Anonymous
06/17/2026 07:44
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Anonymous wrote:While Patriot League schools like Colgate, Bucknell and Lafayette made the list, Holy Cross did not.
Why would they? For one thing, it's located in Worcester and the campus is tiny with little happening. My kid, who applied to just about every top Catholic school, thought it was very pretty, but felt the vibe was just not there. With 20% based on campus life, I imagine that is what sunk them.
Anonymous
06/17/2026 07:35
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wharton has extraordinary outcomes. A&S not so much.
(no kid at Penn, but wondering if place on list is about Wharton exclusively)
A&S and Engineering are top because the students are very motivated to get good career outcomes and grad school admissions. A&S has top medicine, business, and law grads.
Penn is great, but it’s no MIT or Princeton overall.
New poster: I don’t have kids at any of these schools yet (have a rising senior) and I myself didn’t attend any on the top private list, but when I look objectively at my colleagues and personal friends who are alumni at these schools, and from our own college tour experiences, I don’t see that MIT and Princeton are obviously better than Penn.
I know the MIT and Princeton names are more brag-worthy, but if the ranking metrics are outcomes and campus quality of life, I can see Penn being justified as on par or higher. Working in tech with a lot of MIT grads, I literally don’t know a single one who is what you would consider “wealthy” or in a position to call the shots. They are happy smart amazing people, but in terms of wealth and level of options and resources available to them in daily life, I see no difference in them compared to colleagues who are alums of Michigan or UVA, Auburn or Carnegie Mellon. During the campus tour, MIT did seem grindy and kids looked hurried and stressed out. There have been kids from our high school recently who enrolled with super top stats, top class ranks, all the impressive school leadership and awards you can imagine who are apparently miserable at MIT and want to transfer. Princeton is another one that comes across super serious and reserved during the tour and the emphasis seems so theoretical; that doesn’t always produce the best outcomes in today’s world outside of research and academia.
The Penn kids especially with Wharton seem most connected with what’s going on with the outside world, with what opportunities are available to them and are confident in their future options. Don’t forget besides Wharton (which produce a lot of C-suites and wealthy alums), Penn also produces a lot of successful doctors, engineers and tech alums. I know money is not everything, but when you have more alums in these positions vs working in labs and non-profits, you are bound to score higher in rankings given the stated metrics.
What a sweeping generalization: MIT kids are miserable, Princeton kids are theoretical and disconnected from reality, Penn especially Wharton kids are dialed in and successful. Like many things, most characteristics of a group of humans follows a distribution. MIT, Princeton, and Penn grads -- three distinct groups of humans -- tend to have distributions with great overlap. One cannot draw meaningful conclusions from a set of personal anecdotes.
Anonymous
06/17/2026 07:34
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wharton has extraordinary outcomes. A&S not so much.
(no kid at Penn, but wondering if place on list is about Wharton exclusively)
A&S and Engineering are top because the students are very motivated to get good career outcomes and grad school admissions. A&S has top medicine, business, and law grads.
Penn is great, but it’s no MIT or Princeton overall.
Correct. Penn is ranked higher here.
From our private school (in DMV), Penn has been consistently accepting students who are not in the top 10 percent and, in most cases, not even in the top 20. And I am not talking about athletes/legacies, etc. It’s very odd.
Anonymous
06/17/2026 06:46
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wharton has extraordinary outcomes. A&S not so much.
(no kid at Penn, but wondering if place on list is about Wharton exclusively)
A&S and Engineering are top because the students are very motivated to get good career outcomes and grad school admissions. A&S has top medicine, business, and law grads.
Penn is great, but it’s no MIT or Princeton overall.
Correct. Penn is ranked higher here.
Anonymous
06/17/2026 06:11
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Really? I hate them all. An utter waste of time.
Anonymous
06/17/2026 06:09
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wharton has extraordinary outcomes. A&S not so much.
(no kid at Penn, but wondering if place on list is about Wharton exclusively)
A&S and Engineering are top because the students are very motivated to get good career outcomes and grad school admissions. A&S has top medicine, business, and law grads.
Penn is great, but it’s no MIT or Princeton overall.
New poster: I don’t have kids at any of these schools yet (have a rising senior) and I myself didn’t attend any on the top private list, but when I look objectively at my colleagues and personal friends who are alumni at these schools, and from our own college tour experiences, I don’t see that MIT and Princeton are obviously better than Penn.
I know the MIT and Princeton names are more brag-worthy, but if the ranking metrics are outcomes and campus quality of life, I can see Penn being justified as on par or higher. Working in tech with a lot of MIT grads, I literally don’t know a single one who is what you would consider “wealthy” or in a position to call the shots. They are happy smart amazing people, but in terms of wealth and level of options and resources available to them in daily life, I see no difference in them compared to colleagues who are alums of Michigan or UVA, Auburn or Carnegie Mellon. During the campus tour, MIT did seem grindy and kids looked hurried and stressed out. There have been kids from our high school recently who enrolled with super top stats, top class ranks, all the impressive school leadership and awards you can imagine who are apparently miserable at MIT and want to transfer. Princeton is another one that comes across super serious and reserved during the tour and the emphasis seems so theoretical; that doesn’t always produce the best outcomes in today’s world outside of research and academia.
The Penn kids especially with Wharton seem most connected with what’s going on with the outside world, with what opportunities are available to them and are confident in their future options. Don’t forget besides Wharton (which produce a lot of C-suites and wealthy alums), Penn also produces a lot of successful doctors, engineers and tech alums. I know money is not everything, but when you have more alums in these positions vs working in labs and non-profits, you are bound to score higher in rankings given the stated metrics.
Anonymous
06/16/2026 22:25
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
While Patriot League schools like Colgate, Bucknell and Lafayette made the list, Holy Cross did not.
Anonymous
06/14/2026 09:33
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Anonymous wrote:Joke!!Anonymous wrote:This one is better.
https://collegerankings.city-journal.org/rankings?sort=2&order=asc
Not a Joke!!!
Anonymous
06/14/2026 09:33
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
that list is funny because UT has a massive DEI admission system but it’s ranked top 5 for commitment to meritocracyAnonymous wrote:Joke!!Anonymous wrote:This one is better.
https://collegerankings.city-journal.org/rankings?sort=2&order=asc
Anonymous
06/14/2026 09:14
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Joke!!Anonymous wrote:This one is better.
https://collegerankings.city-journal.org/rankings?sort=2&order=asc
Anonymous
06/14/2026 09:02
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
the top 20-25 here - including the mix of SLACs and Universities - makes pretty good sense to me.
Anonymous
06/13/2026 22:11
Subject: another rankings list. I don't hate it
Penn #3. I don't think so.