myscreename

IMO...It is a good college...Med/Sci/Engineering and even business.... all of the programs are pretty good.

But why is this college not well known across the nation? I think it deserves better...

wait, somebody told me that it's mostly because of its long ****ty name. Case Western Reserve is kind of long and hard to remember, is this true?

CaseSpartan10

This is a pretty popular conversation, and I don't know exactly why Case isn't more well known.
A few possible reasons though: long/weird name, Cleveland doesn't have a very good reputation, school isn't all that well rounded.

Maybe we just need to pick up a few marketing tips from WashU?

edit: Even though Case isn't very well known to the general public, people in the science/engineering world tend to know it.

Sachmoney

I'm going to go with the administration. Case could be like Wash U if it improved schools and marketed itself the way that Wash U did. There is really nothing modern on Case's campus besides PBLB, even that is more impressive on the outside than the inside. It's kind of just dreary. They need to start marketing the school better and hopefully get better quality students.

cj3051

Yes, Case is a good private school. It could be like WashU if it has $$$ --- WashU has some serious money (endowments) to back it up. Therefore, fund-raising is the first step, and then marketing...

gprime

I think part of it the departments/programs you didn't mention. If the school split back into Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, the former would probably be a well regarded school, and the latter a mediocre one. However, as a united institution, it is judged overall. That means considering its inadequate programs in the social sciences and the humanities.

Truth be told, their graduate programs are a major issue too. Their main strength there is medicine, but it looks like they may lose their ties to the world famous Cleveland Clinic. Of look at the MBA program. USNWR ranks through 65, and then just lists other program alphabetically. Guess which describes Case? Law is also alarming. Top 20 law schools do almost all of the feeding for major law firms. And where does Case rank? 63.

EuiHyunLee

I'd also say its because of the HIGH admission statistics.
This lowers the US News ranking A LOT (they're pretty heavily weighted on the admissions % if you actually understand the rankings)

Lower US News ranking = Less notoriety.

I would disagree that the lack of modern facilities on the campus affect how well known it is. Most older schools in America have mixtures of old and new structures; thats just how it works. WashU doesn't have a super-fancy modern campus either.

Sachmoney

The endowment is a problem because people don't want to give back to a school they don't enjoy.

EuiHyunLee

I'd actually disagree with the endowment problem because no one ever spends endowment money. Universities only spend the INTEREST made off the endowments. Case is in the "Billion Dollar Club" as far as university endowments go, so I don't see that being as big an issue. Maybe lack of other sources of funds, but not the endowment directly

soproudofkids

We actually were impressed with a lot of the Case campus (OK, maybe not with most of the dorms) when we didn't expect to be impressed by any of it.

So, we will have S at Case in fall and our other two will be at Wash U. EuiHyun have you been at Wash U lately?

They just built a brand-spanking new student union (Danforth Center) that opens this fall.
Washington University in St. Louis :: Danforth University Center

Wash U library is 45 year old building and was renovated in 2004, it's very modern and gorgeous inside.

http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/a...tion_pic15.jpg

They just built a new social sciences building.

They just built the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts/Kemper Art Museum

Kemper south facade

Record: Cutting-edge art museum to be dedicated Oct. 25

They are renovating all their dorms, so many are very modern inside. They are taking down one of their old buildings that has a dining hall in it and replacing it. I could go on. What might confuse people is that Wash U likes to build buildings that look like their old buildings on the outside but are brand new inside (with the exception of the library and Sam Fox of course).

EuiHyunLee

Its been about a year since I was around STL. And that was staying in one of their med school dorms.

I suppose that is what i meant earlier. The buildings are reconstructed to look and fit in with the old architecture, while updating the insides and still keeping some old buildings to boot. Except for that one concrete building...I forget what its called.

Not to sound defensive, but WUSTL also seems to have more funds for renovation in general than CWRU. DOn't quote me on that, but I'd be willing to bet on it.

When some one walks around Case, its a motley of old, new, and anywhere in between, with the architecture not really matching. Probably due to the merger.

But i am glad you were impressed by our patchwork campus. ANd dorms are dorms. Case's are much closer to what I've seen at larger state universities, than say, Chicago's brand new dorms, or WashU's new style housing.

xtra

I think it's the bugdet problem made by hundert. and how the university's admin. is a rolling-door one. hundert stayed for four years. the one be4 him stayed for 2 (if i remember correctly), excluding his temporary term. and who knows how long Dr. Synder is going to stay?

gprime,
I think that Western Reserve is the better campus than CIT. reserve was the first one with the hospital that was renowned. and then the admin. deleted all the other schools (E.g. library science and education) in the 1980's that they found weren't making money.

modern_muslimah

IA with Sachmoney. Case doesn't market itself well. I didn't hear about Case in hs. I didn't even know it existed. I mostly applied to schools on the EC. I applied to Case as a transfer. I only found out about Case when I started looking for colleges in the Cleveland area (my husband lives in Cleveland and I relocated to live with him). If it wasn't for that, Case would still be completely out of my radar. OTOH, I knew about WashU in my junior year of high school because they kept sending me a ton of mail encouraging me to apply. If Case did that, I bet they would get a lot more applicants and their admission rate would go down some.

ferryboat10

I don't think it has a single great program driving its name. Look at some of the top non-Ivy privates: Duke (med), Johns Hopkins (med), Chicago (econ), Washington (law), NYU (finance). Case should be in that kind of class, but hardly ever is mentioned.

CaseSpartan10

Case does have BME. Still, people looking into BME will always think of jhu/duke first.