The Top 50 National Universities by Average Rank from the 8 Most Influential Rankings

[Anonymous]

I don't know so many holes in the top 50 this way--too many credence to fringe publications. Suggest the tier approach is the best:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quick question if somebody had a choice of Pomona or Cornell which is more prestigious? Being an East Coast Snob, I would say Cornell. And Ivy is Ivy. That being said for those that know Pomona, know how hard it is to get into. Friend mine said there is always 1 or 2 kids at Harvard Law from Pomona every year. But then again probably at least 10 from Cornell. Hypothetical.

I think it really depends on someone's goals. Pomona is a top-tier LAC in a fantastic and warm location that will provide a very intimate college experience. Cornell is large, cold, and can be quite impersonal. However it has a big brand behind it along with being in the ivy league, and its campus is beautiful if one can withstand the snow. It depends how much an individual really cares about having a more "popular" brand that will be recognized more often. For fields like academia, nonprofit work, law, and consulting, Pomona should hold up fine, but for more accessible fields and tech, the Cornell name might help. But Pomona certainly won't hold anyone back, it just doesn't have as much lay prestige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know so many holes in the top 50 this way--too many credence to fringe publications. Suggest the tier approach is the best:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

That's true, I think tiers are more reasonable and help people nitpick less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quick question if somebody had a choice of Pomona or Cornell which is more prestigious? Being an East Coast Snob, I would say Cornell. And Ivy is Ivy. That being said for those that know Pomona, know how hard it is to get into. Friend mine said there is always 1 or 2 kids at Harvard Law from Pomona every year. But then again probably at least 10 from Cornell. Hypothetical.

I think it really depends on someone's goals. Pomona is a top-tier LAC in a fantastic and warm location that will provide a very intimate college experience. Cornell is large, cold, and can be quite impersonal. However it has a big brand behind it along with being in the ivy league, and its campus is beautiful if one can withstand the snow. It depends how much an individual really cares about having a more "popular" brand that will be recognized more often. For fields like academia, nonprofit work, law, and consulting, Pomona should hold up fine, but for more accessible fields and tech, the Cornell name might help. But Pomona certainly won't hold anyone back, it just doesn't have as much lay prestige.

And note Pomona and Cornell are in the same tier in the tier rankings. And usually around each other in surveys that rank SLACs and Nat Univs together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quick question if somebody had a choice of Pomona or Cornell which is more prestigious? Being an East Coast Snob, I would say Cornell. And Ivy is Ivy. That being said for those that know Pomona, know how hard it is to get into. Friend mine said there is always 1 or 2 kids at Harvard Law from Pomona every year. But then again probably at least 10 from Cornell. Hypothetical.

I think it really depends on someone's goals. Pomona is a top-tier LAC in a fantastic and warm location that will provide a very intimate college experience. Cornell is large, cold, and can be quite impersonal. However it has a big brand behind it along with being in the ivy league, and its campus is beautiful if one can withstand the snow. It depends how much an individual really cares about having a more "popular" brand that will be recognized more often. For fields like academia, nonprofit work, law, and consulting, Pomona should hold up fine, but for more accessible fields and tech, the Cornell name might help. But Pomona certainly won't hold anyone back, it just doesn't have as much lay prestige.

And note Pomona and Cornell are in the same tier in the tier rankings. And usually around each other in surveys that rank SLACs and Nat Univs together.

Are you the one who created the tiers above? If so, how did you come to those tiers?

[Anonymous]

Stop - this kind of post just litters the whole forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know so many holes in the top 50 this way--too many credence to fringe publications. Suggest the tier approach is the best:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

+1 although it's hard for me to put Northwestern ahead of schools like Dartmouth and UChicago. I can see Penn, Caltech, Columbia, and Duke being 1B because they all have claims at being the best school after HYPSM. I'd even argue several of them are better than Yale nowadays. But I don't think Northwestern has that claim. Plus Northwestern gets demolished in the cross-admit battle between Penn, Caltech, Columbia, and Duke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop - this kind of post just litters the whole forum.

So? Clearly people are interested or else it wouldn't have an ongoing discussion.

[Anonymous]

Tiers were discussed in other threads in the forum. Lot of different opinions. You can revise or check the others. That one wasn't mine. Copied one from the other discussion thread.

That being said hell of a lot closer than whether Florida State should be 46 or 47.

[Anonymous]

And completely agree on Northwestern. I think in the other thread I actually said to swap Northwestern and Chicago. I left it for now.

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Northwestern
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quick question if somebody had a choice of Pomona or Cornell which is more prestigious? Being an East Coast Snob, I would say Cornell. And Ivy is Ivy. That being said for those that know Pomona, know how hard it is to get into. Friend mine said there is always 1 or 2 kids at Harvard Law from Pomona every year. But then again probably at least 10 from Cornell. Hypothetical.

I think it really depends on someone's goals. Pomona is a top-tier LAC in a fantastic and warm location that will provide a very intimate college experience. Cornell is large, cold, and can be quite impersonal. However it has a big brand behind it along with being in the ivy league, and its campus is beautiful if one can withstand the snow. It depends how much an individual really cares about having a more "popular" brand that will be recognized more often. For fields like academia, nonprofit work, law, and consulting, Pomona should hold up fine, but for more accessible fields and tech, the Cornell name might help. But Pomona certainly won't hold anyone back, it just doesn't have as much lay prestige.

And note Pomona and Cornell are in the same tier in the tier rankings. And usually around each other in surveys that rank SLACs and Nat Univs together.

Are you the one who created the tiers above? If so, how did you come to those tiers?

+1 people making their own "lists" based on what, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Note there are 50 schools in the tier approach. I think this truly reflects top 50 as opposed to some on the top 50 on the list that omits Rice, high end SLACs, etc. What a disservice that poster did by creating that list. And including publications that no one knows. Very least you need to count US News 2x because of the outsized influence it has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know so many holes in the top 50 this way--too many credence to fringe publications. Suggest the tier approach is the best:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

+1 although it's hard for me to put Northwestern ahead of schools like Dartmouth and UChicago. I can see Penn, Caltech, Columbia, and Duke being 1B because they all have claims at being the best school after HYPSM. I'd even argue several of them are better than Yale nowadays. But I don't think Northwestern has that claim. Plus Northwestern gets demolished in the cross-admit battle between Penn, Caltech, Columbia, and Duke.

Wow I didn't realize Northwestern had that hard of a time with cross-admits, I thought Northwestern would be pretty even with those schools. Instead you have:

Northwestern 22% - Duke 78%
Northwestern 26% - Penn 74%
Northwestern 28% - Caltech 72%
Northwestern 31% - Columbia 69%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And completely agree on Northwestern. I think in the other thread I actually said to swap Northwestern and Chicago. I left it for now.

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Northwestern
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

I think this is right. UChicago has a claim at being in 1B but their sketchy ED practices and the fact that it bombs in every ranking except US News hurts it IMO. But then again, the only schools that are actually somewhat consistent across all the rankings are HYPSM Penn and Duke. It's weird to see CMU and UF in the same tier but I might just be biased towards STEM subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quick question if somebody had a choice of Pomona or Cornell which is more prestigious? Being an East Coast Snob, I would say Cornell. And Ivy is Ivy. That being said for those that know Pomona, know how hard it is to get into. Friend mine said there is always 1 or 2 kids at Harvard Law from Pomona every year. But then again probably at least 10 from Cornell. Hypothetical.

I think it really depends on someone's goals. Pomona is a top-tier LAC in a fantastic and warm location that will provide a very intimate college experience. Cornell is large, cold, and can be quite impersonal. However it has a big brand behind it along with being in the ivy league, and its campus is beautiful if one can withstand the snow. It depends how much an individual really cares about having a more "popular" brand that will be recognized more often. For fields like academia, nonprofit work, law, and consulting, Pomona should hold up fine, but for more accessible fields and tech, the Cornell name might help. But Pomona certainly won't hold anyone back, it just doesn't have as much lay prestige.

And note Pomona and Cornell are in the same tier in the tier rankings. And usually around each other in surveys that rank SLACs and Nat Univs together.

Are you the one who created the tiers above? If so, how did you come to those tiers?

+1 people making their own "lists" based on what, exactly?

I think it's fair but I think people should put disclaimers as to what they're looking at in their tiers. As someone with more interest in STEM, I'd go:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Caltech
1B) Duke, Yale, Penn, Columbia

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, CMU, Berkeley, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Olin
2B) UMich, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Georgia Tech, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, UF, Emory, USC, UT Austin, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford