To you, what's the bottom of the "elite" colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d put Wellesley back in. Elite people have heard of elite schools. Hillary gave it a boost.

18 Elites [No Wellesley]:
1 - Harvard [The "Brand" despite its underwhelming campus and undergraduate education]
2 - Stanford/Yale/MIT/Princeton [I would go to Stanford or Yale, if I could get in]
6 - Columbia/Penn/Caltech [Columbia just outside of the top 5 is still a phenomenal institution with elite plus status in the best city]
9 - Chicago/Duke/Northwestern
12 - Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell/Hopkins/Berkley/Amherst/Williams [only 1 public and 2 SLACs deserve elite status]

Just missed the cut: Swathmore, Pomona, Harvey Mudd

Stanford and MIT should be in a tier of their own since they have global recognition that Yale and Princeton lacks.

I would still put Columbia in the Yale/Princeton tier. I think most would agree that Columbia's in between the two tiers, but it's closer to Yale and Princeton. Just as there's no reason to cut out 3 schools from this list to say that the top 15 schools are elite, having a top 5 is sort of an arbitrary cutoff.

1 - Harvard
2 - Stanford/MIT
4 - Yale/Princeton/Columbia
7 - Penn/Caltech
9 - Chicago/Duke/Northwestern
12 - Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell/Hopkins/Berkeley/Amherst/Williams

You're just parroting US News ranking. You offer nothing insightful.

Agree.
1 - Harvard
2 - Stanford/Yale/MIT/Princeton
6 - Columbia/Penn/Caltech
9 - Chicago/Duke/Northwestern
12 - Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell/Hopkins/Berkley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about socially elite, and you certainly should be, then the only schools that matter are.....

Princeton
Willians/Amherst
Harvard
Dartmouth
Bowdoin/Midd
Wellesley/Wesleyan

The rest are vulgar, jumped up, pre-professional diploma mills.

Take out Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin (?), Middlebury (?!), Wellesley, Wesleyan ( ) and add in Yale, Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Penn, Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth and then we're talking.

I'm sorry my poor child but absolutely no one is looking at a Bowdoin or a Middlebury degree and thinking, "Ah, yes, socially elite."

Dear, you either know or you don't.

DP - if you really think you're going to convince people on an anonymous internet board that schools like Bowdoin or Middlebury are elite, you've got a long, uphill battle ahead of you. The kids that attend those schools might be bright, but they're not elite. Trust me.

They are "socially elite" apparently.

They're not. If you send your child to somewhere like Middlebury expecting them to be treated as "socially elite" in life, you've put your money on the wrong horse. I went to Andover, matriculated to an Ivy, and most of my social circle (for better or worse) attended schools within the Ivy/Ivy Plus range. While Williams and Amherst will get some respect, and while most would readily acknowledge that kids at many LACs are bright and curious individuals, no one would label those schools as "socially elite", at least not moreso than the top 10-or-so universities that have long been favored by the upper-middle classes in America.

Being in the upper middle class does not make you socially elite.

Going to Harvard does not make you socially elite.

I'm not quite sure what the socially elite are. If talking about, say, NYC super wealthy society set with charity balls and Hamptons summers and jetsetting just for a birthday extravaganza, I have some unpleasant news for you regarding where most of them went to college. It's all over the place. Going to Harvard over, say, Kenyon is meaningless within this world. Harvard is nice! But that's all there is to it. Same thing with children of billionaires. All over the place. They have their quotas at the Ivies along with places like USC as schools want their alum dollars but it does diddly squat for the rest of the student body.

Then we do have "brain trust" people, heads of policy institutions and think tanks and who rotate in and out of cabinet positions and special advisor roles and prominent department chairs at Harvard or Princeton, yeah, I can see how a certain handful of colleges really do dominate in this environment. But are they the same as socially elite? Maybe, maybe not.

Nonsense.

Going to Harvard gets you an acknowledgement but that's it. If the Kenyon grad is better connected socially and has more money, that trumps the Harvard grad.

You probably have no idea where all the really rich kids go to college.

