Reply to Why rankings are bunk

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Why rankings are bunk"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]14:31 here. Same with my alma mater - we know we're good, and we'll let the rest of you fight over slot 25 vs. slot 26. Plus, the Ivies will always be 8 colleges, and even if some people question Brown or Cornell, it's too late to change that.[/quote]

Except people aren't really talking about slot 25 v. 26. They're talking about the top 5-10 schools. And because USNWR rankings hold so much weight, you can damn well be sure that kids today would rather go to Stanford, MIT, or Chicago than Brown or Cornell, your Ivy examples above. So, it's true that the Ivy League will never change, but their importance (outside of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia) certainly has.[/quote]

I'm sorry, but that is truly stupid.  I look at resumes every day, and I promise that someone's undergrad degree from MIT vs. Stanford vs. Cornell vs. Brown holds the same weight to me.  I just think-- great, elite school, check, ok what else has he done.  
Also, given the competitive nature of college admissions these days, we are really talking about a small subset of students who are even competitive for those elite schools anyway.[/quote]

My point was that other schools have surpassed a substantial portion of the Ivy League in that intangible quality known as "eliteness," and it was a direct response to a poster above who suggested that Ivy is Ivy is Ivy = eight schools and so be it. I didn't mean to suggest that Brown or Cornell aren't great schools; what I was suggesting was that in the last couple of decades perceptions have changed, and US News and World Report is a big factor in that, like it or not. I don't know many people who would ever think Stanford wouldn't be superior to Brown and Cornell, but Stanford is not "Ivy." I think you read far too much into my original post. I agree that there is a small subset of students that is competitive for any of these schools. Again, that wasn't my point.[/quote]

I agree with you, but let's be real.  Harvard, Yale, Princeton have always been considered the "elite" of the Ivy League, with Penn and Cornell bringing up the rear.  Stanford and MIT too have always been elite.  This has nothing to do with USNWR.  [/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