<p>You don't always go to the highest ranked. Personally, the school of Friednman (Chicago) always seemed to have better placement in my opinion.</p>
<p>Well, I picked Stanford over Harvard, and here's why.. (increasing order of importance)</p>
<ol>
<li>California. I love skirts and flip-flops and sun and rain and biking and oak trees and San Francisco, and I didn't want to leave. But Princeton almost made me want to, 'cause I loved that school...so this criterion wasn't a make-it-or-break-it, just a nice touch.</li>
<li>I want to be a physics major, and Stanford is better.</li>
<li>Stanford seems to have a very strong culture of innovation, interdisciplinary thought, research -- all that stuff is important to me both as a student and as a potential scientist.</li>
</ol>
<p>Here's the thing with Harvard that frustrated me throughout my college search: I was never quite sure why I applied or why I almost went, but I did apply, and I did think very hard about going. I applied to Princeton because of its undergraduate focus, the structure of its academic programs; I loved it because of its feeling of community. I applied to, and eventually chose, Stanford because of the reasons I outlined above (and the more I look at it the more certain I am that it was the right choice). But while Princeton screamed "undergraduate focus! community!" to me, and Stanford screamed "undergraduate research! innovation!" to me, Harvard just seemed to say "oh yeah, us? well, we're the best. duh. that's just how it is."</p>
<p>So I guess here's what I'm trying to say. I didn't see a compelling reason for everyone (or even 80% of the kids it accepts) to pick Harvard over one of its competitors -- and did see many compelling reasons for kids to pick its competitors OVER it -- though there are definitely cases in which Harvard would be the best choice. But Harvard definitely still has the name and the mystique about it, even if I didn't find it to be the end-all be-all, and that's the sort of thing that is defined by the vast majority of people who aren't CCers, people who've barely heard of Columbia or Princeton and who say "Oh, Stanford...is that hard to get into?" And the NAME, the mythical status as Number One isn't going to change, even if the reality of the school does (or has).</p>
<p>"But while Princeton screamed "undergraduate focus! community!" to me, and Stanford screamed "undergraduate research! innovation!" to me, Harvard just seemed to say "oh yeah, us? well, we're the best. duh. that's just how it is."</p>
<p>lol. nice observation.</p>
<p>agreed. That pretty much sums up my feelings about P, H, and S.</p>
<p>I personally prefer P's location to H's because P is only an hour away from two world-class urban centers, a situation that offers so many opportunities for research, field work, and internships. At the same time, it maintains that quaint, homey collegiate feel to a small, beautiful community. P in crappy NJ? Yeah, the rest of NJ may be crappy, but when my family and I drove through the area leading up to P, the scenery was breathtaking.</p>
<p>I'd take P over H any day of the week, but that's just based on my preferences. For some, H is number one. For others, it's not. I do agree, however, that in Average Joe's mind, H will always be the top.</p>
<p>But who cares about Joe? ;)</p>
<p>I do not agree with the fact that people do rank universities, because it is quasi-impossible to judge all the universities as a whole and set rules defining what an "ideal" university should approach to. It is an extremely biased concept... </p>
<p>Anyway,</p>
<p>Harvard is an uncontournable totemic figure of education in the US and in the world, its image has been constantly modelled, re-modelled, engineered, re-engineered... Be it in Rural parts of Africa the slums of India, in provinces of France, Russia, China and even small Islands - people, even illiterate, acknowledge the existence of Harvard and they do regard Harvard as the penultimate institution, the ultimate academic achievement...</p>
<p>In our modern world, it would be more accurate to refer to Harvard's supremacy as a myth, now too many universities around the world are providing better academics, providing more challenging courses, training better their students, more effective and efficient courses - also the student nowadays, with technology and globalisation, are more prepared than in the past, more eager to learn, more creative and dynamic, more competitive. Koz in the beggining, it was students that made harvard what it is now, not vice versa and the students around the world are laying the foundations of future versions of "Harvard", scattered throughout the world....</p>
<p>Besides, graduating from Harvard does not prove, certify or guarantee you that you are a more apt student than another graduate from another less famous university, it only depends on the individual - his ambitions, his aims, his determination to succeed, etc...</p>
<p>Anyway, I guess that it will be difficult for people to understand that Harvard is no longer the sole cotender to the "top spot" and that the "top spot" will have to be shared between a lot of unis... Time will tell...</p>
<p>uclari - so you prefer monetarists over keynesians? </p>
