The Inside the Beltway Bragging Rights University Rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A minuscule percent of students at even the top public high schools go to these schools...

Just for fun I looked at the numbers for MCPS HS (BCC, Whitman, WJ, Churchill, Blair, Richard Montgomery, Wooton) and how many from last years graduating class attend each school by category. Total of 3,877 seniors.

Gold Standard - 100 (3%)
Brainiacs - 78 (2%)
Just Missed - 80 (2%)
Just Missed Braniacs - 75 (2%)
Nothing to be Ashamed of - 297 (8%)
Where is That Again - 71 (2%)
Safety Schools - 109 (3%)

Total - 810 (21%)

Link?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-magazine/september-october-2018/where-bethesda-area-high-school-grads-applied-to-college/2/

That link is APPLIED, not attend. You don’t know how this works.

It shows ACCEPTED in the chart. You also need to read more carefully. Still not the same as attending, but also more specific than applied.

You don't think that, maybe the same kids might not have been accepted to more than one? This could dramatically decrease your 21%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A minuscule percent of students at even the top public high schools go to these schools...

Just for fun I looked at the numbers for MCPS HS (BCC, Whitman, WJ, Churchill, Blair, Richard Montgomery, Wooton) and how many from last years graduating class attend each school by category. Total of 3,877 seniors.

Gold Standard - 100 (3%)
Brainiacs - 78 (2%)
Just Missed - 80 (2%)
Just Missed Braniacs - 75 (2%)
Nothing to be Ashamed of - 297 (8%)
Where is That Again - 71 (2%)
Safety Schools - 109 (3%)

Total - 810 (21%)

Link?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-magazine/september-october-2018/where-bethesda-area-high-school-grads-applied-to-college/2/

Just FYI, that link shows number who were accepted, NOT number who attend. Since students can and do get accepted to multiple schools, the number is much lower than 21%.

[Anonymous]

Attending from Whitman per Naviance Data

Gold Standard - 9
Brainiacs - 3
Just Missed - 8
Just Missed Braniacs - 4
Nothing to be Ashamed of - 28
Where is That Again - 6
Safety Schools - 9

Total - 67 (14%)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Attending from Whitman per Naviance Data

Gold Standard - 9
Brainiacs - 3
Just Missed - 8
Just Missed Braniacs - 4
Nothing to be Ashamed of - 28
Where is That Again - 6
Safety Schools - 9

Total - 67 (14%)

Ah. So wonder what the schools that the other 86% of students are attending are considered?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys way to take a nice funny satirical OP and turn it into the same old shtuff.

[Anonymous]

Here is the real question:

Your kid is an asshole and he goes to one of OP's listed universities, are there still bragging rights?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the real question:

Your kid is an asshole and he goes to one of OP's listed universities, are there still bragging rights?

Of course, in the circles OP is mocking.

Did all of you self-righteous people just stumble on DCUM for the first time this week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People post on here a lot about which colleges are the most highly ranked by different publications. But who really cares about academics? What matters most is The Brag Factor. When you’re at a DC cocktail party and people start talking about where their kids go to college, how do schools stack up vs. one another? I’ve come up with my best try at a Brag Factor ranking – grouping schools by tiers based on which are more boast-worthy.

THE GOLD STANDARD – Yes, there are distinctions even within this lofty group, but if your kid attends any of these schools, you have top bragging rights at any gathering.
Harvard
Stanford
Yale
MIT
Princeton
*Naval Academy/West Point – for some people, having a kid at one of these schools is as prestigious as it gets. For others, it’s crazy to consign your kid to 5 years of military service after college, and these schools don’t belong on this list.

THE BRAINIACS – These schools are all great, and within certain brainy circles who value intellect more than well-roundedness, might even accrue as many bragging rights as those in the group above.
Columbia
U of Chicago
Penn
Cal Tech

THE JUST-MISSED – Still highly brag-worthy schools, but just a rung below. If your kid attends one of these schools, you can counter by talking about how well-rounded they are, and that quality of life was most important in their college search.
Duke
Brown
Dartmouth
Amherst/Williams
Pomona

JUST-MISSED BRAINIACS – Similar to the Brainiacs above, intellectuals might consider these schools as good as/better than the Just-Missed Schools. But among the general population, they don’t have quite the same cachet.
Johns Hopkins
Cal-Berkeley
Swarthmore

NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF – These are schools whose sticker you’ll be happy to put on your car. But you might be hoping your kid places into grad school at one of the institutions listed above.
Vanderbilt
Georgetown
Northwestern
Bowdoin/Middlebury
Cornell
Michigan/UVA

WHERE IS THAT AGAIN? – All outstanding schools, but definitely outside the Beltway bubble. You might have to do some educating about these institutions to some people.
UCLA
Notre Dame
Rice

THE SAFETY SCHOOLS – Actually, with yield protection, you might have to apply early to get into one of these schools. But if you’re applying early to one of these schools, that’s a step down the prestige ladder from everyone listed above.
Tufts
Wash U
Emory

You have some very strange groupings. You put UCLA and Notre Dame, two of the best known schools in the country in "Where is that again?" and Bowdoin/Middlebury in "Nothing to be ashamed of". Bowdoin/Middlebury are very good schools, but would probably be the least well known on your list.

I think the academies should be separated out as a unique case. I agree they have prestige, at least in some circles, but they are working a different dimension to HYPSM.

Tufts, Wash U, and Emory should never be thought of as "Safety Schools". They are not as well known due to the lack of top level athletics, but they are as selective or more selective as schools you categorize more favorably elsewhere.

It is difficult to do these groupings. I think there is rough consensus on Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT in the top group, and I'd add Caltech, but below that I don't think there is as much of a consensus. I'd just say there is a larger following group than you show, including schools like Chicago, Brown, Duke, Penn, Dartmouth, Williams, and Amherst.

[Anonymous]

Top Tier “Brainiac” schools:
Chicago
Swarthmore
Cal Tech
MIT


Next Tier:
Carleton
St. John’s
Rice
Davidson
Harvey Mudd

[Anonymous]

lol at thinking Davidson is a braniac school. It ranks 54th nationally for alumni earning PhDs per capita. St. John's is in not in the top 20, whereas HYP, Williams, Pomona, Haverford, and Amherst are. Those are the real next tier braniac schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1 on Duke. People believe it's possible to buy your way in there as regular UMC so it loses prestige points.

Cornell is about right though. The backdoor through the State college subtracts from the Ivy label.

Say what? Tell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol at thinking Davidson is a braniac school. It ranks 54th nationally for alumni earning PhDs per capita. St. John's is in not in the top 20, whereas HYP, Williams, Pomona, Haverford, and Amherst are. Those are the real next tier braniac schools.

It is really odd & kind of creepy that you even have this kind of random information about this very small college (or any other for that matter).

Are you the poster who spews your strange vitriol for this school on almost every thread where it is mentioned? Are you pathologically bitter about not getting in or about them accepting your kid’s (obviously less worthy!) archenemy over him or her or something?

-NP with no affiliation whatsoever with Davidson

[Anonymous]

Good points about the SLACs

Maybe I just never think about them because I only look at rankings of major research universities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I don't think you understand the service academies.

I don’t think you understand what big 3 parents consider prestigious. Hint, there’s a reason virtually no big 3 grads go to service academies.

Because they are rich and would rather have pookie free to come to the spring break vacay on the private island?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol at thinking Davidson is a braniac school. It ranks 54th nationally for alumni earning PhDs per capita. St. John's is in not in the top 20, whereas HYP, Williams, Pomona, Haverford, and Amherst are. Those are the real next tier braniac schools.

It is really odd & kind of creepy that you even have this kind of random information about this very small college (or any other for that matter).

Are you the poster who spews your strange vitriol for this school on almost every thread where it is mentioned? Are you pathologically bitter about not getting in or about them accepting your kid’s (obviously less worthy!) archenemy over him or her or something?

-NP with no affiliation whatsoever with Davidson

Uhh, this data is pretty easy to find. https://www.swarthmore.edu/institutional-research/doctorates-awarded

Davidson is NOT a top PhD feeder school and it has never had such a reputation. The top PhD feeder LACs, in no order, are SWAP, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Grinnell, Macalester, Oberlin, Carleton, Reed, and Harvey Mudd.