top sports/weather trumps academics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:crazy the shift at my DCs private in terms of priorities. Seems like a palpable shift from DCs older sister, where her friend group all wanted ivies or bust. DC friend group seems to prioritize the “experience” and a fun good weather vibe. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but Duke and Vandy out in front of every school save HYPSM in terms of interest. Vandy resurgence in football and basketball not hurting - just flipped on espn and party scene at SEC bball finals in Nashville, Vandy kids living the life according to my DC. sigh

So you don’t think Duke and Vandy offer strong academics?

Right? I would put Duke and Vandy in the same category as Ivy academics when compared to actual SEC flagship schools like Alabama (which also have their own value.) The distinction is small in the broader picture.

Dp, Duke and Vandy aren’t peers. Vandy on the same level as Wash U and Emory, Duke as Hopkins, NW, Chicago.

They are all peers, they are all peers with any of the Ivies as well. The constant attempts at granular slicing and ranking are nonsensical yet you persist.

That’s rich, I wasn’t the one who started this thread. Sorry if it makes you sad, Vandy mom, but the majority of the world doesn’t see Vandy as a peer to the Ivies or Duke. It’s still a very good school as is Wash U, Emory, Georgetown, etc . . ,

Vandy, Emory, WashU, Georgetown are peers with Cornell and Dartmouth. You can see that on Parchment..

+1, not sure if Cornell and SAT just perform poorly or the others happen to overperform, but these schools are low ivy level, including Rice in this group. But Vandy does lead the pack.

No way those schools hold a candle to Cornell STEM programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Ivy League sports is horrible. Harvard home football attendance excluding Yale, is 5,000-8,000. Trend is getting worse. Duke has multiple great sports programs.

+1
Attended a Princeton vs. Penn football game last season thinking it would be fun. The two teams + bands combined were 2x larger than the audience, and the audience was mostly students who were looking down at their phones.

I have athletic smart sons, but not American football (pro or college) fans. One is at an Ivy and had zero interest in any school because of football. Also hates Greek/SEC finance bro types. He has fun and also had crazy opportunities and exposure at the Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Ivy League sports is horrible. Harvard home football attendance excluding Yale, is 5,000-8,000. Trend is getting worse. Duke has multiple great sports programs.

+1
Attended a Princeton vs. Penn football game last season thinking it would be fun. The two teams + bands combined were 2x larger than the audience, and the audience was mostly students who were looking down at their phones.

I have athletic smart sons, but not American football (pro or college) fans. One is at an Ivy and had zero interest in any school because of football. Also hates Greek/SEC finance bro types. He has fun and also had crazy opportunities and exposure at the Ivy.

Same- weekends playing club sport and sport on team outside of the school. Never like American football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Ivy League sports is horrible. Harvard home football attendance excluding Yale, is 5,000-8,000. Trend is getting worse. Duke has multiple great sports programs.

+1
Attended a Princeton vs. Penn football game last season thinking it would be fun. The two teams + bands combined were 2x larger than the audience, and the audience was mostly students who were looking down at their phones.

I have athletic smart sons, but not American football (pro or college) fans. One is at an Ivy and had zero interest in any school because of football. Also hates Greek/SEC finance bro types. He has fun and also had crazy opportunities and exposure at the Ivy.

Same. There are plenty of them despite what people say on here.

[Anonymous]

Harvard football attendance is horrible. 8,000 for home game against Penn and against non Ivy opponents 5-6k. By contrast 40 miles away, Holy Cross averages 13-15k and Holy Cross has only 3300 student body. Rest of Ivy schools draw friends and family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard football attendance is horrible. 8,000 for home game against Penn and against non Ivy opponents 5-6k. By contrast 40 miles away, Holy Cross averages 13-15k and Holy Cross has only 3300 student body. Rest of Ivy schools draw friends and family.

9000 per game is a pretty good chunk of the student body

52,000 plus at Harvard Yale is nothing to sneeze at

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard football attendance is horrible. 8,000 for home game against Penn and against non Ivy opponents 5-6k. By contrast 40 miles away, Holy Cross averages 13-15k and Holy Cross has only 3300 student body. Rest of Ivy schools draw friends and family.

There really isn’t much else to do in Wochester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, yes why not why not have a good college experience also at a reputable school and enjoy sports and good weather.

when you look back on your college days isn’t it mostly about the good times you had less about the actual academic classes?

Both of my kids picked that and both extremely happy with their choices

I'm super late to this thread, but the bolded is totally not how I look back on my college days. I've had lots of life to have "good times." What made college special was the chance to spend four years with no responsibilities other than learning. I met some of best friends (and my spouse) in college and what we bonded over at first was our classes, both the ones we took together and the ones where we spent time in the dorms sharing what we were learning.

As an adult, that's what I miss about that time. If I had a chance to go back to my college life for a day, I'd go to class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, yes why not why not have a good college experience also at a reputable school and enjoy sports and good weather.

when you look back on your college days isn’t it mostly about the good times you had less about the actual academic classes?

Both of my kids picked that and both extremely happy with their choices

I'm super late to this thread, but the bolded is totally not how I look back on my college days. I've had lots of life to have "good times." What made college special was the chance to spend four years with no responsibilities other than learning. I met some of best friends (and my spouse) in college and what we bonded over at first was our classes, both the ones we took together and the ones where we spent time in the dorms sharing what we were learning.

As an adult, that's what I miss about that time. If I had a chance to go back to my college life for a day, I'd go to class.

This was so fun to read for me, I feel the exact same way and went to a very strong but not elite school. So grateful for the lifelong friends and meeting my spouse, but now I look at my motivated kid and I’m in awe of the classes, speakers on campus, and opportunities. Wish I spent less time drinking and on Greek life, even though I loved it at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, yes why not why not have a good college experience also at a reputable school and enjoy sports and good weather.

when you look back on your college days isn’t it mostly about the good times you had less about the actual academic classes?

Both of my kids picked that and both extremely happy with their choices

I'm super late to this thread, but the bolded is totally not how I look back on my college days. I've had lots of life to have "good times." What made college special was the chance to spend four years with no responsibilities other than learning. I met some of best friends (and my spouse) in college and what we bonded over at first was our classes, both the ones we took together and the ones where we spent time in the dorms sharing what we were learning.

As an adult, that's what I miss about that time. If I had a chance to go back to my college life for a day, I'd go to class.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Education is definitely wasted on the youth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, yes why not why not have a good college experience also at a reputable school and enjoy sports and good weather.

when you look back on your college days isn’t it mostly about the good times you had less about the actual academic classes?

Both of my kids picked that and both extremely happy with their choices

I'm super late to this thread, but the bolded is totally not how I look back on my college days. I've had lots of life to have "good times." What made college special was the chance to spend four years with no responsibilities other than learning. I met some of best friends (and my spouse) in college and what we bonded over at first was our classes, both the ones we took together and the ones where we spent time in the dorms sharing what we were learning.

As an adult, that's what I miss about that time. If I had a chance to go back to my college life for a day, I'd go to class.

Those ARE the good times, dummy. Just because you and your friends are dorks doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun.

(Also, why did you skip the seminar on thinking your way out of a paper bag?)

[Anonymous]

Does this sound accurate among top schools?

Social/campus culture/sports/weather:

Stanford, Duke, UCLA >
UVA, Harvard, Rice, Yale, Vandy, Notre Dame >
Northwestern, Yale, Michigan, WashU, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth >
Chicago, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Hopkins, Cornell, CMU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of you have not had a student at Duke lately. Duke is nothing like Vandy. If they ever were close as far as the peer group they are not now. Duke is intense and academic, very similar to 3 or so of ivies, less intense than the other 5 ivies. Fewer students participate in undergrad research at Duke than most of the ivies and Stanford, but moreso than Vanderbilt.
Vandy students are simply not on the same level as ivies/Duke/Hopkins kids they just are not, even before test optional.
Vandy is also not the same level as the fun southern schools: if you thing Vandy is going to be like Clemson or Tennessee or Auburn you are in for a culture shock. Vanderbilt students are intense compared to those schools, but lackadaisical compared to Duke and most ivy kids.

Meanwhile, you “have not had a student at [vandy] lately.” It’s apparent from your outsider hot takes developed from Reddit and similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard football attendance is horrible. 8,000 for home game against Penn and against non Ivy opponents 5-6k. By contrast 40 miles away, Holy Cross averages 13-15k and Holy Cross has only 3300 student body. Rest of Ivy schools draw friends and family.

As someone who attends quite a few ivy football games each year I had to check to see if Holy Cross actually gets that many folks in the seats and sure enough it was pretty accurate. That is impressive. The empty seats at ivy games are a shame. The only game unfortunately that seems to matter is H-Y and that game would just be another Saturday matchup in the SEC or BIG10. I've been to a few and the atmosphere is nothing like any other contests across the league.