<p>After all this crap about whether HArvard is going to decline, in the end, the miniscule differences between Harvard and the other elites just don't matter. Personal preference should help decide the right college, not prestige. And its definitely fair to remember that the colleges do not make the amazing students, the amazing students make the colleges.</p>
<p>People in the slums of India neither know nor care about Harvard</p>
<p>dat's wat u say ;-)</p>
<p>
[quote]
uclari - so you prefer monetarists over keynesians?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>To an extent, yes. I think Friedman is spot on with most of his work. However, I'm just basing my opinion on placements of PhDs in top programs, and I think Chicago beats all.</p>
<p>But, that's not to say Harvard doesn't roxxor the placements. It's just not #1 in everything.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
NOT EVERYONE who takes SAT's is exceptional
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>ofcourse not 2bad4u, but most people sitting for the IIT exams are brilliant to begin with (as people are well aware of what it takes to get into IIT, only the really smart people give it a shot)
moreover, the SAT's are compulsory requirements, the IIT entrance is not compulsory for all children in india, hence only the REALLY smart people take it...</p>
<p>getting back to the harvard issue- harvard is located smack in an urban area, which is good in terms of research opportunity's etc, but does harvard have enough place to expand it's campus?</p>
<p><a href="as%20people%20are%20well%20aware%20of%20what%20it%20takes%20to%20get%20into%20IIt,%20only%20the%20really%20smart%20people%20give%20it%20a%20shot">quote</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>bollocks. Over here, everyone writes the exam even though they KNOW they aren't going to make it. Heck, even I wrote the exam! :eek:</p>
<p>Needless to say, I didn't even make it past the screening :D</p>
<p>The SAT is not standardized in any state in the United States. In fact, significantly less than 50% of the college-age students in the U.S. take either the SAT or the ACT.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
Needless to say, I didn't even make it past the screening
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>...and YOU are going to going to princeton, see what i meant about IIT being so freaking difficult!!!</p>
<p>evil_robot: so where do these students land up? community colleges? or do they just not go to college?</p>
<p>the SAT's arent compulsory requirement. Many schools do not require standardized testing. Some very very good schools do not care for standardized testing (Middlebury for one). Also, these high standards for IIT doesn't make it a better school compared to MIT,Caltech,Harvard or wtvr. Just because they can design and model like mad, doesnt mean they have the marketing or social skills to turn a great company out of it. Until college admissions are more than just one test (as they are in India and such), the quality of students in terms of social skills will be much weaker compared to everyone else. MIT shifted towards a much stronger humanities and social sciences focus because its graduates were often working for Harvard,Yale and Princeton grads.</p>
<p>middlebury requires the SAT 2's</p>
<p>i agree completely with what you have to say about IIT students having below par social/life skills.</p>
<p>meh. the SAT2s are a completely different story when compared to the SAT1s. Thats the problem i guess when you have 200,000 kids applying to one school. You can't look over each of them. Truthfully, I think if IIT made it applicatino style, with essays and such, it would reduce significantly.</p>
<p>I think harvard is already starting to lose its prestige</p>
<p>its yield, while still highest is down 9 percent </p>
<p>also, I was talking to a hs teacher on Nantucket(LOOONG STory) and she said that harvard had lost a lot of its luster </p>
<p>when I asked why </p>
<p>she said</p>
<p>complacency and athletic recruits were two main reasons why she thought Yale or PTon were better</p>
<p>btw, she had done grad school at H so its not like she was biased</p>
<p>200,000 essays!! they'd take over a year to read them!!</p>
<p>besides, the whole point of IIT is to churn out engineers- which they do EXTREMELY well, and then people like me can employ them (when i start my company)::evil grin::</p>
<p>suites me just fine</p>
<p>"ofcourse not 2bad4u, but most people sitting for the IIT exams are brilliant to begin with (as people are well aware of what it takes to get into IIT, only the really smart people give it a shot)
moreover, the SAT's are compulsory requirements, the IIT entrance is not compulsory for all children in india, hence only the REALLY smart people take it...
"</p>
<p>Who should I believe the people from India who tell me that everyone and their mother takes to see if they get lucky or you.</p>
<p>How could prestige not be important if you believe so many people work for HYP grads</p>
<p>"MIT shifted towards a much stronger humanities and social sciences focus because its graduates were often working for Harvard,Yale and Princeton grads."</p>