<p>Which of these three schools has the best national academic reputation in terms of graduate school and the professional world?</p>
<p>I am undecided on a major.</p>
<p>For the purposes of this post, I only want to know about the academic reputations (nothing about tuition, social scene, location, etc. please).</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Professional schools (med/law) won’t care. MBA schools care more about work experience. Grad (PhD) schools care more about individual departments.</p>
<p>Thus, to answer your question, it depends…other than that, check out USNews’ Peer Assessment score.</p>
<p>You’ll get differing answers, but among these three it’d be splitting hairs.</p>
<p>Notre Dame then UVA.</p>
<p>par72, What is it about Boston College that you don’t like? You always seem to refrain from mentioning the school in ANY of your posts. Is BC too much competition for your beloved Holy Cross? For me, and probably others, this gives the impression that you are jealous. If in fact you are involved in an admissions capacity at Holy Cross then, in addition to being jealous, I would also accuse you of being unprofessional. I would love to have you respond to my questions/accusations.</p>
<p>I’d probably say Notre Dame, UVA, BC, but they’re all so close its really splitting hairs. Look more at which you like more or certain departments, because all are of the same general overall level.</p>
<p>Virginia 1 Notre Dame 1 BC 2</p>
<p>I think Notre Dame has the most national recognition. UVa would be next, and then BC.</p>
<p>I’d say UVa</p>
<p>ND then UVA close behind with a bit of a gap before BC.</p>
<p>Sacchi it depends are we talking sports or academics?</p>
<p>US News Peer Assessment Scores</p>
<p>4.3 U VIRGINIA
3.8 Notre Dame
3.5 Boston College</p>
<p>It may just be a regional thing, as I grew up in the mid-west, although I’ve lived in NJ for most of my adult life.</p>
<p>I had heard of Notre Dame basically my whole life, as a top school that the best students would aspire to go to, and whose alumni were really given a lot of respect (growing up in the midwest). I didn’t know that UVa was considered one of the very top public U’s until much later (while living in NJ). I didn’t know anything at all about BC until college hunting for my S began.</p>
<p>My perception is the Notre Dame has more of a NATIONAL reputation, more known outside of its region than UVa is. However, we’re really splitting hairs. They are both well-known, well-regarded schools. BC is certainly less known than either of the others, although I’ve also heard fine things about it.</p>
<p>Personally, I never knew that the University of Virginia was a top school until I started my college search. It undeniably is, yet I don’t think it’s as well known for it as the University of Notre Dame. Saying that Notre Dame is just known for football is like saying Duke is just known for basketball; it simply isn’t true. I’ve heard a lot of good things about BC, but mostly from alumni/Catholics. Most states just have a standard “U of ______” that people just equate with the schools of other states, so UVa doesn’t get as much recognition as it otherwise would.</p>
<p>I would say that Notre Dame has the best national academic reputation of the three. However, Virginia may have the best reputation in academia, given the oft-held belief that a religious school cannot adequately teach the sciences (yet even the most non-religious schools still teach heliocentrism and the Big Bang).</p>
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<p>I would concur if you deleted the word academic.</p>
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<p>Absolutely. And that has been true since before USNews even published its first rankings. UVa had been considered #3 public research Uni by academia for decades but has moved up to #2 in the past few years.</p>
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<p>I don’t think so. It has nothing to do with the religious schools per se, it has almost all to do with research at the grad level. Religious colleges tend to be more undergrad-focused, but also offer professional undergrad programs, which are not “true” liberal arts according to academe; no bonus points in academic reputation for undergrad biz and nursing, for example. (While I might concur that the religious schools get short shrift in the halls of academe, it is just because academe is generally secular, period. )</p>
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I was speaking of academic reputation among the general population. I lived in Florida, where most people just thought that UVa was the equivalent of UF, and in New Jersey, where UVa was thought of as the equivalent of Rutgers by most. There were those who knew its academic reputation, but not many. However, Notre Dame was a bigger deal academically in both. Perhaps I’m wrong and this is just an anomaly regulated merely to Florida and New Jersey, but it seems to me that Notre Dame has a better reputation, unless you’re talking about in the state of Virginia, or amongst academicians.</p>
<p>I understand, Billy. But the fact is that the general population knows more about Penn State than Penn. Why do you think that is?</p>
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That’s not really comparable. First, the University of Notre Dame is not less selective or less academically rigorous than the University of Virginia. Further, I do not think that the general population holds the view that Penn State is superior to Penn. A lot of people might not know the difference, but a lot of people also do. For those who think both are state universities, they only “know more” about one because their general assumption was correct about one and not the other. But again, that’s a completely different comparison.</p>
<p>And all of this is just comparing two reputations. Reputation has little effect on the quality of undergraduate education, and thus shouldn’t weigh too heavily in the decision process.</p>
<p>sry, billy, I posted nothing about selectivity nor private vs. public. My point was that Penn is not even known to the “general” population, once you leave the NE, so there is no way that they can even opine on its academic reputation. Penn State, the general population, has heard of (thanks to JoPa). :)</p>
<p>Nationally, ND easily has a top-of-mind awareness over the others since a ~fifth of the US is Catholic. Even if they don’t follow D1 sports, they would have heard of ND across the land. But top-of-mind awareness and consideration as the “best Catholic college” does not necessarily translate into “academic reputation” of national Unis.</p>
<p>I agree with the point in your last par.</p>
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I’m not actually trying to disprove this, but who is JoPa? A sports figure, I take it?</p>