Why is Duke, Columbia, and Penn underrated in these forums?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>This is copy of a similar thread I created for Duke. </p>

<p>I've always thought these 3 universities are second to HYPSM in terms for reputation and selectivity. When I went through my college search, I compiled a bunch of lists and websites just for research sake. When I went to talk to my college counselors and what not, they always mentioned Duke with Harvard and Brown...</p>

<p>Why is it so underrated here? Did the lacrosse case 4 years ago touch a nerve or something?</p>

<p>Here's a few information I've found about Duke. Aside from the fact it doesn't have as much Nobel Prizes as HYPSM, everything seems to be great about it. I'm not saying it should be at HYPSM's level. But I'm just asking why everyone here seems to hate it. </p>

<p>2007</a> list of BB Summer Associate class by colleges | WallStreetOasis.com
Duke ranks above Yale on this one...</p>

<p>Where</a> the Fortune 50 CEOs Went to College - TIME
Harvard's count is 3 here...Duke is 2.
Stanford and Yale are 1.</p>

<p>What's</a> Your College Degree Worth? - Businessweek
Duke ranks in the top 10 for Payscale</p>

<p>America’s</a> Best Universities for 2009
These are Google Rankings on College...I don't know what basis, but they showed up. And Duke is 7th. Above Yale and Princeton!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/p...ege_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/p...ege_092503.pdf&lt;/a>
Wall Street Journal...Duke ranks right after HYPSM</p>

<p>The-Billionaire-Universities:</a> Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
Duke ranks 11th on number of billionaires produced. Isn't that good considering its a new university?</p>

<p>Top</a> 100 Universities in USA
Duke ranks 10th in these rankings</p>

<p>Gawker</a> — Today's gossip is tomorrow's news
Invest</a> Like the Ivy League? - CXO Advisory</p>

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<p><a href="http://mup.asu.edu/research2009.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://mup.asu.edu/research2009.pdf&lt;/a>
Duke is ranked 6th. Columbia (not Harvard) is 1.</p>

<p>Guide</a> to studying abroad -

[quote]

USA and UK have some of the world’s best universities. In these countries, universities are ranked on the basis of their popularity and academic quality. Out of 5,000 universities in USA, the most popular ones are the 12 so-called Ivy league universities - that includes Harvard University, Columbia, Duke, Stanford, Chicago, Yale, Pennsylvania, Princeton, California Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[/quote]

^They couldn't even get the real Ivy League down...wow. </p>

<p>eSiteful</a> Case Study : Rice University</p>

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<p>Invest</a> Like the Ivy League? - CXO Advisory</p>

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[quote]

The following chart, taken from the paper, summarizes average returns in excess of the S&P 500 index by school type for all schools reporting in ten or more years during 1992-2005. “Ivy Plus” includes the Ivy League along with Duke, MIT, Caltech and Stanford

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<p>Even Wikipedia says the Ivy League generally includes MIT and Stanford. Duke University and UChicago also.</p>

<p>I just don't get why someone hates a university so much...I mean that's like being disrespectful to people who go to Duke...wouldn't you get defensive if someone hurts your alma mater like that?
I just wanted to point that out..out of my entire experience in gathering data and searching for colleges, I found many examples of Duke treated very elitely..except on these boards!
Same case for Columbia and Penn!</p>

2

<p>Columbia is not only very old and super selective…but it also has more Nobel Laurettes than YPSM…yet its so underrated and considered below “HYPSM”. I just don’t understand your guys’s criteria.</p>

<p>How could you think Berkeley, UMich, and UVA are at the same level as Duke, Columbia, and Penn and argue that Duke, Columbia, and Penn are leagues behind Stanford, Harvard, and Yale?</p>

3

<p>I think Duke’s case is due to the perception of it being a “Southern” school and therefore cannot be as elite as schools in more “prestigious” regions of the country such as the Northeast. </p>

<p>Similar to the perception of Southerners being dumber and more backward than the rest of the country.</p>

4

<p>I think it’s because some (certainly not all, or even most) Duke supporters use tactics that are often rude, abrasive, or mean, more so than even the most rabid supporters of other universities. Often these individuals will pop into threads where Duke is irrelevant just to proclaim how Duke is better. Some Duke supporters–even some of those who don’t use mean tactics–attempt to claim *superiority *, not just equality, to one or more of HYPSM. I’ve watched this for years (longer than my join date will indicate).</p>

<p>Again, this applies only to a subset of the Duke-affiliated people, but that subset is large enough to turn a lot of people against Duke.</p>

<p>nttATL, that logic doesn’t make much sense–why is Stanford considered on par with HYP even though there’s a stigma attached to California (“full of fruits and nuts” and “dumb surfer guys” and “illegal immigrants”)?</p>

5

<p>I think they are a little underrated, Columbia in particular–however, they aren’t to the level you’re describing. I think on CC there’s a second tier after HYPSM (and Caltech) of Duke, Columbia, UChicago, UPenn and Brown. All are amazing schools, and all are very strong and well rounded.</p>

<p>The thing is, for whatever reason, those schools don’t have <em>as</em> large of a “fanbase” as other schools. The HYPSMers tout those schools as exalted institutes of learning above all temporal concerns, and god knows UC Berkeley has more than its share of defenders. Michigan too. So don’t worry yourself too much about it. You’ll receive an excellent education at any of these schools.</p>

<p>edit: I forgot Duke’s fanbase, so see phantasmagoric’s comment</p>

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<p>I love Penn. This forum is just this way. As long as you believe that the schools are good, then all is well.</p>

