<p>SSS: We’ll have to agree to disagree. My perspective is formed from the fact that I’m an HYP alumnus. Having “been to the dance” I can tell you that while we can kid about P>Columbia or H>Penn or MIT>Yale or Stanford>Brown – we all know it’s worthless banter.</p>
<p>From the first moment we stepped onto our campuses, we knew there were people extremely more qualified/brilliant/well travelled/well-connected than us. And people felt the same about some feature about me, as well. Humility is a lesson that comes fast and furious. Adapt or perish.</p>
<p>So when we see these popular rankings, we know they are fluff. My graduating year, my college was USNWR #1. Big whoop. </p>
<p>To every Ivy and top school alum I’ve ever encountered, we know the rankings are meaningless. Why? Because in the real world, we’ve had co-workers, bosses, nurses, child-care professionals, doctors who took care of our elderly parents, friends, lovers, neighbors – who were not degreed from this arbitrary list of a dozen US colleges – but we valued them, respected them, were mentored by them and wanted to be like them immensely.</p>
<p>Sure we chanted “Safety School!” at the Cornell football game. But we knew it was in jest and it was as likely that the hiring manager across the interview table was Cornell alumna as much as she might have been a Princeton Tiger.</p>
<p>I stand by my assertion: for those of us who have “been there, done that”, we see these rankings and polls as meaningless at best and inimical at worst b/c it falsely teaches the outside that the qualities of the top schools can be measured and ranked in a linear fashion. Thus, the ridiculous pronouncements by 16 year olds who say they can’t apply to Cornell and must apply to Brown for “obvious” reasons. Pfft…</p>