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what are the most prestigious universities in the country? You hear Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford a lot... any others?
I am an international student, and my parents think that once we're spending the $ and going to all the trouble of a prolonged overseas stay, it may as well be for a name that will really help me whether i decide to stay in America or otherwise. This obviously assumes that every high-level school gives a quality education; unless anyone suggests otherwise that seems to make sense...
So, other than HYPS, which schools are extremely prestigious?

By Oops (Oops) on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 12:27 am: Edit

Well, HYPS are the most prestigious schools in the country.

For scientists and engineers, try Caltech or MIT.

For theater/film studies etc., try USC or UCLA.

For music, there is Julliard, Eastman, and several others...

What I mean by prestige here is that "every ___ knows how great ____ is", such as "every musician knows how great Julliard is."

By Cornellian07 (Cornellian07) on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 01:06 am: Edit

Cornell is prestigious for kicking ass.

By Dromedary (Dromedary) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 05:17 pm: Edit

If all you're interested in hearing about is pure prestige, you can't do better than the US News top 20 or so.

By Obh100 (Obh100) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 09:20 pm: Edit

Georgetown isn't in the USNews top 20 but is still pretty prestigious none the less...

By Dromedary (Dromedary) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Neither are CMU, NYU, and many other prestigious schools, but the OP was looking for "extremely prestigious" ;)

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 12:03 am: Edit

"Cornell is prestigious for kicking ass."

AGREED!

By Noway (Noway) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 08:51 pm: Edit

Dromedary,
but GU is a lot more prestigious than CMU and NYU!

By Kimfuge (Kimfuge) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 05:21 am: Edit

Stanford is the most prestigious.

By Dromedary (Dromedary) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 10:33 am: Edit

Noway: I would probably agree on GU vs. NYU, but CMU would be more prestigious in certain industries and areas of academia.

Kimfuge: I don't think anyone, even people going to Stanford, would argue that it's the most prestigious school. I would say that Harvard is ahead of it and it is comparable in prestige to Yale and Princeton.

By Chasgoose (Chasgoose) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 01:14 am: Edit

Dromedary, that depends on where you live. Yes, for most of the USA, especially back east Harvard is definitely considered the best school in the country and has the most "prestige." Out west, however, especially in California, many people view Stanford as the country's best school or at least see it as an equal to Harvard (particularly those who are afraid of the cold weather in Boston). Don't just write off Kimfuge's opinion because in the most populated state in the country, her opinion is probably the norm.

By Sirmoreau (Sirmoreau) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 02:25 am: Edit

I live in California and personally I think both Harvard and Stanford are equally prestigious. I mean its Harvard and Stanford, they go together like BMW and Mercedes, both pretty equal prestigious wise.

By Sirmoreau (Sirmoreau) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 02:25 am: Edit

We are not talking about a Ferrari and a honda in prestige here.

By Dromedary (Dromedary) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 12:06 pm: Edit

I think BMW outstrips Mercedes in prestige ;)

In Germany, taxicabs are Mercedes, and police cruisers are BMW. I ask you: Which is more prestigious, a taxi or a police car?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Q: What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?

A: The porcupine has the pricks on the outside.


Of course, that's what happens to a lot of people focused on prestige.

By Perfection101 (Perfection101) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 03:33 pm: Edit

Prestige is actually ranked in the U.S. News ranking. Other than the Ivies we have the University of Chicago, Northwestern University(actually ranked #1 by Princeton Review), Stanford, Duke, Swarthmore, Amherst, Washington Uiversity in St. Louis, Rice, Pomona, Berkely, and Notre Dame.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 03:55 pm: Edit

The US NEWS rankings mean very little. Hell-oooh!!! They're a gizmo designed to sell a magazine. The criteria are arbitrary and have little to do with measuring quality of undergrad educational experience.

Anyone who cites US News rankings needs to take a Survey Methodology class.

By Prancing (Prancing) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 03:57 pm: Edit

MIT rocks!

By Dschnapps (Dschnapps) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 04:18 pm: Edit

Back to Mercedes vs. BMW, would you take an S500 or a 745i?

