Why does college prestige matter to you? Rank these reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

Cite?

https://math.cornell.edu/lower-level-courses (scroll to bottom)

https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~allenk/courses/14/2230/

Compre this to the freshman math options at most other lower ranked schools (e.g. any VA school besides UVA)

DP. Both my kids are at different Ivy/T10s. Both have options similar to cornell’s for freshman. One of them did DE in high school at a 4-yr school in Virginia that has an engineering school and is ranked in the top 75 overall. That school had nothing at all like what the T10/ivy have despite the course having a similar name. Their peers took various DE vector calc in HS across the country at various directional states and observed same: all much less rigorous. Except the student who had taken it at Stanford in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

It is not the faculty difference that makes the distinction, it is the peer group that drives how fast and to what depth the courses can be taught. PPs are focusing on math. Humanities is similar: the amount of outside reading and primary source use outside the text is vastly accelerated at T10s. The differences are easy to see when you have four kids who have gone through four different schools .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College prestige does not matter to me as a parent. Just want a great education that leads to a good job.

Same. I feel sorry that parents are so desperate for approval from others. I stopped caring what people think of me sometime in my 20s. I don’t think it’s healthy that parents care so much about the prestige of their kid’s school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

No. Ask faculty who have taught at both. Look at course syllabi. We have multiple relatives who are phD and md-phd who are teaching at a wide range of places. The faculty themselves are not too different barring the very top schools who tend to hire from each other, but the student set is vastly different: they can detail how much they have to water down and slow the pace when they teach at (unnamed 40-something) vs ivy. All institutions put pressure on faculty to keep the average student receiving no lower than a B : they have to rework their courses from what they taught as T10 postdoc, or risk not advancing to tenure. Parents are highly involved and students can ruin a professor on ratings or complaints to the dept chair.

I'm an ivy student, and my department was told this semester that grades had dropped too low lol. There's no difference in the education--it's a vanity thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

+1000

This was a terrible example. I'm not sure why you're applauding a relatively normal calc 3 course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

It is not the faculty difference that makes the distinction, it is the peer group that drives how fast and to what depth the courses can be taught. PPs are focusing on math. Humanities is similar: the amount of outside reading and primary source use outside the text is vastly accelerated at T10s. The differences are easy to see when you have four kids who have gone through four different schools .

Is four students statistically significant?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

Cite?

https://math.cornell.edu/lower-level-courses (scroll to bottom)

https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~allenk/courses/14/2230/

Compre this to the freshman math options at most other lower ranked schools (e.g. any VA school besides UVA)

Post the syllabus from a VA school to backup your claim.

DP. Very few schools are teaching a course like that.

I'm lost. As someone with a math degree, many colleges teach vector calculus. This is just Calc 3 for math majors and is not at all unique to Cornell.

It's not unique, but it is uncommon, especially outside T50 schools. For example, there is no such course at any VA school besides UVA. Most schools only have the equivalent of Cornell's math 1920 (ordinary calc 3) or math 2220 (honors calc 3, with proofs), with nothing matching the math 2230/2240 sequence.

Seems like a virginia issue, plus not all colleges have the same name for courses, or teach them at the same time or in the same course structure. It's actually very difficult to compare across curriculums if you don't have access to a syllabus...Typically linear algebra/multivariable is a vector calculus course that separates it from MV calc. Really these skills can be taught in anything from 1-3 different courses, and that's a department structure thing more than anything.
When I think of unique math courses, I think of Math 112 at Reed for freshman or famously Math 55

Reed is a good counterexample, but the fact that it's memorable to you indicates that it is indeed rate and thus an exception that proves the rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

Cite?

https://math.cornell.edu/lower-level-courses (scroll to bottom)

https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~allenk/courses/14/2230/

Compre this to the freshman math options at most other lower ranked schools (e.g. any VA school besides UVA)

Post the syllabus from a VA school to backup your claim.

DP. Very few schools are teaching a course like that.

I'm lost. As someone with a math degree, many colleges teach vector calculus. This is just Calc 3 for math majors and is not at all unique to Cornell.

It's not unique, but it is uncommon, especially outside T50 schools. For example, there is no such course at any VA school besides UVA. Most schools only have the equivalent of Cornell's math 1920 (ordinary calc 3) or math 2220 (honors calc 3, with proofs), with nothing matching the math 2230/2240 sequence.

Seems like a virginia issue, plus not all colleges have the same name for courses, or teach them at the same time or in the same course structure. It's actually very difficult to compare across curriculums if you don't have access to a syllabus...Typically linear algebra/multivariable is a vector calculus course that separates it from MV calc. Really these skills can be taught in anything from 1-3 different courses, and that's a department structure thing more than anything.
When I think of unique math courses, I think of Math 112 at Reed for freshman or famously Math 55

Reed is a good counterexample, but the fact that it's memorable to you indicates that it is indeed rate and thus an exception that proves the rule.

What does this even mean? The argument is that most schools have Vector Calc, while Reed has an actual different course path Math 112-Intro Analysis for freshman students. What's the rule? Reed is factually an exception, but not for offering vector calc?

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter to me at all.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't. DC is applying, so I'm trying to keep up with the joneses for support. I hate the culture and hated my time in a "prestigious" college.

[Anonymous]

3 and 6 are false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

+1000

Ridiculous and false. And insulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just happy that people aren’t putting 3 at the top. There’s too many PhDs coming out of the Ivy league, let alone the rest of the T50, to even begin suggesting that there’s some extreme difference in education. Unless your kid is on the bounds and is highly highly intelligent (like top 0.001%) where they need specialized/accelerated instruction to the level of grad school near freshman year, you’re probably receiving a very similar education to others.

Even a standard freshman course like math 2230 at Cornell will exceed the level of rigor of any freshman math course at most lower ranked universities

Cite?

https://math.cornell.edu/lower-level-courses (scroll to bottom)

https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~allenk/courses/14/2230/

Compre this to the freshman math options at most other lower ranked schools (e.g. any VA school besides UVA)

I don't think this is true.

[Anonymous]

Quality peers, networking, prestige to the extent that it generates confidence, maybe recruiting, tho my kids aren’t really aiming for those kinds of professions. I don’t believe that prestige and quality instruction necessarily correlate—the big names are often not great teachers.