Anonymous wrote:The fact of the matter is that there are about 13 or 14 schools that all have a solid case for being considered a “top 10” university. This is a testament to just how dominant the U.S. is in higher education. You take any one of these schools and plop them down in just about any other country in the world, and they’d be the top university in that country (by far, in most cases).

Anonymous wrote:My top 10 list

Harvard
Stanford
MIT
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Caltech
Chicago
Penn
Northwestern

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Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

Not sure Stanford is above Yale, Princeton, Columbia. I know multiple kids who were rejected by Yale, Princeton, Columbia but admitted to Stanford.

Stanford is probably in a similar tier with Yale and Princeton, but these days perception is that Harvard and Stanford are best of best. There is a drop between HYPSM and Columbia

So what exactly is this gap between HYPSM and Columbia?

Endowment and caliber of students

Columbia’s acceptance rate this year was 4% this year. No different from Princeton, Yale or Stanford. You guys are living in the past. My son is at Yale but almost chose Columbia. He did not consider it any less prestigious

Much lower yield rate..Columbia is stil nowhere near HYPSM

University of Puerto Rico yield rate is 78.34% So what?

Doesn't change the fact that Columbia students are mostly HYPSM Wharton rejects

If Columbia were located in let’s say Newark, NJ do you think they would even be in the top 10? The biggest allure is NYC and that is undeniable.

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Anonymous wrote:Undergraduate:

Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton
Columbia Caltech
Penn Chicago
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown
Cornell JHU

Overall:

Harvard
Stanford MIT
Columbia Yale
Princeton
Penn Chicago Berkeley
Northwestern Duke

Good list

+1

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Here is the appropriate tier:

HYPSM
Columbia Chicago Caltech Penn
Northwestern Duke
Dartmouth Brown Cornell
Johns Hopkins Berkeley

50+ crowd chiming in here. I agree with this tier list.

I went to grad school at Northwestern, and I have a hard time believing the undergrads there rank over the undergrads at Brown, Cornell or Johns Hopkins.

The students seemed like regular bright, preprofessional students, not just one rung down from what I think of as Cal Tech or University of Chicago students.

I went to undergrad and grad at two Ivies but some of my closest friends are Northwestern grads. I can assure you, just because they present as sociable and “regular” doesn’t at all mean they aren’t extremely intelligent and competent. In fact, that’s part of the appeal of the school for some — the relative lack of pretense compared to some of its peers. I’d put Northwestern against Brown, Cornell or Hopkins any day of the week.

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Here is the appropriate tier:

HYPSM
Columbia Chicago Caltech Penn
Northwestern Duke
Dartmouth Brown Cornell
Johns Hopkins Berkeley

50+ crowd chiming in here. I agree with this tier list.

I went to grad school at Northwestern, and I have a hard time believing the undergrads there rank over the undergrads at Brown, Cornell or Johns Hopkins.

The students seemed like regular bright, preprofessional students, not just one rung down from what I think of as Cal Tech or University of Chicago students.

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Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

Not sure Stanford is above Yale, Princeton, Columbia. I know multiple kids who were rejected by Yale, Princeton, Columbia but admitted to Stanford.

Stanford is probably in a similar tier with Yale and Princeton, but these days perception is that Harvard and Stanford are best of best. There is a drop between HYPSM and Columbia

So what exactly is this gap between HYPSM and Columbia?

Endowment and caliber of students

Columbia’s acceptance rate this year was 4% this year. No different from Princeton, Yale or Stanford. You guys are living in the past. My son is at Yale but almost chose Columbia. He did not consider it any less prestigious

Much lower yield rate..Columbia is stil nowhere near HYPSM

University of Puerto Rico yield rate is 78.34% So what?

Doesn't change the fact that Columbia students are mostly HYPSM Wharton rejects

If Columbia were located in let’s say Newark, NJ do you think they would even be in the top 10? The biggest allure is NYC and that is undeniable.

What's with all this nonsense Columbia bashing. It's pathetic and annoying. Even the Berkeley bashers took a more rational approach than them.

Accept the facts: its acceptance rate is only beaten by Harvard, but they still lose in undergrad desirability as they have to use ED instead of SCEA. The "everyone applies because of NYC" thing is stupid, then every college in NYC would have a substantially lower acceptance rate, which is not true. The number of people who throw an application for Harvard just for giggles is probably greater. In undergrad desirability, it is below HYPSM, but above Penn and Chicago.

