forgradadvice

The Ivy rankings vary greatly with area of interest. You must take into account your field and career objectives. Going to grad school is very different than wanting to get a job afterward. Astrophysics, for example, has a very different ranking system than History.

It is my opinion is that there is a large difference between selectivity and ranking. The best school for you is not the most selective one you can get into. I personally choose to go to a "lower" ranked Ivy after getting accepted to the majority of the "top" Ivies (according to your lists below). I could not be happier and have found success that I know I could not have achieved at a different institution.

If you know your research interests, make sure to take them into account before making your decision.

With that said, I am suprised to see where people place Cornell. I wonder if this is based on selectivity or more solid foundations. In terms of research potential (perhaps the most important prerequisite for graduate school acceptance in engineering and science), I would put Cornell above every other Ivy.

From the prospective of a academically inclined career (this is very subjective and can change based on personal interests and research):

Undergraduate Education:

For Engineers:
Princeton
Cornell
UPenn
Harvard
Yale
Dartmouth
Columbia
Brown

For Physical and Applied Science (Astronomy, Bio, etc.):
Harvard
Princeton
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
Yale
Columbia
Upenn

For the Humanities
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Dartmoth
Brown
Cornell
Columbia
UPenn

For Graduate Education (Things change significantly here):

This is really hard to do because in graduate school you have to rank departments instead of divisions (example: Aerospace Engineering or BioEngineering vs. Engineering in general)

For Engineers:
Princeton (Aerospace)
Cornell (Engineering Physics)
UPenn
Columbia
Harvard
Brown
Yale

For Physical and Applied Science:
Cornell (Astronomy, Experimental Physics, Bio, etc.)
Harvard (Theoretical Physics, Biophysics, Etc.)
Brown
Princeton (Physics and Math are #1)
Columbia
Upenn
Dartmouth
Yale

For Humanities:
Harvard
Yale
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Princeton
Columbia
UPenn


The reason for the vast difference (at least in my opinion) is that research is so much more important in graduate school. School's like Cornell and UPenn are huge research institutions and have more labs to offer than some of the other Ivies.

Well, these are my viewpoints anyway. I know that they are unconvential, but I do feel that selectivity and pretige are not the most important factors to consider. What is important is the number of opportunities a school can give you to go above and beyond.