What are the "bottom Ivies"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "top" Ivies are HYP, and I would say if there are a "bottom three" they would be Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown.

+1

Darmouth below Penn - REALLY? Why?

That wasn't my post, but I'm going to guess location, slightly higher acceptance ratio and recent bad press are hurting Dartmouth. Yeah, Penn's not in a great part of Philly, but it's Philly and not some cold isolated place.

[Anonymous]

I'm gonna chime in here as a voice of reason and suggest that anyone who feels compelled to match these schools against each other just to flesh out which one is on top and which ones are on the bottom, is both obnoxious and has a fuzzy understanding of what's really important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm gonna chime in here as a voice of reason and suggest that anyone who feels compelled to match these schools against each other just to flesh out which one is on top and which ones are on the bottom, is both obnoxious and has a fuzzy understanding of what's really important.

I'm the OP, and I feel as though I must defend myself. I thought the sarcasm in my original post was almost too obvious, but clearly I was wrong.

I often see people here posting that their child is at, heading to, recruited by, accepted but declined the offer, graduated from or a legacy at a "Top Ivy". Sometimes it is capitalized like this TOP IVY so we don't miss it (unless TOP IVY is actually an acronym for some agency I'm not cool enough to know about). I have not conducted a statistical analysis but I swear I see this far more frequently than I see people either naming a specific school, or just saying Ivy. I figure this is due to one of the following possibilities:

1) All these posts come from the same person

2) There are top and bottom ivies, but the people at the latter clearly don't care enough about their kids to post on DCUM*

3) People whose kids go to (insert names of bottom ivies here) are so ashamed that they don't admit it on DCUM

4) Admissions reps at (insert names of bottom ivies here) are in cahoots with Jeff and reject anyone whose mother posts on this site*

5) Everyone who says that is lying

In reality, I couldn't care less which Ivies are the best. I'm hoping my kid picks a nice, cheap, state school.

* I have marked my use of sarcasm to make it crystal clear this time.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure what you are asking OP. Do you want to know about kids who applied to Ivys and did not get in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what you are asking OP. Do you want to know about kids who applied to Ivys and did not get in?

The only thing I want to know about Ivies is why some idiot(s) insist on clarifying that the Ivies they attended/sent kids to/rejected are "top".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what you are asking OP. Do you want to know about kids who applied to Ivys and did not get in?

The only thing I want to know about Ivies is why some idiot(s) insist on clarifying that the Ivies they attended/sent kids to/rejected are "top".

Because they are idiots

Even if their kids get into An ivy they are not happy

People on here are crazy.

[Anonymous]

Cornell has higher admission rates because some parts of it are state schools (land grant) and those parts have to give preference and lower standards to New Yorkers. If you look at the parts that are NOT state schools (like the School of Arts & Sciences) its acceptances are like Penn and Columbia, Also, Cornell is larger in total number of students.

The land grant colleges actually, in my mind, make Cornell a better, more desirable school because it has a long history (compared to the other Ivies) of welcoming women and offering many different types of majors. This makes it less snotty and, to me , that's a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what you are asking OP. Do you want to know about kids who applied to Ivys and did not get in?

The only thing I want to know about Ivies is why some idiot(s) insist on clarifying that the Ivies they attended/sent kids to/rejected are "top".

Jealous much

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cornell has higher admission rates because some parts of it are state schools (land grant) and those parts have to give preference and lower standards to New Yorkers. If you look at the parts that are NOT state schools (like the School of Arts & Sciences) its acceptances are like Penn and Columbia, Also, Cornell is larger in total number of students.

The land grant colleges actually, in my mind, make Cornell a better, more desirable school because it has a long history (compared to the other Ivies) of welcoming women and offering many different types of majors. This makes it less snotty and, to me , that's a good thing.

I admire Cornell for these reasons too and would be happy if DS got in.

[Anonymous]

HYP or HYPE?

[Anonymous]

Based on Anonymous's observation that SAT/ ACT scores of admitted students are
the truest measure, then Tufts EASILY tops several schools ranked higher than it
on USNWR (Emory, Wake, UVA, USC, UCLA, CMU, Berkeley, G'town) and roughly
equals or arguably tops others (JHU, N'western, Vandy, UND, AND the much-maligned Cornell).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on Anonymous's observation that SAT/ ACT scores of admitted students are
the truest measure, then Tufts EASILY tops several schools ranked higher than it
on USNWR (Emory, Wake, UVA, USC, UCLA, CMU, Berkeley, G'town) and roughly
equals or arguably tops others (JHU, N'western, Vandy, UND, AND the much-maligned Cornell).

Source please?

I like Anonymous' observation about SAT/ACT scores on some grounds, but not on others. For one example, by this measure, STEM schools like MIT, CalTech, RPI and Lehigh would beat all the liberal arts schools, and I'm not sure that's necessarily the way to go. As another example, as another PP pointed out, Cornell has a mission to accept in-state kids to certain schools, and what's wrong with that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh wait, when did Columbia get hot?

Maybe when they won a football game?

My kid is very smart, but I doubt he's driven enough to get into an Ivy. On the other hand, if he did, I am having trouble imagining the circumstances under which I'd recommend Columbia over Brown.

Probably doesn't matter what you'd recommend -- your 18 y.o. will and should choose what s/he wants and needs because s/he's going there, not you. I, too, would have recommended Brown over Columbia, but my kids didn't see it that way. They wanted a big city, the core curriculum. and not so many preppies (even of the boho-chic variety). Turns out they're happy and thriving, so I have no complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Chicago (not an Ivy, but ranked 10) was certainly poo poo'd by my big 3.

When was this? US News ranks Chicago at #4, tied with Columbia. Both are big city schools with core curriculum and diverse student body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh wait, when did Columbia get hot?

Maybe when they won a football game?

My kid is very smart, but I doubt he's driven enough to get into an Ivy. On the other hand, if he did, I am having trouble imagining the circumstances under which I'd recommend Columbia over Brown.

Probably doesn't matter what you'd recommend -- your 18 y.o. will and should choose what s/he wants and needs because s/he's going there, not you. I, too, would have recommended Brown over Columbia, but my kids didn't see it that way. They wanted a big city, the core curriculum. and not so many preppies (even of the boho-chic variety). Turns out they're happy and thriving, so I have no complaints.

Good point (although again personally I can't imagine the core curriculum being a plus).