Graduate programs are a whole different story. Law is top 4, med is top 4, business is part of the M7. No other school except Harvard and Stanford are better than Columbia in all three of these. They have the #1 international relations school and the #1 journalism school as well. For arts and sciences, it is only beaten by Harvard and Stanford again; for example, Columbia's STEM is way better than Yale's, but their humanities is inferior by a tiny bit.

When speaking about the overall success of Columbia, it is only bested by Harvard and Stanford. Maybe MIT because their unrivaled STEM programs can outweigh the lack of other subjects. Maybe Berkeley because while their undergrad program has much left to be desired, Berkeley dominates in the graduate arts and sciences. But other than that, no other school can match the broad success that Columbia has achieved.

Stop deluding yourself..it’s direct peers are Chicago and Penn, and a good notch below HYPSM.

Stop deluding yourself. Try looking at each graduate school ranking and departmental standings in a place like AWRU, that scientifically measures the success of these schools. Actually you can’t do that for Princeton because their law, medical, and business schools don’t even exist, and yet you say that Columbia is a “good notch below it!” Nonsense.

By that logic Berkeley > Columbia?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Undergraduate:

Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton
Columbia Caltech
Penn Chicago
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown
Cornell JHU

Overall:

Harvard
Stanford MIT
Columbia Yale
Princeton
Penn Chicago Berkeley
Northwestern Duke

Good list

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Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

Not sure Stanford is above Yale, Princeton, Columbia. I know multiple kids who were rejected by Yale, Princeton, Columbia but admitted to Stanford.

Stanford is probably in a similar tier with Yale and Princeton, but these days perception is that Harvard and Stanford are best of best. There is a drop between HYPSM and Columbia

This is precisely true!

So what exactly is this gap between HYPSM and Columbia?

Endowment and caliber of students

Columbia’s acceptance rate this year was 4% this year. No different from Princeton, Yale or Stanford. You guys are living in the past. My son is at Yale but almost chose Columbia. He did not consider it any less prestigious

Much lower yield rate..Columbia is stil nowhere near HYPSM

University of Puerto Rico yield rate is 78.34% So what?

Doesn't change the fact that Columbia students are mostly HYPSM Wharton rejects

If Columbia were located in let’s say Newark, NJ do you think they would even be in the top 10? The biggest allure is NYC and that is undeniable.

What's with all this nonsense Columbia bashing. It's pathetic and annoying. Even the Berkeley bashers took a more rational approach than them.

Accept the facts: its acceptance rate is only beaten by Harvard, but they still lose in undergrad desirability as they have to use ED instead of SCEA. The "everyone applies because of NYC" thing is stupid, then every college in NYC would have a substantially lower acceptance rate, which is not true. The number of people who throw an application for Harvard just for giggles is probably greater. In undergrad desirability, it is below HYPSM, but above Penn and Chicago.

Graduate programs are a whole different story. Law is top 4, med is top 4, business is part of the M7. No other school except Harvard and Stanford are better than Columbia in all three of these. They have the #1 international relations school and the #1 journalism school as well. For arts and sciences, it is only beaten by Harvard and Stanford again; for example, Columbia's STEM is way better than Yale's, but their humanities is inferior by a tiny bit.

When speaking about the overall success of Columbia, it is only bested by Harvard and Stanford. Maybe MIT because their unrivaled STEM programs can outweigh the lack of other subjects. Maybe Berkeley because while their undergrad program has much left to be desired, Berkeley dominates in the graduate arts and sciences. But other than that, no other school can match the broad success that Columbia has achieved.

Because of the lower undergraduate desirability compared to HYPSM, many Columbia's students are HYPSM rejects (otherwise they would have gone to HYPSM if given the choice), and Columbia knows it. That's why they can't do SCEA and has to use ED to lock students.

Columbia having lower acceptance rate is because many more students applied to the school, probably thinking they had better chance to get into it than HYPSM because they thought Columbia would be easier. They were already self filtering from what they considered in their mind which one is more elite.

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Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

Not sure Stanford is above Yale, Princeton, Columbia. I know multiple kids who were rejected by Yale, Princeton, Columbia but admitted to Stanford.

Stanford is probably in a similar tier with Yale and Princeton, but these days perception is that Harvard and Stanford are best of best. There is a drop between HYPSM and Columbia

So what exactly is this gap between HYPSM and Columbia?

Endowment and caliber of students

Columbia’s acceptance rate this year was 4% this year. No different from Princeton, Yale or Stanford. You guys are living in the past. My son is at Yale but almost chose Columbia. He did not consider it any less prestigious

Much lower yield rate..Columbia is stil nowhere near HYPSM

University of Puerto Rico yield rate is 78.34% So what?

