -- where is electrical engineering? computer science? aerospace engineering? chemical engineering? mechanical engineering? biomedical engineering? I mean, I've heard it said that students shouldn't go to Stanford for neurobiology because Stanford doesn't have an undergraduate neurobiology major, and I strongly argued against this idea even though I could have plugged either MIT or Harvard, both of which offer neurobiology majors -- Stanford has great neurobiology faculty members, regardless of the name on a student's degree, and that's what should matter.</p>
<p>I agree that a student interested in religion or sociology should consider some school other than MIT, but I don't think that means MIT shouldn't be grouped with other major research universities in US News.</p>
<p>Btw, I never knew MIT had libraries until I asked my MIT friends where they were. lol, I was wondering for a long time why I couldn't sneak into them. I never knew where they were or even if they existed.</p>
<p>molliebatmit, you know more about Harvard engineering than I would. Isn't it expanding its engineering?</p>
<p>The rest of the disciplines I listed are, to my knowledge, not offered at MIT.</p>
<p>Perhaps this is more like the public schools issue: they are research universities, but they do have fundamentally different missions. Thus, under that idea, tech schools should have their own ranking as well, while being ranked with national universities. Other tech schools, though, cannot claim to have the same offerings as MIT--I will say that MIT probably has the most diverse offerings of tech schools.</p>
<p>On that note, with all these expansions in curriculum and offerings, why does MIT still consider itself an institute of technology? The GIRs? (I'd argue that many schools have similar GERs that, while not so focused on science/technology, have them as a major part.)</p>
<p>Yeah but a family who makes say $200,000 is not easily able to afford Stanford or MIT, even though their aid offices say that anyone can afford it.</p>
<p>^ Ugh, the key is that finaid exists to help the poores and the needy. Just because your family doesn't want to spend the money they can perfectly owe doesn't mean the finaid is not doing it job properly. Whether or not its easy for your family to pay is your issue. So long as you can pay is a miracle given how many ppl legitly need finaid services these day, unlike your family, wanting to pander every dime and nickel from the finaid office to lessen your financial burden when you truly, there are those out there that can't even dream of a college education on the income their family has.</p>
<p>yeah i'll see. I still have to get by that nasty 9.5% acceptance rate though :)</p>
<p>Phead. I have 3 brothers and sister who are just as strong academically as me, and if we all tried to go to somewhere like Stanford paying the full tuition, my family might find ourselves in serious trouble.</p>