[Anonymous]

Harvard
Yale
Stanford
MIT
Berkeley
Princeton
Columbia
Caltech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about socially elite, and you certainly should be, then the only schools that matter are.....

Princeton
Willians/Amherst
Harvard
Dartmouth
Bowdoin/Midd
Wellesley/Wesleyan

The rest are vulgar, jumped up, pre-professional diploma mills.

Take out Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin (?), Middlebury (?!), Wellesley, Wesleyan ( ) and add in Yale, Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Penn, Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth and then we're talking.

I'm sorry my poor child but absolutely no one is looking at a Bowdoin or a Middlebury degree and thinking, "Ah, yes, socially elite."

Dear, you either know or you don't.

DP - if you really think you're going to convince people on an anonymous internet board that schools like Bowdoin or Middlebury are elite, you've got a long, uphill battle ahead of you. The kids that attend those schools might be bright, but they're not elite. Trust me.

They are "socially elite" apparently.

They're not. If you send your child to somewhere like Middlebury expecting them to be treated as "socially elite" in life, you've put your money on the wrong horse. I went to Andover, matriculated to an Ivy, and most of my social circle (for better or worse) attended schools within the Ivy/Ivy Plus range. While Williams and Amherst will get some respect, and while most would readily acknowledge that kids at many LACs are bright and curious individuals, no one would label those schools as "socially elite", at least not moreso than the top 10-or-so universities that have long been favored by the upper-middle classes in America.

Aside from HYP, Chicago, Stanford, and MIT, the social elite flock to SLACs. Most MC and many UMC (more in terms of financial status than social status) haven't heard of Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, etc. You have to have gone to certain elite high schools and have been raised in families exposed to graduate level education to be familiar with the top LACs.

That is total nonsense.

Good friend of mine who went to HLS from a state school, grew up MC, had never heard of Swarthmore, Amherst, or Williams until he went to law school. Not an uncommon story - most people who know about these prestigious SLACs are either from highly educated families or went to prep schools. Harvard's a household name. Amherst is not.

Exactly. Slackjaw yokel newly minted UMC don’t know prestigious SLACs. They also think Chili’s is fine dining and get their suits Buy One Get 4 Free from Joseph A Banks. This is precisely the issue.

Hahaha no matter how many lame juvenile insults you throw, you know deep down inside that absolutely no one thinks Bowdoin or Middlebury (or even Swarthmore) are "socially elite." It's just desperately wishful thinking, and honestly just makes you come across as pathetic.

Whelp, TTT Ivy boy just sent me reeling across the marble floor! Particularly the opening, “hahaha”. That’s Algonquin Roundtable material, don’t spoil it on Thanksgiving Eve DCUM.

Bet your family wasn’t even on the Mayflower.

[Anonymous]

What are you people fighting about? I can’t will myself to read the whole thread, so need a cheat sheet to know who to laugh at the hardest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you people fighting about? I can’t will myself to read the whole thread, so need a cheat sheet to know who to laugh at the hardest.

Dumb questions attract dumb answers. Candidly, anyone asking this hellscape message board about the “bottom of elite colleges” is well into unintentional parody territory already and likely far beyond saving.

Doesn’t change the fact that Conn College is more elite than Brown if you look at it with some perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you people fighting about? I can’t will myself to read the whole thread, so need a cheat sheet to know who to laugh at the hardest.

This is the same discussion that happens every day over and over in this forum. Seriously if you have read one of these "elite" threads you have read them all. Don't bother with it. Your welcome.

[Anonymous]

There are some really bizarre and delusional SLAC boosters on here. I'm actually shocked, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard
Yale
Stanford
MIT
Berkeley
Princeton
Columbia
Caltech

Obvious Berkeley booster is obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about socially elite, and you certainly should be, then the only schools that matter are.....

Princeton
Willians/Amherst
Harvard
Dartmouth
Bowdoin/Midd
Wellesley/Wesleyan

The rest are vulgar, jumped up, pre-professional diploma mills.

Take out Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin (?), Middlebury (?!), Wellesley, Wesleyan ( ) and add in Yale, Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Penn, Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth and then we're talking.

