The Inside the Beltway Bragging Rights University Rankings

[Anonymous]

Penn is the one I would struggle to characterize in terms of how people talk. It's reputation is one that people are divisive about. The Whartons would say they are in the Gold Standard, not Brainiacs. And others would place Penn in the just missed.

[Anonymous]

Try telling them Northeastern. Their head explodes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Penn is the one I would struggle to characterize in terms of how people talk. It's reputation is one that people are divisive about. The Whartons would say they are in the Gold Standard, not Brainiacs. And others would place Penn in the just missed.

OP here - yeah, Penn was one of the ones I struggled with. While I'd say it belongs at the top of the Just Missed, the conventional wisdom around here - fueled by the Wharton rep - is that it's a step above those schools. Maybe Columbia and Penn belong in a category parallel to the Brainiacs, in that they're not quite the gold standard, but they're also just a notch above the Just Missed.

To the previous poster, I agree that Rice is a great school! But it's pretty clear to me that around here it just doesn't have the snob factor of every school I listed above it. But I'm definitely open to everyone's perspectives.

And thanks to all who saw this as in exercise in reflecting on people who rank schools, not in reflecting on the schools themselves!

[Anonymous]

But OP, where did you/the parent attend university??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But OP, where did you/the parent attend university??

My alma mater didn't make the list. My kid goes somewhere near the middle which perhaps gives me a nuanced appreciation of the cocktail circuit pecking order

[Anonymous]

Ok, I’ll play your inane game. I don’t consider service academies particularly prestigious or academically rigorous and they’re not a great fit for the majority of applicants. Duke is too high and is always put in the same bucket as Northwestern and Vandy. Cornell is idiotically low. There are other LACs I’d include in one of your arbitrary clusters....Haverford, Wesleyan, etc.

[Anonymous]

Tier 1: HYPS, MIT

Tier 2: Rest of top 15

Everything else is a safety, including UVA, Michigan, Wake Forest.

Oh, and literally nobody cares about SLACs.

[Anonymous]

OP is either the nutbag Chicago or Ponoma mom.

[Anonymous]

No one is asking where UCLA or Notre Dame are.

[Anonymous]

This is what is wrong with parents in this area.

There are literally hundreds, probably even thousands, of schools that are “nothing to be ashamed of”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tier 1: HYPS, MIT

Tier 2: Rest of top 15

Everything else is a safety, including UVA, Michigan, Wake Forest.

Oh, and literally nobody cares about SLACs.

You have pretty lofty standards for someone who doesn’t appear to know how to correctl use the word literally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, who would have to ask where is the University of California, Los Angeles?

Apparently so.

This original poster is a loser that needs a hobby

[Anonymous]

I am SO ashamed my daughter got into Hopkins. What a loser she is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is asking where UCLA or Notre Dame are.

+1. OP is trying way too hard. And kids that go to Notre Dame are confident, from wealthy families, and had zero interest in being around annoying strivers at Ivies and Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Where is Pomona? And Amherst, Davidson, Boston College, Wake Forest, Norte Dame, Georgetown, Williams, Wellesley, CIT, & about a dozen plus other schools?

The world is not nearly as narrow as you seem to think it is.