By Sirmoreau (Sirmoreau) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 05:12 pm: Edit

Dromedary -
In the words of a hick, "This is America, learn the rules!"..hehe. By the way, i'd prefer not to drive a police car or a taxi cab (unless I was a cop or taxi driver) otherwise i'd just be some weirdo impersonator.

TheDad - I agree, those newsweek ranking don't mean anything.

Dschnapps -
Honestly, I like BMW more than Mercedes and would go with the 745i (although I prefer my friends moms Z8...that is one sweeeeet vehicle..)l. But still even though I prefer BMW over Mercedes does not mean Mercedes is less prestigious!

By Dschnapps (Dschnapps) on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 05:59 pm: Edit

your friend's MOM has a Z8!?!

Damn

For prestige, I'd say Mercedes and BMW are pretty even. I think Mercedes should go out on a limb with something equivalent to the Z8.

By Richen (Richen) on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 04:40 am: Edit

Extremely prestigious:

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, But as someone pointed out, what major?? If for example, for medicine or bio-related, it would be Johns Hopkins, which would probably not rate for other majors, and Julliard for music, but certainy for nothing else, and Fashion Insitute in NYCity for fashion and nothing else, etc., etc..

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 11:29 am: Edit

It really depends on what your intended major is/what program you want to enter.

For example:

Biology- Cornell/Harvard

Pre-med- Swarthmore/Northwestern/Johns Hopkins

Film- NYU

Theater- Yale/UCLA

Engineering- (Depends on type of engineering- JHU has best biomedical engineering program)

Journalism- Northwestern

International Relations- Georgetown, Tufts, JHU

For example, if you were a journalist, having a journalism degree from Northwestern would be more highly regarded than a journalism degree from...Columbia, a much more selective school.

By Perfection101 (Perfection101) on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 07:57 pm: Edit

Columbia is not much more selective than Northwestern.

By Saramago60 (Saramago60) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 10:15 pm: Edit

Columbia is definitely a lot more selective than Northwestern.

Yale is more prestigious than Stanford. Stanford slightly exceeds Princeton in prestige. Harvard is more prestigious than Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Northwestern or Princeton. Cal Tech is more prestigious than M.I.T. and Swarthmore is the most prestigious liberal arts college. This is how I think the relative prestige of these colleges is perceived in New York... it would be different in California.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 10:22 pm: Edit

Perfection:

NW - 33%
Columbia - 11%

Columbia is 3x more selective than NWU (this isn't saying Columbia is better than Northwestern in any way).

By Asdfgh (Asdfgh) on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 07:37 pm: Edit

Columbia does NOT have a 11% acceptance rate! The 11% is ONLY for columbia college....the 2 other undergrad schools aren't even included. The SEAS school (engineering and science) is much easier to get into, and then you have the GS undergrad school, which has a 50% acceptance rate! Also, several columbia has 80% acceptance rates for several masters programs.

Around NYC, Columbia is known to be a degree mill, offering complete online masters degrees to anyone who is able to pay for them. It's also the largest Ivy, and is larger than several public schools. Columbia's 11% acceptance rate is simply not accurate, and it leaves the SEAS students feeling bitter because they're not considered good enough to be included in the stats!! Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

By Rageagnstthmach (Rageagnstthmach) on Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 11:13 am: Edit

