2022 US News Best National Universities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the really 'top of top' colleges are Harvard, Stanford and MIT.

Then some gap, then Princeton, Yale, Caltech.

Then some more gap

then Columbia, Chicago, etc.

Move Caltech a notch below. Not really above Columbia or Chicago. It’s not a comprehensive university and in the public eye, generally not as well known.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No interest in splitting hairs or engaging in the ranking nonsense beyond seeing the top ranked schools as a group of outstanding institution and within that - choose the best fit for each particular student.

Saying YHMS are better than princeton is really silly unless you know the individual involved and which place will be the better fit.

Just as nonsensical as assuming that beyond HYPSM there seems to be a massive drop off, or to even have an acronym as such. I was the previous Andover and H/Y poster. It makes our grads look narcissist, elitist, and foolishly insecure as if getting into one of those schools was the biggest ever accomplishment of our lives.

The irony of your post is that you made sure it included your educational resume which is irrelevant to the discussion.

No, it gives credibility.

[Anonymous]

How exactly does spending your high school years in a fancy private school and then going to yale give you any credibility in this discussion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do you all seriously think that Columbia is now a "better" school than it was last year just because of the ranking shuffle?



All of these schools that go up or down a few spots are essentially the same schools that they were a year ago.

It was 3 last year tied with Yale, it's 2 now tied with Harvard.

All are excellent and very challenging, along with the stimulation and rewards.

Go choose among a Ferrari, a Jaguar, a Mercedes Benz and a BMW. Lucky to get into any of them. All have outstanding students. I know equally brilliant people from all four undergraduate programs.

[Anonymous]

16 pages and no mention of Georgia Tech?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No interest in splitting hairs or engaging in the ranking nonsense beyond seeing the top ranked schools as a group of outstanding institution and within that - choose the best fit for each particular student.

Saying YHMS are better than princeton is really silly unless you know the individual involved and which place will be the better fit.

Just as nonsensical as assuming that beyond HYPSM there seems to be a massive drop off, or to even have an acronym as such. I was the previous Andover and H/Y poster. It makes our grads look narcissist, elitist, and foolishly insecure as if getting into one of those schools was the biggest ever accomplishment of our lives.

The irony of your post is that you made sure it included your educational resume which is irrelevant to the discussion.

No, it gives credibility.

[Anonymous]

Sorry. But including that information just supports your statement about people at these types of schools beng narcissist, elitist, and foolishly insecure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16 pages and no mention of Georgia Tech?!

George who?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the really 'top of top' colleges are Harvard, Stanford and MIT.

Then some gap, then Princeton, Yale, Caltech.

Then some more gap

then Columbia, Chicago, etc.

Move Caltech a notch below. Not really above Columbia or Chicago. It’s not a comprehensive university and in the public eye, generally not as well known.

At what it does it is as good as any school in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 pages and no mention of Georgia Tech?!

George who?

The public university where the graduates earn significantly more than UCLA, Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who defend the HYPSM acronym with yield rates, “daring” Columbia to change to SCEA and have a 70% yield rate is beyond insufferable. This is a typical chicken-or-egg fallacy that they use so it’s impossible for any school to join the acronym.

They believe that what separates HYPSM from the rest is their SCEA program and 70% yield rate. In other words, they believe that popular schools among laymen should be considered the best schools.

If you’re a high school student and you got into both Princeton and Columbia, chances are you are going to choose Princeton because it’s a “HYPSM school.” But since HYPSM is a term that is based on popularity, it creates a never ending cycle of reinforcing the HYPSM distinction.

The problem lies in that HYPSM was constructed out of measuring popularity through yield rates and early action programs. As long as those insufferable people don’t consider the academics of the schools, there would be no way for any school to join the HYPSM acronym.

So, please disregard any argument that uses yield rates to distinguish which school is better over another.

If you get into Princeton and Columbia for undergraduate, the odds are you are going to attend Princeton because it has a greater focus on undergraduate education, offers its undergraduates institutional resources that Columbia doesn't provide, and is located in a safe and beautiful location. There is a cohort that will always prefer Columbia because it's in New York City, and some students prefer urban environments and to live more independently, but changing an acronym isn't going to move that needle significantly.

I have yet to see anyone (personally) who got into both and chose Columbia. In the 5-6 cases all chose Princeton

Same with Princeton vs. Yale or Harvard. It's a notch below HYPM if you really want to split hairs like this, sure. I went to H/Y and Andover. Most techies chose MIT or Stanford. Harvard or Yale for the prestige. Princeton is like the ugly cousin for rich, well-endowed nerds and athletes who don't have the stats to get into any of them, but just connections.

That is a very strange post . Single choice early action fills up about forty percent of the class at PY and H.

Right, it was back in my days. Still P ranks the lowest of HYPSM if you really want to split hairs like this to make P look bad relative to their #1 US News Ranking when it's more like #5 based on real student preferences followed by Columbia and Penn maybe. Maybe 20 years ago it could outshine Stanford or MIT but not anymore these days. And kids do prefer big cities now. SCEA does not require you to commit to one school unliked ED.

But Princeton may well be the best of these for actual undergraduate quality of education and graduate satisfaction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16 pages and no mention of Georgia Tech?!

It was mentioned once, but in the context that it made no sense for UC Davis to be ranked as high as GT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do you all seriously think that Columbia is now a "better" school than it was last year just because of the ranking shuffle?



All of these schools that go up or down a few spots are essentially the same schools that they were a year ago.

It was 3 last year tied with Yale, it's 2 now tied with Harvard.

All are excellent and very challenging, along with the stimulation and rewards.

Go choose among a Ferrari, a Jaguar, a Mercedes Benz and a BMW. Lucky to get into any of them. All have outstanding students. I know equally brilliant people from all four undergraduate programs.

Which one is Tesla?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 pages and no mention of Georgia Tech?!

George who?

Same old southern bias on DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the really 'top of top' colleges are Harvard, Stanford and MIT.

Then some gap, then Princeton, Yale, Caltech.

Then some more gap

then Columbia, Chicago, etc.

Move Caltech a notch below. Not really above Columbia or Chicago. It’s not a comprehensive university and in the public eye, generally not as well known.

At what it does it is as good as any school in the world.

The Caltech grads i've met were all superior to those from Columbia or Chicago intellectually