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<p>Generally speaking the best and the brightest are admitted to and have gone to HYPSM over a sustained period of time. There are of course exceptions. For the best and the brightest Duke, Columbia and Penn are relative safety schools. Give these schools another 100 years or so and they may be able change perceptions, but it will take time.</p>

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<p>^ I’ve wondered whether such will happen with time. But that totally depends on whether there’s a ceiling for what money can buy, since prestige and financial assets are extremely correlated. In another 10 years, HYPS are going to have unbelievably huge endowments (even assuming a conservative 10-year annualized return of 10% would put H’s endowment at over $70 billion), and the schools a “notch below” (Duke, Columbia, etc.) are going to have endowments the size of YPS today. So the question is, what can’t money buy? HYPS will surely be completely free to attend in another 10 years. They’ll be paying professors absurd salaries to attract the best. They will be doing intense reconstruction to have the very best facilities. So it seems that no matter how much larger these “notch-below” schools’ endowments get, HYPS will always have much larger endowments, which will set the pecking order for things that determine prestige (faculty, facilities, even selectivity, which will certainly increase if HYPS become free to attend and tons more students apply).</p>

9

<p>I chose Columbia over Stanford and MIT. After researching for a while, it was easy to see that Columbia does just as well as Stanford and beats MIT in the line of work I’m interested in. Others might choose differently, for sure. But, for me, Columbia is home. And a very prestigious home at that. :)</p>

10

<p>The question is based on a premise that you have not demonstrated to be true.
Why do you think these 3 schools are underrated in these forums? Underrated compared to what?</p>

<p>In the US News rankings, all three are in the top 10. So there is not much room for them to go up. I have not noticed too many arguments that US News got it wildly wrong in ranking them as it did.</p>

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<p>^ well, ranking Columbia above Stanford is kind of off…</p>

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<p>Of the three. I think Columbia has the best opportunity to make the jump over the long run. It has top business, law, medical schools and other graduate schools and is located in New York City. This should also help with fundraising.</p>

<p>Morningside Heights is a more desirable place to live than it was 10 or 20 years ago, which at the time was a major disadvantage for the university in attracting top students. </p>

<p>Columbia seems to have the advantage over Brown, Dartmouth, Duke and definitely over Penn and Cornell. You can not underestimate location and the opportunities for learning outside of the classroom in attracting the best and the brightest.</p>

13

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So does Penn. Penn and Columbia are quite comparable academically, and are equally well positioned to “make the jump,” if there is a jump to be made.</p>

<p>And in terms of Columbia’s location in NYC being a factor, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton have all proven that a school doesn’t need to be in the middle of a large city to be at the pinnacle of academia.</p>

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<p>Have you guys even read my OP?</p>

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<p>Why? They only thing Columbia lacks against Stanford is its EA policy and a lower endowment. What else?</p>

<p>To the above 2 posters:
Duke Columbia and Penn are all so similar! Why would you still continue to split hairs? It doesn’t make sense…</p>

15

<p>How are Columbia, Duke and Penn underrated on CC? Virtually every poster here rates them one notch below HYP, MIT and Stanford. The same goes for only a select few other universities such as Brown, Cal, Cornell and Northwestern and a handful of others.</p>

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That was the point I was trying to make. :)</p>

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<p>Duke and Columbia are much better than UPenn CAS and its Engineering School. Wharton, however, is top-notch.</p>

<p>I don’t think I know anyone who’s attending UPenn CAS or SEAS, who had another good option. It’s often the last resort for most top students.</p>

18

<p>Columbia and Penn are not underrated on CC, however I do agree that for some reason Duke is. HYPS deserve there own recognition, but I don’t believe MIT does. MIT imo is the most overrated college on this forum.</p>

<p>@imanapp: I’m turning down UChicago, JHU, Cornell (Human Ecology), Duke, NYU and a few others for UPenn CAS.
Duke was my second last option lol, with NYU being my last.</p>

<p>I would also like to point out</p>

<p>Penn Pre-med CAS >>>>>>>>>>>> Columbia and Duke</p>

<p>Penn Pre-law CAS >>> Columbia and Duke</p>

<p>Penn Economics CAS = Columbia College >>>>>>>>Duke</p>

<p>Duke Engineering >> Penn SEAS = Columbia SEAS</p>

<p>Penn Business is obviously at a whole another level compared to Columbia/Duke</p>

<p>In general and in terms of prestige, UPenn > or maybe = to Columbia, however every other Ivy school and Top School comes in second to HYPS</p>

<p>Penn/Columbia/Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell are the last resort for top students who weren’t able to get into HYPS.</p>

19

<p>Columbia isn’t underrated on these forums - from what I’ve seen, people regard Columbia really well around here! And for some reason, in the area I live in (Bay Area, California), Duke is often ranked at the same level as Stanford, though I agree that it is underrated on CC…I barely see it mentioned. Penn is a little underrated here too IMHO, though not by much anyways…well, they’re all excellent schools at any rate. </p>

<p>@iamanapp: Wait wait wait, I seriously doubt that Duke and Columbia are THAT much much better than Penn CAS and SEAS. Anyways I’d figure I’d point out that I didn’t apply to Columbia’s Fu school of engineering (due to EDing to Penn), but even if I did, I would’ve chosen Penn SEAS over it…not because I believe that Penn SEAS >> Columbia’s (because I believe that they’re both at the same level), but because I’m one of those weirdos who prefers Philadelphia over NYC. Duke I don’t really have any interest in so yeah.</p>

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<p>A lot of that is just plain wrong dude. [For ex: Duke is great for Pre-Med.]</p>

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<p>I’m turning down Stanford for Columbia. :)</p>