Official US news 2023 thread

[Anonymous]

Pomona is in the same boat as Cal Tech in terms of being under appreciated in this area.

Pomona moved up to #3 this year and is consistently in the top 7 for Liberal Arts Colleges. More in the DMV should consider it! It has a beautiful campus. I went to a peer school in the NE and wish I had visited Pomona when touring schools, especially November-March.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Wow. Hopkins is WAY overrated. I would put it below Duke & Northwestern (not to mention Dartmouth et al).

Hopkins has a premier med school and hospital system (that only Harvard and Stanford really rival). Honestly, nothing stands out about Duke and Northwestern other than maybe that cereal company's biz school at NW.

sure bud.

In all honesty, what really impresses you about Duke and Northwestern? They are both very good schools but Northwestern is basically the second best school for every discipline in the Chicago area. Duke prides itself on being the Harvard of the South and does have great basketball; however, I can't think of even a single truly elite discipline or grad school there. I've considered Duke the Northwestern of the South TBH, which isn't a bad thing (high-end private Power 5 schools). Both of them are great for the 7-15 range but shouldn't be feeling wronged anywhere in that range.

So your point is they are great, but not impressive? And what does geography have do with anything?

They are excellent but not in that truly top group of national universities that the Duke alumni crowd in particular believes they are. Geographically, the Chicago reference with NW was to explain that even the students wanting top programs in that city now tend to choose Chicago (which probably wasn't the case 30 years ago). Duke sells their southern location and weather compared to other schools (Vandy does too). Both NW and Duke offer a lot but to confuse them with Harvard or Yale is a mistake.

Exactly. Duke, hopkins, northwestern and the like are great but none of them should be ahead of any Ivy period. Or cal tech.

Most students would take HYP over the schools above. The second tier Ivies like Columbia and Cornell are a different story.

Agreed. Should it be PHY now though?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Wow. Hopkins is WAY overrated. I would put it below Duke & Northwestern (not to mention Dartmouth et al).

Hopkins has a premier med school and hospital system (that only Harvard and Stanford really rival). Honestly, nothing stands out about Duke and Northwestern other than maybe that cereal company's biz school at NW.

sure bud.

In all honesty, what really impresses you about Duke and Northwestern? They are both very good schools but Northwestern is basically the second best school for every discipline in the Chicago area. Duke prides itself on being the Harvard of the South and does have great basketball; however, I can't think of even a single truly elite discipline or grad school there. I've considered Duke the Northwestern of the South TBH, which isn't a bad thing (high-end private Power 5 schools). Both of them are great for the 7-15 range but shouldn't be feeling wronged anywhere in that range.

So your point is they are great, but not impressive? And what does geography have do with anything?

They are excellent but not in that truly top group of national universities that the Duke alumni crowd in particular believes they are. Geographically, the Chicago reference with NW was to explain that even the students wanting top programs in that city now tend to choose Chicago (which probably wasn't the case 30 years ago). Duke sells their southern location and weather compared to other schools (Vandy does too). Both NW and Duke offer a lot but to confuse them with Harvard or Yale is a mistake.

Choosing between Chicago and NW is not common considering that they're about as polar opposites as two schools of this level can be. And I'm sorry, but what's with the straw man argument of claiming that people are confusing Duke/NW with Harvard or Yale (no one is actually doing that, so this is a made-up problem)?

In any case, they're both stronger schools across the board than Hopkins, which is essentially a medical system that happens to have a university attached to it.

I'd agree with most of that last statement. However, JHU has a strength in the medical and biological sciences that is comparatively better than anything Duke or NW has. There is nothing wrong with being known as slightly more of a specialty school with other programs that are also fairly strong (look at CalTech, which is also ranked above Duke and NW, as a good example). The recent influx of $ has helped JHU improve other areas too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tech is way up, nipping at UMD’s heels, and is higher ranked engineering. UVA, William & Mary and Tech really pulled the trifecta over lowly UMD.

UMD has produced Sergey Brin (Google) and Brendan Iribe (Oculus, acquired by Facebook/Meta) though!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Wow. Hopkins is WAY overrated. I would put it below Duke & Northwestern (not to mention Dartmouth et al).

Hopkins has a premier med school and hospital system (that only Harvard and Stanford really rival). Honestly, nothing stands out about Duke and Northwestern other than maybe that cereal company's biz school at NW.

sure bud.

In all honesty, what really impresses you about Duke and Northwestern? They are both very good schools but Northwestern is basically the second best school for every discipline in the Chicago area. Duke prides itself on being the Harvard of the South and does have great basketball; however, I can't think of even a single truly elite discipline or grad school there. I've considered Duke the Northwestern of the South TBH, which isn't a bad thing (high-end private Power 5 schools). Both of them are great for the 7-15 range but shouldn't be feeling wronged anywhere in that range.

So your point is they are great, but not impressive? And what does geography have do with anything?

They are excellent but not in that truly top group of national universities that the Duke alumni crowd in particular believes they are. Geographically, the Chicago reference with NW was to explain that even the students wanting top programs in that city now tend to choose Chicago (which probably wasn't the case 30 years ago). Duke sells their southern location and weather compared to other schools (Vandy does too). Both NW and Duke offer a lot but to confuse them with Harvard or Yale is a mistake.

From a prestige perspective, I think one has to take any ivy, including so called no. 17 and 18 in the rankings, over other schools excluding other Ivies, Stanford, Cal Tech, and MIT. Ivy is Ivy. It is an association that stays with you for life. It is either Harvard undergrad and Harvard Law or if not HYP then people say Ivy undergrad and Wharton, Harvard Law, Harvard Med, etc.



Exactly. Duke, hopkins, northwestern and the like are great but none of them should be ahead of any Ivy period. Or cal tech.

Most students would take HYP over the schools above. The second tier Ivies like Columbia and Cornell are a different story.

Agreed. Should it be PHY now though?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:How long will Columbia be ranked around the #18 range? Is that ranking here to stay, or is it just a one year fluke as "punishment" for the data falsification scandal?

I'd expect them to be back in the 7-18 range over the next 5 years but gone are the top 5 days. Honestly, did anyone really believe they were a top 5 undergrad school though?

+1

Every Columbia undergrad alum I know hated their time there. The lack of focus on undergrads, poor funding, poor sense of community, and cutthroat and competitive vibe make Columbia a second-tier experience compared to HYPSM or even Penn/Dartmouth/Brown.

Exhibit A:

https://www.reddit.com/r/columbia/comments/x9jnjy/where_can_i_find_some_people_who_arent_obsessed/

+2. No one ever bought that Columbia was top 5.

+3

Columbia undergrad alum here and I'd never send my kids there. Most of the people I know from undergrad say the same. IIRC Columbia has the lowest percent of the student body who are legacies because most alumni are smart enough not to have their kid repeat the same mistake they made.

Didn't know the legacy info about Columbia. I've worked with quite a few alums who also didn't love their experiences. Interestingly, graduates of their professional schools have had far more positive things to say.

[Anonymous]

Good to see the Seven Sisters doing well!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pomona is in the same boat as Cal Tech in terms of being under appreciated in this area.

Pomona moved up to #3 this year and is consistently in the top 7 for Liberal Arts Colleges. More in the DMV should consider it! It has a beautiful campus. I went to a peer school in the NE and wish I had visited Pomona when touring schools, especially November-March.

They accepted 16 students from Maryland last year, and fewer than 13 from Virginia (based on their list of the top US states of admitted students) and not for lack of students applying. So you want even more students from this area to apply and be rejected?

[Anonymous]

Rutgers, Florida State, and Georgia are higher than American, Indiana, Baylor, Pitt, Syracuse, and GW. LMFAO. Twilight Zone.

[Anonymous]

I think for prestige, you need to take any ivy (including Cornell and Columbia) over Duke, Northwestern, and Hopkins. I think had Duke not been a basketball power house, it would be where Vanderbilt ranks 15ish. I think Georgetown, Tufts, etc. as academic institutions deserve to be a lot higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think for prestige, you need to take any ivy (including Cornell and Columbia) over Duke, Northwestern, and Hopkins. I think had Duke not been a basketball power house, it would be where Vanderbilt ranks 15ish. I think Georgetown, Tufts, etc. as academic institutions deserve to be a lot higher.

Funny how you dismiss Duke/Northwestern/Hopkins and yet boost Georgetown and Tufts in the same breath - LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Wow. Hopkins is WAY overrated. I would put it below Duke & Northwestern (not to mention Dartmouth et al).

Hopkins has a premier med school and hospital system (that only Harvard and Stanford really rival). Honestly, nothing stands out about Duke and Northwestern other than maybe that cereal company's biz school at NW.

sure bud.

In all honesty, what really impresses you about Duke and Northwestern? They are both very good schools but Northwestern is basically the second best school for every discipline in the Chicago area. Duke prides itself on being the Harvard of the South and does have great basketball; however, I can't think of even a single truly elite discipline or grad school there. I've considered Duke the Northwestern of the South TBH, which isn't a bad thing (high-end private Power 5 schools). Both of them are great for the 7-15 range but shouldn't be feeling wronged anywhere in that range.

So your point is they are great, but not impressive? And what does geography have do with anything?

They are excellent but not in that truly top group of national universities that the Duke alumni crowd in particular believes they are. Geographically, the Chicago reference with NW was to explain that even the students wanting top programs in that city now tend to choose Chicago (which probably wasn't the case 30 years ago). Duke sells their southern location and weather compared to other schools (Vandy does too). Both NW and Duke offer a lot but to confuse them with Harvard or Yale is a mistake.

Choosing between Chicago and NW is not common considering that they're about as polar opposites as two schools of this level can be. And I'm sorry, but what's with the straw man argument of claiming that people are confusing Duke/NW with Harvard or Yale (no one is actually doing that, so this is a made-up problem)?

In any case, they're both stronger schools across the board than Hopkins, which is essentially a medical system that happens to have a university attached to it.

I'd agree with most of that last statement. However, JHU has a strength in the medical and biological sciences that is comparatively better than anything Duke or NW has. There is nothing wrong with being known as slightly more of a specialty school with other programs that are also fairly strong (look at CalTech, which is also ranked above Duke and NW, as a good example). The recent influx of $ has helped JHU improve other areas too.

You might have a case with Duke, but Northwestern's b-school is top-notch, and is close to peerless in the world of media/journalism.

[Anonymous]

Georgia Tech at 44, behind Wisconsin, UIUC, Texas and Florida?

List is all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tech is way up, nipping at UMD’s heels, and is higher ranked engineering. UVA, William & Mary and Tech really pulled the trifecta over lowly UMD.

Virginia Tech will always be the 3rd best public and 5th best university in Virginia though. Meanwhile UMD is the best public university (and flagship) and 2nd best university in the state, behind a medical behemoth that is currently ranked #7 (over-ranked but certainly not a mediocre school to be ranked behind).

UMD gets priority over Maryland's state education budget. There's no the major public university in the state. Virginia's get split over UVA, W&M, VT, VCU and GMU. UMD has far more potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pomona is in the same boat as Cal Tech in terms of being under appreciated in this area.

Pomona moved up to #3 this year and is consistently in the top 7 for Liberal Arts Colleges. More in the DMV should consider it! It has a beautiful campus. I went to a peer school in the NE and wish I had visited Pomona when touring schools, especially November-March.

Pomona is the most selective LAC in the country with all 50 states and 60+ countries represented in its small population. It is well known to DMV area students interested in liberal arts colleges.