<p>Again, it really makes little difference among Top Tier colleges to rank them vertically; it’s better to group them horizonally since there are more similarities than differences among them.</p>
<p>In such a case, the top group would remains HYPSM. Next, Dartmouth, Amherst Williams, Columbia, CalTech, Brown, Duke, Penn, Swat – and probably Georgetown and UVa (due to degree of difficulty to get in). The rest can form their own group – but give a couple of them provisional membership such as NYU, Colby, Vanderbilt and Texas since they’d definitely be challenged for a place in the top 50 by BC, Washington & Lee and Carnegie-Mellon, for example. Again, all of this is IMHO.</p>
<p>^^^^ i agree- most rankings are ridiculous in the fact that there is such little, if any, difference in schools ranked 1-5 or 20-30, for example. i am ALL for ranking in groups.</p>
<p>collegeparent – I was pretty much with you up until “probably Georgetown and UVA.” I’d leave those two to the next, quite large group; otherwise various other places would have to be given the same consideration as Georgetown/UVA. Perhaps that next group could itself be divided into two – though disagreements would abound.</p>
<p>WesDad, I think I almost completely agree with you and even your critique of collegeparent with a couple exceptions. First, Harvard has to be #1 on this list, especially since I think it somewhat seeks to capture name recognition in addition to just pure academic reputation as I think that’s the only way to possibly justify having schools UMich & Notre Dame nearly so high. Secondly, while I would agree with the separation of the top six that Dartmouth should be the school that is #7 and continue in the order that collegeparent has. I do agree that Georgetown and UVA seem just about right where they are. I think W&L is definitely a top 50 school, but it’s just not that well known, although would think it would be more well known than Grinnell (and probably better academically too). I would even agree with your provisional four, although think Colby > Bates. I think NYU is about the same as BC, but is more well known and seems to have immense popularity right now for some reason; maybe because of the renaissance of American cities over the last decade.</p>
<p>According to the dean of admissions, Gary Ross, Colgate’s acceptance rate for medical school was about 60-80%, which is still a lot higher than the national average of 40%</p>
<p>Rachel, have you and your parents even been up to quaint Hamilton to visit Colgate’s campus? How would they say ‘no’ after that?! I say send in the deposit without telling them and string them along for a while :-)</p>
<p>And unless you’re getting a job in Tennessee after graduation or in the midwest, I would say Colgate has the career advantage over Vandy. A little lake effect snow never hurt anyone, either!</p>
<p>I had never heard of Brody rankings before and found them interesting b/c it combines universities with LACs, which is rarely done. I thought Colgate was in a solid position with other very reputable schools, though I am a bit surprised that Vassar often gets the nod above Colgate academically; personally I think it has more to do with the perceived image of the school. The two that surprised me were Swat and Carleton. Swat is so small and obscure IMHO and Carleton’s admit rate is even higher than Colgate’s, true?</p>
<p>The brody rankings are complete crap haha.
Swat’s better than colgate any day.
Vandy is a VERY good school and Chicago’s admit rate is higher than colgate’s but it’s still better and more prestigious…</p>
<p>I don’t think they’re perfect, but think it’s better than USN&WR, which has Penn at #4 and decides it’s acceptable to compare Dartmouth & CalTech, but not much more similar Dartmouth & Williams. Brody has Swat and UChicago both ~ 20 spots higher than Colgate, which is probably about right. Maybe, I just like them because (besides comparing NUs to LACs), it also compares many schools in the same relative sense that I’ve always thought about them, (i.e. I’ve always thought that Vanderbilt was overrated, but that UChicago is legit). I think Carleton may be a little underrated on the rankings because I bet if you looked over the last 15 years, Carelton has a lower acceptance rate than Colgate, higher SAT and in additionits its applicant pool is a fair amount more self-selecting. I would never want to go there over Colgate, though as it seems a lot less fun with a weird, quirky, bent to it that most would probably not enjoy.</p>
<p>I would agree that for some reason Wesleyan & Rice are abot 15-20 spots below where they should be and maybe should trade spots with NYU and UMich, but overall I think they’re pretty accurate.</p>
<p>nyu is prestigious among people who dont know much about colleges , largely because its in NYC… but at least at my school, anyone who knows about colleges thinks nyu is a joke (except for stern)</p>