<p>Many people on cc seem to place HYP (and at times S and M/C) on a tier of their own. Naturally, their endowments are larger (especially H and Y) and their student bodies are slightly stronger. Nonetheless, is there a large difference in the education you’d receive in these schools versus other top schools such as Columbia, Penn CAS, Duke etc? That’s the impression many seem to give off here on CC.</p>
<p>There is no large difference at all. In fact, some would argue that, depending on the student, all these universities are eclipsed in education quality by elite LACs. Where HYP distinguish themselves (and even this is quite overblown on CC) is in their networking opportunities.</p>
<p>By the way, as a quick, irrelevant, and yet (given my bias) obligatory response your parenthetical notation that H and Y have rather large endowments, I’d like to point out that P has by far the highest per-student endowment of its peer schools. :)</p>
<p>Yes that was always how I had seen it before I had come on CC. Also, nice to know that about P!</p>
<p>“There is no large difference at all.”</p>
<p>Educationally: probably not. Financial aid wise: yes, there can be a huge difference. The total cost for my daughter’s tuition, room and board at H is less than the cost of our flagship state school.</p>