<p>Why is Princeton ranked so high w/o med, law, or business school?
Can someone answer this question?</p>
<p>(Doesn't your asking imply that you're requesting an answer?)</p>
<p>assuming that you're referring to the 2006 USNews college rankings, you have to keep in mind that the rankings refer to the quality of the undergraduate program at different schools, not graduate ones. while Princeton's graduate program is relatively nonexistant, its undergraduate program is absolutely amazing. Princeton prides itself on being a university that focuses on the undergraduate, whereas schools such as harvard place much more emphasis on their graduate students. while the lack of access/exposure to graduate programs while at princeton may be slightly detrimental, the outstanding quality of the undergraduate program more than makes up for it.</p>
<p>Yep, that's what made up my mind when I tried to differentiate between Princeton and other schools I'd been admitted to. They're all great. But what put Princeton up there I am far more likely to actually gain from.</p>
<p>Princeton doesn't have a medical, business or law (at least not anymore) but it still has top notch graduate (the last NRC study placed Princeton at fourth when ranking Universities with the highest number of distinguished programs. Princeton had 24 and was ranked 4th while Harvard placed 3rd with 25. Berkeley and Stanford took the top two slots with 32 and 28 respectively.) and undergraduate programs. It has an endowment larger than that of most major research universities and its financial resources allow it to more than make up for resources that it would otherwise lack due to a lack of professional schools. Besides, despite its lack of professional schools, Princeton still puts out a great amount of research. Combined with its financial resources, great undergraduate and graduate programs, Princeton is always able to rank quite high.</p>
<p>Yea, that's true. It's not so much that the graduate schools are inferior, just that a nevertheless strong undergraduate focus is more unusual.</p>
<p>byerly will be up in hurrr faster than you can say "Harvard ssssuu....</p>
<p>Aahahah I had to clean up my work keyboard after reading that one, Rhamster... damn chocolate milk all over the place, haha >.<</p>
<p>You're drinking hot chocolate again aren't you?? </p>
<p>A princeton admissions officer told me that Princeton could make a med, law and business school overnight, but they just choose not to have them, because they are all about the undergrad focus.</p>
<p>zante: It probably would be tough these days. Look at yale school of management.</p>
<p>Legend: glad i could make u laugh..hope i didnt ruin the keyboard haha</p>
<p>I'm sure it was an exaggeration. But the point is that they choose not to have those programs, not because they can't afford to.</p>
<p>yeah i definitely agree. Somewhere along the line the decision was made not to have profesional schools and that reflects on the instituition's atitude towards undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Princeton is closely affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies, which more than makes up for the lack of graduate schools.</p>
<p>okay...still princeton is not rated as even the top three in undergrad busi, engi, or med, why is it that high if u gusy say its the best undergrad?</p>
<p>A couple of points.</p>
<p>First, I think that ranking in the top three is an overly selective measure of whether a school is good at anything.</p>
<p>Second, you haven't shown which rankings you're referring to when you note that it's not in the top three in undergraduate business, engineering, or medicine. At any rate, this is the case with business, because Princeton doesn't offer a specific "Business" major for undergrads. Therefore, they're not eligible to be ranked. It's not the case for engineering because, well, while Princeton's undergraduate engineering program is good -- it ranks in the teens or so -- it's not top three. It's not the case for medicine because, well, an undergraduate medicine program is an oxymoron -- one goes to a graduate medical school to learn how to be a doctor.</p>
<p>Also, I would suggest relying exclusively on rankings when trying to figure out which school offers the best undergraduate experience. One could imagine a school that had the best professor from every field, yet insisted that these professors teach courses only to graduate students. Such a school would rank very highly in the departmental rankings, yet the undergrad experience there probably wouldn't be so great, as one would never be taught by professors.</p>
<p>Now, the best situation is to be taught by well-known professors. This is what happens at Princeton, evidenced not only by its small average class size, but also by its impressive performance in departmental rankings. Because good professors teach smaller classes, Princeton undergrads tend to enjoy their experience.</p>
<p>Lastly, academics alone don't make a place "the best undergrad" -- if such a thing exists. Nice housing, interesting events, a good location -- these are all perks which Princeton has, and which contributes to it often being called one of the best undergraduate experiences.</p>
<p>umm well it has no business school...so there is no undergrad business? lol. most schools have no pre-med (and there is no pre-med rankings) and engineering isnt a forte among ivies since its small. </p>
<p>but, since when did undergrad focus only on business and engineering? u know, there are other subjects to focus/major in when doing undergrad...most colleges have more than just 2 generic majors lol.</p>
<p>Rhamster - Harvard suuuuuuuuuushi!</p>
<p>how's princeton's graduate engineering program when compared to cornell's ?</p>
<p>no suicides as of yet!</p>
<p>Hahaha yeah, Ithaca is so beautiful it's gorges</p>