Jeydomz

Vastly Overrated: Penn, WUSTL
Slightly Overrated: CalTech
Slightly Underrated: Cornell, Brown, Tufts, Dartmouth, Columbia
Vastly Underrated: Georgetown, Berkeley, UC Davis

Clendenenator

^^People SHOULD have the right to talk up their own school. Or even talking up other schools, for that matter, if they have a good reason to back up their claim. But saying that a school that you have no connection to is "overrated" is both rude and arbitrary.

applejack

^^
That's true.

In my PERSONAL experience (having only attended two schools), I found Harvard to be somewhat overrated and Cornell to be somewhat underrated (probably deserves to be solidly in 6-10).

I don't know where I would personally rank Harvard. It's so divinely ordained, it's hard for anyone to imagine it anywhere outside the top three. I was just quite let down based on my personal experience. Hopefully mine was an isolated circumstance.

ahsie

I'm not saying that just because you have connections, you can't mention a comment, but giving a pure opinion is also not the best way to go with things because many people may have different thoughts. Going by the mind itself is arbitrary as what you may think is good may be bad for another. For example, I absolutely HATE my high school (total truth), but some people just really love it. Just because some people believe it's good, it doesn't mean it applies for me. Therefore, I believe we can't use opinions as a way of saying something is overrated OR underrated. Instead, I think it's best to leave it to the rank compliers (who are suppose do this as part of their living) and see if there is a general consensus (which there generally is by rank compliers).

Otherwise, it's like choosing emotions over logic. It's like saying I believe A on question #15 is correct and therefore it MUST be correct. On the other hand, a person, who knows his stuff (like the rank compliers) and agrees with the rest of the pros, is more likely to give a logical answer rather than believing blind faith or emotions.

i'm_a_dreamer

This is my personal opinion! Don't get mad at me!

Overrated: HARVARD (call me crazy, but it's true!!)

Underrated: Columbia and Cornell, JHU and LACs

evil_asian_dictator

Overrated: Caltech and Princeton
Little Overrated: Penn and Chicago
Little Underrated: Michigan and Dartmouth
Underrated: Vanderbilt and Georgetown

Georgetown should be in the top 10. Before coming on this site, I thought it was slightly less presigious than Harvard LOL.

Mondo

Overrated:Brown

bclintonk

Overrated universities:
1. WUSTL
2. Rice
3. Emory
4. Vanderbilt
5. Notre Dame

Underrated universities:
1. Cal-Berkeley
2. Michigan
3. UNC-Chapel Hill
4. Georgia Tech
5. Purdue

Overrated LACS:
1. Middlebury
2. Colgate
3. Hamilton
4. CMC
5. Colby

Underrated LACs:
1. Grinnell
2. Smith
3. Bryn Mawr
4. Macalester
5. Reed

Generally, the leading public "flagship" universities and Midwestern schools (with notable exceptions like WUSTL & Notre Dame) are underrated due to private-over-public and geographic biases among those doing the rating.

danas

bias yourself, bclintonk...
Your overrated LACs all have conservative, preppy reps.
Your underrated LACs are liberal darlings.
Your overrated universities have student bodies much like your disliked LACs.
Guess you aren't making your determination based upon some weird academic quality issue.

hawkette

bclintonk,
To my knowledge, the only ones who are even given a chance to rank colleges are those in the Ivory Tower and I doubt that anyone would agree that the Midwestern publics are underrated by folks in this cloistered world.

I think what you are really saying is that measurement factors other than Peer Assessment are overrated, eg, student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, etc.

rjkofnovi

I think what you are really saying is that measurement factors other than Peer Assessment are overrated, eg, student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, etc.


Now you're catching on hawkette. :-)

hawkette

I didn't say I agree.

IMO, it's pretty clear that in the cosseted world of academia, the things that are valued (read: research priorities) often aren't aligned with the best interests of the undergraduate student (read: teaching focus in manageable class sizes of strong students with sizable resources to support that learning).

I also think that the for-profit world sees it like I do.

kyledavid80

Why do these threads continue to live? Sigh... We all disagree. There's no convincing others of your viewpoint. The end.

Optisrule

overrated: any ivy school
underrated: Northeastern University for sure.

arcadia

How's this?

Underrated: The school you attend.

Overrated: Any school that rejected you.