I'm sorry my poor child but absolutely no one is looking at a Bowdoin or a Middlebury degree and thinking, "Ah, yes, socially elite."

Dear, you either know or you don't.

DP - if you really think you're going to convince people on an anonymous internet board that schools like Bowdoin or Middlebury are elite, you've got a long, uphill battle ahead of you. The kids that attend those schools might be bright, but they're not elite. Trust me.

They are "socially elite" apparently.

They're not. If you send your child to somewhere like Middlebury expecting them to be treated as "socially elite" in life, you've put your money on the wrong horse. I went to Andover, matriculated to an Ivy, and most of my social circle (for better or worse) attended schools within the Ivy/Ivy Plus range. While Williams and Amherst will get some respect, and while most would readily acknowledge that kids at many LACs are bright and curious individuals, no one would label those schools as "socially elite", at least not moreso than the top 10-or-so universities that have long been favored by the upper-middle classes in America.

Being in the upper middle class does not make you socially elite.

Going to Harvard does not make you socially elite.

I'm not quite sure what the socially elite are. If talking about, say, NYC super wealthy society set with charity balls and Hamptons summers and jetsetting just for a birthday extravaganza, I have some unpleasant news for you regarding where most of them went to college. It's all over the place. Going to Harvard over, say, Kenyon is meaningless within this world. Harvard is nice! But that's all there is to it. Same thing with children of billionaires. All over the place. They have their quotas at the Ivies along with places like USC as schools want their alum dollars but it does diddly squat for the rest of the student body.

Then we do have "brain trust" people, heads of policy institutions and think tanks and who rotate in and out of cabinet positions and special advisor roles and prominent department chairs at Harvard or Princeton, yeah, I can see how a certain handful of colleges really do dominate in this environment. But are they the same as socially elite? Maybe, maybe not.

Nonsense.

Going to Harvard gets you an acknowledgement but that's it. If the Kenyon grad is better connected socially and has more money, that trumps the Harvard grad.

You probably have no idea where all the really rich kids go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some really bizarre and delusional SLAC boosters on here. I'm actually shocked, lol.

Shocked? Why? Every school gets boosted in here sooner or later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Number of times schools have been in T5 (only 11 schools have ever made it) US News from 1988 to 2022:

Harvard - 37
Yale - 37
Princeton - 37
Stanford - 26
MIT - 22
Caltech - 15
Columbia - 13
Chicago - 10
Penn - 9
Duke - 7
Berkeley - 2

This is the definitive list of the “Elites” unless you believe USNWR is crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Number of times schools have been in T5 (only 11 schools have ever made it) US News from 1988 to 2022:

Harvard - 37
Yale - 37
Princeton - 37
Stanford - 26
MIT - 22
Caltech - 15
Columbia - 13
Chicago - 10
Penn - 9
Duke - 7
Berkeley - 2

This is the definitive list of the “Elites” unless you believe USNWR is crap.

Guess what?

(“Crap” doesn’t necessarily mean “wrong”. Just “crap”.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Number of times schools have been in T5 (only 11 schools have ever made it) US News from 1988 to 2022:

Harvard - 37
Yale - 37
Princeton - 37
Stanford - 26
MIT - 22
Caltech - 15
Columbia - 13
Chicago - 10
Penn - 9
Duke - 7
Berkeley - 2

This is the definitive list of the “Elites” unless you believe USNWR is crap.

Some strange DCUM/Fuzzy logic going on here. It’s kind of like determine the next Olympic champion based on the number of prior medals won.

1 Michael Phelps USA Swimming 28
2 Larisa Latynina Soviet Union Gymnastics 18
3 Nikolai Andrianov Soviet Union Gymnastics 15

Strange. All the former “elite” Olympic champions are now have beens, could have beens, should have beens. They have no relevance to who the current Olympic champion is or who the next champions will be.

[Anonymous]

Harvard/Yale/Stanford/MIT
Princeton/Columbia
Chicago/Penn
Duke/Northwestern

^That’s the definitive T10 in my mind. Caltech is a fantastic school but way too small and way too niche, and not socially elite.