Doesn't change the fact that Columbia students are mostly HYPSM Wharton rejects

If Columbia were located in let’s say Newark, NJ do you think they would even be in the top 10? The biggest allure is NYC and that is undeniable.

What's with all this nonsense Columbia bashing. It's pathetic and annoying. Even the Berkeley bashers took a more rational approach than them.

Accept the facts: its acceptance rate is only beaten by Harvard, but they still lose in undergrad desirability as they have to use ED instead of SCEA. The "everyone applies because of NYC" thing is stupid, then every college in NYC would have a substantially lower acceptance rate, which is not true. The number of people who throw an application for Harvard just for giggles is probably greater. In undergrad desirability, it is below HYPSM, but above Penn and Chicago.

Graduate programs are a whole different story. Law is top 4, med is top 4, business is part of the M7. No other school except Harvard and Stanford are better than Columbia in all three of these. They have the #1 international relations school and the #1 journalism school as well. For arts and sciences, it is only beaten by Harvard and Stanford again; for example, Columbia's STEM is way better than Yale's, but their humanities is inferior by a tiny bit.

When speaking about the overall success of Columbia, it is only bested by Harvard and Stanford. Maybe MIT because their unrivaled STEM programs can outweigh the lack of other subjects. Maybe Berkeley because while their undergrad program has much left to be desired, Berkeley dominates in the graduate arts and sciences. But other than that, no other school can match the broad success that Columbia has achieved.

Because of the lower undergraduate desirability compared to HYPSM, many Columbia's students are HYPSM rejects (otherwise they would have gone to HYPSM if given the choice), and Columbia knows it. That's why they can't do SCEA and has to use ED to lock students.

Columbia having lower acceptance rate is because many more students applied to the school, probably thinking they had better chance to get into it than HYPSM because they thought Columbia would be easier. They were already self filtering from what they considered in their mind which one is more elite.

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Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

Not sure Stanford is above Yale, Princeton, Columbia. I know multiple kids who were rejected by Yale, Princeton, Columbia but admitted to Stanford.

Stanford is probably in a similar tier with Yale and Princeton, but these days perception is that Harvard and Stanford are best of best. There is a drop between HYPSM and Columbia

This is precisely true!

So what exactly is this gap between HYPSM and Columbia?

Endowment and caliber of students

Columbia’s acceptance rate this year was 4% this year. No different from Princeton, Yale or Stanford. You guys are living in the past. My son is at Yale but almost chose Columbia. He did not consider it any less prestigious

Much lower yield rate..Columbia is stil nowhere near HYPSM

University of Puerto Rico yield rate is 78.34% So what?

Doesn't change the fact that Columbia students are mostly HYPSM Wharton rejects

If Columbia were located in let’s say Newark, NJ do you think they would even be in the top 10? The biggest allure is NYC and that is undeniable.

What's with all this nonsense Columbia bashing. It's pathetic and annoying. Even the Berkeley bashers took a more rational approach than them.

Accept the facts: its acceptance rate is only beaten by Harvard, but they still lose in undergrad desirability as they have to use ED instead of SCEA. The "everyone applies because of NYC" thing is stupid, then every college in NYC would have a substantially lower acceptance rate, which is not true. The number of people who throw an application for Harvard just for giggles is probably greater. In undergrad desirability, it is below HYPSM, but above Penn and Chicago.

Graduate programs are a whole different story. Law is top 4, med is top 4, business is part of the M7. No other school except Harvard and Stanford are better than Columbia in all three of these. They have the #1 international relations school and the #1 journalism school as well. For arts and sciences, it is only beaten by Harvard and Stanford again; for example, Columbia's STEM is way better than Yale's, but their humanities is inferior by a tiny bit.

When speaking about the overall success of Columbia, it is only bested by Harvard and Stanford. Maybe MIT because their unrivaled STEM programs can outweigh the lack of other subjects. Maybe Berkeley because while their undergrad program has much left to be desired, Berkeley dominates in the graduate arts and sciences. But other than that, no other school can match the broad success that Columbia has achieved.

Because of the lower undergraduate desirability compared to HYPSM, many Columbia's students are HYPSM rejects (otherwise they would have gone to HYPSM if given the choice), and Columbia knows it. That's why they can't do SCEA and has to use ED to lock students.

Columbia having lower acceptance rate is because many more students applied to the school, probably thinking they had better chance to get into it than HYPSM because they thought Columbia would be easier. They were already self filtering from what they considered in their mind which one is more elite.