What a load of crap. A bunch of whining yuppies kids talking trash about my professor can beat up your professor. Oh and BMWs and mercs are for pussies. Corinthian leather, oooh so plush!Be a real man and ride a Harley. A real smart fellah would know its faster than any merc or bimwah, gets more chicks, and you can ride it for 2 years and sell it for more than what you paid for it. Guess there's not to many Harley riders up in here huh. Dinit think so. If you all were so smart you'd know that academics is BS (Pardon the pun). The most successful peeps are usually the ones that don't follow the academic path. They are the rule breakers and makers. Bill Gates was a college drop out. Einstein was a patent clerk. They got out in the real world and used their brains. Rote memorization and horse and pony show testing may get you alcaldes in school but outside the classroom it wont get you anything. In the real world you don't accomplish anything productive taking tests and memorizing facts and figures. Unless you are a professional memorizer and test taker. Not to many of those jobs out there huh. Lets face it, college is more for the academic instructors than students. They have a captive audience to spill out their facts and figures and to soak another semesters worth of daddy and mommys hard earned cash. It makes me feel so important, these professors think to themselves! They are in control, they set the standards, and write those God awful text books that cost me $200 a semester, the ones I have to throw away at the end of the semester because some other prick in tweed reorganized the pages and added some new pictures! Non profit organization my ass! Where is all this money going? I can't believe these guys get a salary! They show up a couple hours for class, fill it with twice as much talking as necessary, with long thoughtful pauses of course, and then go home for the rest of the day. And they get summers off! That's not a job that's organized crime! I say it's time we all recognize modern "Education" for what it is, a bunch of crusty old people sucking the life blood out off young vibrant peeps and breading a new bunch of crutsys to take there place! Down with the educational industrial complex! I can't believe these standardized exit tests for high school students! OK here's a test that covers things we never even taught you. If you don't pass you will not be able to attend a college, we will keep you back so you can learn useless math that doesn't apply to your field of interest and you will in all likelihood never use or remember in the long term. Oh, and the alternate language credits for an Arts instead of a Science degree? Lets get real, everyone else in the world is learning english! Why require english speaking students who live in a linguistically homogenous society to learn a dying language that they will probably never use? LAME! Why do these universities require students to study all the useless non degree related crapola that they will never use and wont remember after anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 semesters of hard drinking after taking their finals? These universities may be more prestigious AKA popular with people that have money, but what practical real world application do they give you? It would be nice to be able to save our money and do something that makes sense like attend a no frills college that cuts through the BS and gets us out in the real world where practically applying skills can begin. My sister just Graduated with a BA from UT at Austin. No ivy league school but not exactly a community college either. They ranked top 5 in many categories by US News.She cant even find a decent job in here field because everyone else has a masters. It wasn't that way 10 years before. So she's going for her masters. I suspect when she is done she will find she will need a Ph.D., and then a post professional certificate to compete. Whats next?A SMOAKO Degree (Supreme Masters of the Universe All Knowing and Omnipotent degree)? This is a cold war style arms race all over again, except this time the ICBMs and nuclear tipped cruise missiles are replaced with masters degrees and Ph.Ds. When will it end! These fools will have us in class till we are tired old and useless like they are! I suspect that's their plan. To be the crotchety old headmasters of the world, and they wont be happy till we are all wearing knickers and bow ties with matching sets of tweed boxers (Or Bloomers for her). Phoenix university Internet style education is the wave of the future. The only reason peeps went to college to start with was because you couldn't get the info to you so you went to the source. No more long winded self important professor droning on and on. No more stern looks from these suits because, oh my I have a real life and was 10 minutes late to class! God forbid my car breaks down or I get caught in a rush at work before coming to class! I'm sure there will always be golden cows of "Education" like the Ivy league schools. But thank God some outsiders saw through all the crap and are putting useful make sense education programs together. 20 years from now the only people in class rooms will be these academic nitwits grading emailed tests and papers. WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY IT WILL BE! Down with the educational industrial complex! Down with mindless bureaucratic university rules and staff! I'm sure many of you will scoff at this rant, and yes that's what it is, a rant. Just remember you are not a transcript, or a A+ or B- you are the sum of everything you think and do every day you live. Rebels break the rules, and make the rules, be a rebel! P. S. To all those that disagree with this rant, keep working towards your SMOAKO Degree!

By Xxc (Xxc) on Monday, November 17, 2003 - 02:51 am: Edit

Rocksolid4, yes I know you said that you wanted to only know about schools in the country (which I presume to mean the US), but since you're an international student anyway, why not consider foreign schools. Like, oh I don't know, Ox-bridge...

By Breeze (Breeze) on Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 01:22 pm: Edit

"Columbia does NOT have a 11% acceptance rate! The 11% is ONLY for columbia college....the 2 other undergrad schools aren't even included. The SEAS school (engineering and science) is much easier to get into, and then you have the GS undergrad school"

Columbia has a 12.8% acceptance rate, including the College and SEAS. No Ivy League schools (or any other schools for that matter) report continuing education and adult degree undergrad programs in their "stats", so the GS is unrelated to Columbia's standardized acceptance rate.