Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smart well rounded kids want Duke not 2nd tier Ivies with unattractive campuses, cold weather, no sports but weekly protests.

There are protests at Duke all the time. They merely do not make the news because the campus is not easily accessible by the media and the location is not desirable for non-student protestors to come in from the city. The RDU protestors went to UNC for the big rallies in 2023.
There were 2 straight years with protest signs and tents in front of the Allen building not too long ago, and on and off weeks or months since.

Yep, I live here so see it on local news. It amused me how many more protests there were than my child’s Ivy that people would knock for it.

Anonymous wrote:Does this sound accurate among top schools?

Social/campus culture/sports/weather:

Stanford, Duke, UCLA >
UVA, Harvard, Rice, Yale, Vandy, Notre Dame >
Northwestern, Yale, Michigan, WashU, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth >
Chicago, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Hopkins, Cornell, CMU

NO. absolutely no. These kinds of tiers do not explain the overall feel of the school.
The student body at Stanford-Duke-ivies creates a much different campus culture than can be had at UCLA, UVA, no matter the weather or sports. You cannot group top 30 schools into different tiers based on weather or sports! The predominant feel of the school is the student intellectual level and their intensity in their pursuit of the next step as well as their pursuit of fun. The average student is frankly just too different at UVA/Michigan/ND than it is at the ivy/stanfords of the world.

Anonymous wrote:Smart well rounded kids want Duke not 2nd tier Ivies with unattractive campuses, cold weather, no sports but weekly protests.

There are protests at Duke all the time. They merely do not make the news because the campus is not easily accessible by the media and the location is not desirable for non-student protestors to come in from the city. The RDU protestors went to UNC for the big rallies in 2023.
There were 2 straight years with protest signs and tents in front of the Allen building not too long ago, and on and off weeks or months since.

Smart well rounded kids want Duke not 2nd tier Ivies with unattractive campuses, cold weather, no sports but weekly protests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The TikTok effect when it comes to college admissions is very real.

Yes, the dumbing down of our culture. The true academics aren’t wooed by sports and weather as a deciding factor. That being said, I see the appeal for less serious that want more balance. Spots and Greek life/parties aren’t everyone’s chosen fun though. I’d say the top students still want the usual suspects at our school.

+1

The smart kids still want top schools.

This whole thing is silly. The students themselves seem quite able to ascertain what priority they want to put on location, weather, sports, Greek life, etc. All of the top schools are challenging admits, it’s better for everyone that they don’t appeal to all.

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Anonymous wrote:crazy the shift at my DCs private in terms of priorities. Seems like a palpable shift from DCs older sister, where her friend group all wanted ivies or bust. DC friend group seems to prioritize the “experience” and a fun good weather vibe. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but Duke and Vandy out in front of every school save HYPSM in terms of interest. Vandy resurgence in football and basketball not hurting - just flipped on espn and party scene at SEC bball finals in Nashville, Vandy kids living the life according to my DC. sigh

Would guys rather hang out with Hilary Rodham or Sophia Vergara?

A better way to put this is “would you prefer to spend time with intellect, influence, and long term growth or waste a bit of time on a depreciating asset?” Your answer says much about you and your child.

So again, your position os that there’s no “intellect” at Duke, Vandy, emory, Rice, UT? My colleagues in medicine will be anxiously awaiting your hot take

Do you think there is no fun or friendships at MIT, Yale, Stanford?

I’m sure there is! I’m also sure that’s not what we were actually talking about Just like that I’m sure there are brilliant people who attend the schools that you disparage south of the Mason Dixon line.

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Anonymous wrote:crazy the shift at my DCs private in terms of priorities. Seems like a palpable shift from DCs older sister, where her friend group all wanted ivies or bust. DC friend group seems to prioritize the “experience” and a fun good weather vibe. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but Duke and Vandy out in front of every school save HYPSM in terms of interest. Vandy resurgence in football and basketball not hurting - just flipped on espn and party scene at SEC bball finals in Nashville, Vandy kids living the life according to my DC. sigh

So you don’t think Duke and Vandy offer strong academics?

Right? I would put Duke and Vandy in the same category as Ivy academics when compared to actual SEC flagship schools like Alabama (which also have their own value.) The distinction is small in the broader picture.

Dp, Duke and Vandy aren’t peers. Vandy on the same level as Wash U and Emory, Duke as Hopkins, NW, Chicago.

They are all peers, they are all peers with any of the Ivies as well. The constant attempts at granular slicing and ranking are nonsensical yet you persist.

That’s rich, I wasn’t the one who started this thread. Sorry if it makes you sad, Vandy mom, but the majority of the world doesn’t see Vandy as a peer to the Ivies or Duke. It’s still a very good school as is Wash U, Emory, Georgetown, etc . . ,

Vandy, Emory, WashU, Georgetown are peers with Cornell and Dartmouth. You can see that on Parchment..

+1, not sure if Cornell and SAT just perform poorly or the others happen to overperform, but these schools are low ivy level, including Rice in this group. But Vandy does lead the pack.

This is only half true. Agree that Parchment shows a toss up between Cornell and Vandy. But Dartmouth wins cross admits over Sandy 76 percent to 24. That strongly suggests they are not peers.

That suggests to me that some people — especially first gen and many Asians — are Ivy-or-bust and apply to all eight schools. And they take the one Ivy that they got into. See also, Cornell.