Reply to What's the REAL difference between an Ivy and any other decent private university

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "What's the REAL difference between an Ivy and any other decent private university"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]To answer the OP's original scenario, the Harvard student will, compared to the Bucknell student, encounter:

* Smarter peers (as measured by HS GPA and SAT/ACT)
* More famous faculty
* Nicer facilities
* Much better OCR opportunities.
* A significant minority of people will be impressed by his credentials.

The last point needs some explanation. As an Ivy grad, I find most people, especially potential employers, are not impressed by the credential on its own. But a minority ARE. This has helped me greatly, as I've gotten jobs largely on the strength of the name on my degree, even despite some major black marks on my resume.

To return to the question in the title, if we move beyond the Harvard vs. Bucknell comparison, there's nothing magical about being in the Ivy League. There are non-Ivy schools as good as some Ivy schools. HYP may be in a class of their own (arguably), but if you compare Penn and JHU or Columbia and U Chicago, things are much more even.

Another issue is that some of the Ivies (notably Harvard) don't have that great an undergraduate teaching ethos. That's okay, many non-Ivies (JHU comes to mind) and state universities don't either. This isn't so much about Ivies vs. non-Ivies as about research universities vs. liberal arts colleges.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics