Why Your Brilliant Child Didn't Get Into The Ivies

[Anonymous]

I get that there is a notion of "top ivy" and "lesser ivy" because Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are all more selective than the rest. I also get that other schools like Stanford and MIT are just as strong schools. However, Brown, Columbia, and Dartmouth still all have acceptance rates below 10% (I think Columbia was like 7% this year). Penn is 12%. Cornell is 16%. None of them are exactly easy to get into, or anything to sneer about.

[Anonymous]

I hesitate to contribute to the craziness that is this thread, but no way would Harvard be my top choice for my kid. It is rolling in resources-- great dorms etc.-- but a lot of the undergraduate teaching is by TAs, and the attitude people develop is pretty bad too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hesitate to contribute to the craziness that is this thread, but no way would Harvard be my top choice for my kid. It is rolling in resources-- great dorms etc.-- but a lot of the undergraduate teaching is by TAs, and the attitude people develop is pretty bad too.

I agree. In my dream world my kid would go to Yale, Stanford, or Princeton. MIT or Caltech if he liked math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^Good grief! If you want to know where your school ranks, then just look it up and be done with it!

I also think this may be sarcasm. Nobody who attended an ivy says I paid a lot of money and wants to know where it ranks. You already know the stature of your school.

The point is that there is no objective source to rank the Top Ivies. DCUM's opinion matters!!!!! So tell me, is Columbia a top ivy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^Good grief! If you want to know where your school ranks, then just look it up and be done with it!

I also think this may be sarcasm. Nobody who attended an ivy says I paid a lot of money and wants to know where it ranks. You already know the stature of your school.

The point is that there is no objective source to rank the Top Ivies. DCUM's opinion matters!!!!! So tell me, is Columbia a top ivy?

Bored, aren't you?

[Anonymous]

Good for you DC Urban Moms. I am glad that Harvard is not your top pick for your kid. As if you have a say in the matter.

To the Brown grad, congrats on graduating from Brown. Obviously, there are Ivies of differing levels of prestige but when your school falls within the top 10 in the country, it is hard to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^Good grief! If you want to know where your school ranks, then just look it up and be done with it!

I also think this may be sarcasm. Nobody who attended an ivy says I paid a lot of money and wants to know where it ranks. You already know the stature of your school.

The point is that there is no objective source to rank the Top Ivies. DCUM's opinion matters!!!!! So tell me, is Columbia a top ivy?

Go with Columbia if your child wants the NYC experience and likes a heavily proscribed curriculum.

[Anonymous]

I wonder what a heavily proscribed curriculum is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get that there is a notion of "top ivy" and "lesser ivy" because Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are all more selective than the rest. I also get that other schools like Stanford and MIT are just as strong schools. However, Brown, Columbia, and Dartmouth still all have acceptance rates below 10% (I think Columbia was like 7% this year). Penn is 12%. Cornell is 16%. None of them are exactly easy to get into, or anything to sneer about.

That's it in a nutshell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP and everyone else who refuses to accept that the Ivy League is tiered is one, a moron, and two, never attended an Ivy League school. Those who did know where they and their respective schools are in the pecking order. Read quote below from Ted Cruz and then go back and view clips from Family Guy and the Simpsons, which were written by Ivy League graduates.

"As a law student at Harvard, he refused to study with anyone who hadn’t been an undergrad at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Says Damon Watson, one of Cruz’s law-school roommates: “He said he didn’t want anybody from ‘minor Ivies’ like Penn or Brown.”"

And Ted Cruz is a goddamned opportunistic idiot so....what is your point exactly?

[Anonymous]

PP, The point is that there are many people like Cruz who thinks as he does. The media clips above supports the notion that there is a perception that the Ivies are tiered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^Good grief! If you want to know where your school ranks, then just look it up and be done with it!

I also think this may be sarcasm. Nobody who attended an ivy says I paid a lot of money and wants to know where it ranks. You already know the stature of your school.

The point is that there is no objective source to rank the Top Ivies. DCUM's opinion matters!!!!! So tell me, is Columbia a top ivy?

Bored, aren't you?

+1. We need a national enrichment program for trolls. So they can do better than this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^Good grief! If you want to know where your school ranks, then just look it up and be done with it!

I also think this may be sarcasm. Nobody who attended an ivy says I paid a lot of money and wants to know where it ranks. You already know the stature of your school.

The point is that there is no objective source to rank the Top Ivies. DCUM's opinion matters!!!!! So tell me, is Columbia a top ivy?

Bored, aren't you?

+1. We need a national enrichment program for trolls. So they can do better than this.

I feel like such a failure. I guess Columbia must not be a top ivy after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, The point is that there are many people like Cruz who thinks as he does. The media clips above supports the notion that there is a perception that the Ivies are tiered.

OK, so there are many fools. That is not news.

Also, there are many people who don't know about any of the Ivies, and don't care either.

[Anonymous]

Columbia is a clear number four in the Ivy League after HYP among the Ivies for prestige. Academically, Columbia College is probably among number 1 for its course structure for undergraduates with course requirements in western civilization the greats in literature, frontiers of science, music humanities, and arts humanities. the teachers are hand-selected to teach small seminars of no more than 20 students in the required courses, and over 80 % of all courses have less than 20 students per class. The College invests great financial and human resources in these required courses, the experience which will last a student a lifetime in learning and other valuable intellectual and practical benefits. These wonderful courses give one a leg up in life in enabling a student to rip apart any text and to re-assemble it afterwards.

Add the brilliant, usually unparalleled cultural opportunities with the United Nations, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Museum of Natural History and countless other world-class museums, and great restaurants of every cuisine from all over the world, with student discounts and great transportation infrastructure in a world-class city, Columbia College and SEAS provide opportunities second to none.

The history of providing the financial brains for the economy of the nation during critical times in our history, starting with Alexander Hamilton, during the Civil War and then with the Brains Trust during the Great Depression remains as a strong influence on campus and in its educational ethos on education and commitment to making a difference.

So, for academic experience, Columbia is hard to beat. In layman prestige, HYPC in that order (imo).