What do people consider the most prestigious college in the Midwest?

[Anonymous]

It is apparent that people on this thread have different understandings of what it means for a college to be prestigious.

[Anonymous]

Not to pile it on, but ND routinely makes the Princeton Review's list of top 10 "Dream Schools," based on a survey of thousands of parents and students.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-princeton-reviews-2017-college-hopes--worries-survey-reports-on-10000-students--parents-college-application-perspectives-and-dream-colleges-300428829.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By most Nobel Prize winners: University of Chicago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation

OMG WOWWWW!!!
signed,
literally NOBODY looking at undergrad colleges

You UChicago crazy parents are really grasping at straws and it comes across as really embarrassing and desperate.

It never occurred to me that the prestigiousness of a university would be based on anything other than the intellectual achievement of its faculty.

[Anonymous]

University of Chicago.

Signed, an ND grad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Chicago.

Signed, an ND grad.

No one is seriously disagreeing with you on this. What people are disagreeing with, I think, is the idea that ND is a prestigious school generally, and of course it is -- Catholic or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Top colleges have cachet because parents want their kids mixing with rich and connected peers. And rich and connected families donate the most. Chicago’s endowment is relatively low and the student body is too poor and middle class to have the elite cachet its top 20 Midwest peers Notre Dame and Northwestern enjoy. Even huge public Michigan has a far wealthier student body.

Some of us have different definitions of elite. Those who are dumping on both Chicago and, earlier in the thread, Oberlin (which I attended), come across as anti-intellectual. Both of these schools have a track record of drawing kids who are notably smart and--equally notably--uninterested with money and with following the herd. Both are wildly overrepresented (esp Oberlin, given its size) among Macarthur "genius" grant recipients
https://www.macfound.org/media/files/MacArthur_Fellows_-_Undergraduate_Degrees_1.pdf

Both schools rank high in percent of students who go on to earn doctorates--so do Carleton and Grinnell:
https://www.swarthmore.edu/institutional-research/doctorates-awarded

And both are really not for everyone. Which is fine. But in my field and my world, both schools have a reputation for being pretty special.

Carleton and Grinnell do a lot better than Oberlin.

Uh, they're a lot closer to each other than to any of the other campuses being discussed, which rank like 90, but whatever makes you feel good.

https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/institutional-research/Doct%20Rates%20Top%20100%20Tot%20Sci%20Rankings%20-Summary%20to%202016.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is apparent that people on this thread have different understandings of what it means for a college to be prestigious.

So true. I find the extent of the split pretty interesting.

[Anonymous]

I’d find it even more interesting if I knew the backgrounds of people on each side, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pittsburg is def in the Midwest. PA is pretty big and extends beyond the east coast

I am from Pittsburgh and do not, under any circumstances, consider myself a Midwesterner. Neither would any of my hometown friends/family.

I am from Ohio, 2hrs from PHG and definitely consider myself a Midwesterner or at least Great Lakes. Where is the line? Youngstown? The economy and people in PGH have far more in common with Akron / Cleveland than Philly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Chicago.

Signed, an ND grad.

Chicago as well - a CWRU grad with friends who went to Oberlin, Grinnell, Carleton, Marquette, Michigan, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Chicago.

Signed, an ND grad.

No one is seriously disagreeing with you on this. What people are disagreeing with, I think, is the idea that ND is a prestigious school generally, and of course it is -- Catholic or not.

PP here. I do think ND is prestigious (tooting my own horn, indirectly, of course) but the thread asked what people considered the MOST prestigious college in the Midwest and I think Chicago out-prestiges ND for sure.

[Anonymous]

There’s a number.

UChicago
Northwestern
Michigan
Wisconsin
Washington in StL
UMinn
Lawrence
Grinnell

Cornell-Iowa

[Anonymous]

There are several, objectively.

UChicago
Northwestern
Michigan
Wisconsin
Washington in StL
Grinnell
Lawrence
Carleton
Cornell-Iowa
Notre Dame
Kenyon
Oberlin

[Anonymous]

Lol @ Lawrence and Cornell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Chicago.

Signed, an ND grad.

I honestly think it's Notre Dame. The Catholic mystique, the history, and their exclusive football TV contract with NBC helps.

Signed, a Michigan grad who has lived in the Midwest and on both coasts.

Too few in real life care about U. of Chicago. 99% of people have never heard of it — which should exclude it from any prestige pissing contest in itself. Maybe if Chicago stays the course in 20 years it'll be up there. But right now? It's not Chicago. Not even close.