Anonymous
11/30/2025 20:23
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt and Rice need to move up. Rice is basically Dartmouth but in Texas
So rice is nothing like Dartmouth.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 20:22
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Vanderbilt and Rice need to move up. Rice is basically Dartmouth but in Texas
Anonymous
11/30/2025 20:22
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Accurate
Anonymous
11/30/2025 19:12
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Everyone’s kicking their feet, but this is pretty accurate and they describe why things are being ranked how they’re ranked. I mostly agree with this OP!
-except, you probably ARE the OP.
Ok. I'm not here to play detective with a mom who wants to just complain.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 19:11
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Everyone’s kicking their feet, but this is pretty accurate and they describe why things are being ranked how they’re ranked. I mostly agree with this OP!
-except, you probably ARE the OP.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 19:10
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Princeton booster. Here like Harvard , engineering is fake
Anonymous
11/30/2025 19:07
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is the relevance of S & A? What do these letters mean / stand for? What am I missing here...
S-ABCDF is a normal ranking system. S meaning Supreme, A meaning the same thing it meant in grade-school.
Never knew this. But thank you!
Anonymous
11/30/2025 19:00
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:What is the relevance of S & A? What do these letters mean / stand for? What am I missing here...
S-ABCDF is a normal ranking system. S meaning Supreme, A meaning the same thing it meant in grade-school.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:59
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Saw this online elsewhere, how do people here feel about this?
S+ Tier (Exceptional at everything, extremely resourced, global prestige):
-Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton (No glaring weaknesses)
S Tier (Exceptional at nearly everything, extremely resourced, global prestige):
-Caltech (Amazing STEM but worse at humanities than MIT)
-Yale (Amazing humanities but lagging S+ tier in STEM)
-Duke (Very well rounded and perhaps greatest upside in S tier, but youngest of elite schools)
-Columbia (Very well rounded but hurting from recent scandals, still benefits from being in NYC)
-UChicago (Strong humanities and sciences but lacking in engineering)
-UPenn (Very well rounded but perhaps too centered around Wharton that can create odd dynamic with the non-Wharton students)
A+ Tier (Exceptional at many things, heavily resourced, national prestige):
-Northwestern (Very well rounded, closest to being S tier)
-Johns Hopkins (Pointy in strengths, perhaps too centered around medicine)
-Dartmouth (Strong undergrad focus, but lacking strong research backing and global reputation of S tier)
-Berkeley (Academically phenomenal all around similar to S+ tier and high global prestige, but significantly hurt in lack of resources and attention for undergrads)
-Cornell (Good at STEM and niche programs like agriculture, but lagging in other traditional fields and a bit weaker in undergrad focus)
-Brown (Weakest academically of ivies | Not quite as undergrad focused as Dartmouth and not quite an S tier research institution)
-WASP + Bowdoin (Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Bowdoin) Most elite liberal arts educations, minimal global prestige compared to others in this tier
A Tier (Exceptional at many things, well resourced, national prestige):
-Vanderbilt (Needs to cement itself as a top research institution, closest to being A+ tier)
-Rice (Strong undergrad focus and very well resourced, but lacking global reputation)
-UMich (Well rounded with strong research, lacking undergrad attention)
-Georgetown (Incredibly elite for humanities, but severely lacking in STEM and could use more financial resources)
-Notre Dame (Superb financial resources, but limited research excellence)
-Washington University in St. Louis (Great financial resources, but pointy in strengths towards medicine/science)
-UCLA (Strong research, but struggles with undergraduate resources)
-Carnegie Mellon (Inverse Georgetown: strong STEM, severely lacking in humanities despite strong points in arts and theatre)
-Harvey Mudd + Olin College of Engineering + Claremont McKenna (Specialized LACs that are very strong in their areas of expertise)
The Bowdoin booster arrives….You’re giving the uni’s too much credit though. When it comes to undergraduate education none of them are better than the top dozen SLACs; not a single one.
Point to me where OP says they're ranking on undergraduate education? Nowhere! It's okay to make your own list and share your own ideas, but they aren't applicable to everything.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:57
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
What is the relevance of S & A? What do these letters mean / stand for? What am I missing here...
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:55
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Saw this online elsewhere, how do people here feel about this?
S+ Tier (Exceptional at everything, extremely resourced, global prestige):
-Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton (No glaring weaknesses)
S Tier (Exceptional at nearly everything, extremely resourced, global prestige):
-Caltech (Amazing STEM but worse at humanities than MIT)
-Yale (Amazing humanities but lagging S+ tier in STEM)
-Duke (Very well rounded and perhaps greatest upside in S tier, but youngest of elite schools)
-Columbia (Very well rounded but hurting from recent scandals, still benefits from being in NYC)
-UChicago (Strong humanities and sciences but lacking in engineering)
-UPenn (Very well rounded but perhaps too centered around Wharton that can create odd dynamic with the non-Wharton students)
A+ Tier (Exceptional at many things, heavily resourced, national prestige):
-Northwestern (Very well rounded, closest to being S tier)
-Johns Hopkins (Pointy in strengths, perhaps too centered around medicine)
-Dartmouth (Strong undergrad focus, but lacking strong research backing and global reputation of S tier)
-Berkeley (Academically phenomenal all around similar to S+ tier and high global prestige, but significantly hurt in lack of resources and attention for undergrads)
-Cornell (Good at STEM and niche programs like agriculture, but lagging in other traditional fields and a bit weaker in undergrad focus)
-Brown (Weakest academically of ivies | Not quite as undergrad focused as Dartmouth and not quite an S tier research institution)
-WASP + Bowdoin (Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Bowdoin) Most elite liberal arts educations, minimal global prestige compared to others in this tier
A Tier (Exceptional at many things, well resourced, national prestige):
-Vanderbilt (Needs to cement itself as a top research institution, closest to being A+ tier)
-Rice (Strong undergrad focus and very well resourced, but lacking global reputation)
-UMich (Well rounded with strong research, lacking undergrad attention)
-Georgetown (Incredibly elite for humanities, but severely lacking in STEM and could use more financial resources)
-Notre Dame (Superb financial resources, but limited research excellence)
-Washington University in St. Louis (Great financial resources, but pointy in strengths towards medicine/science)
-UCLA (Strong research, but struggles with undergraduate resources)
-Carnegie Mellon (Inverse Georgetown: strong STEM, severely lacking in humanities despite strong points in arts and theatre)
-Harvey Mudd + Olin College of Engineering + Claremont McKenna (Specialized LACs that are very strong in their areas of expertise)
The Bowdoin booster arrives….You’re giving the uni’s too much credit though. When it comes to undergraduate education none of them are better than the top dozen SLACs; not a single one.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:38
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:These rankings are non-sense. I would rather just look at endowment ranking, all I need to know about schools.
That's a verifiable metric that aids in the student experience. Why wouldn't you factor that other than ideology?
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:38
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Anonymous wrote:Holy Cross, Bucknell, Northeastern, George Mason? WTF?
What about these Mediocre colleges? There's no reason for their mention other than boosting.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:36
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
These rankings are non-sense. I would rather just look at endowment ranking, all I need to know about schools.
Anonymous
11/30/2025 18:29
Subject: Overall Tiers of the Top Schools
Oh, and don’t forget to include the tuition—gotta add that to the rich-flex wealth rankings