Let's Play the College Ranking Game (Plus/Minus)

ptontiger16 · August 16, 2012, 1:22pm

Who you’re working for has nothing to do with it. I was referring to UPenn as the “forgotten Ivy” - AS PERCEIVED by the people. Now, are average joes more representative of this set or are CEOs?

lagunal · August 16, 2012, 1:35pm

If you are trying to get a job in the business world, Wharton looks great on a resume. Period.

ptontiger16 · August 16, 2012, 1:42pm

Yeah, but what about the other 81% (<a href=“http://www.upenn.edu/about/facts.php[/url]”>http://www.upenn.edu/about/facts.php</a>) of the Penn class that isn’t a Wharton business major? Is Penn gonna look better on a resume vs Harvard for the humanities? Or Princeton for engineering? Penn’s great for business, I’ll acknowledge that, but it’s not as well known (hence “forgotten”) as most of the other Ivies.

ptontiger16 · August 16, 2012, 1:53pm

1.
2.
3.
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

lagunal · August 16, 2012, 2:25pm

@PrincetonTiger:

I get that you want people to vote for Princeton over Penn because you think it is a ‘better’ school.

Seriously, Princeton should be happy to be Top Three, maybe even a tie for second. Look where Harvard ended up! If you really want to win, then go to the Princeton board and do a last minute recruitment. You should be happy that you single-handedly brought Princeton and kept Princeton in the Top Five. Penn has more people on this board supporting it. It’s partially a numbers game.

But PLEASE never say that Princeton is known for its engineering program. Because it is not. And that would be a slap in the face to the REAL engineering schools.

On the positive side Princeton is known for being a strong academic environment for undergrads and a feeder school to the top professional schools. But is ALSO known as a Grade-deflation school. And there is also a negative side to the eating clubs. So it is not all positive.

ptontiger16 · August 16, 2012, 2:38pm

There were several other people voting for Princeton, but they seem to have disappeared over the past few days. There’s no need to recruit, it’s all just a game. Princeton’s chemical engineering program (the one I’m in) is a well known. I never said Princeton’s engineering program is well known, just that perhaps it is better known than Penn’s engineering program because Penn is known mostly for its Wharton School. UPenn’s school of engineering is the second smallest of its four undergraduate schools. Nonetheless, perhaps it is better to use this example. How would UPenn look on a resume compared to Princeton’s Woody Woo? You say that’s not a fair comparison because UPenn has no analog to that. Well, Princeton has no counterpart to Wharton.

Also, grade deflation is not necessarily a negative side. All top graduate schools understand this and account for it. Grade deflation only impacted humanities classes anyway, where half of the students were receiving A’s. In science and engineering classes, the deflating curve had already existed.

Finally, Princeton alumni have the highest rates of giving back among ANY school. To me, that’s a great indicator of how much they liked their experience at Princeton, compared to alumni of other universities.

lagunal · August 16, 2012, 2:55pm

I don’t know if Medical schools overlook too much grade deflation. That is a concern with all pre-med students. Is it better to get a 4.0 at a less ranked school or a 3.4 at a Princeton or Johns Hopkins? I would love to read any stats on that. I only see charts with MCAT Scores and GPAs and the higher both numbers, the higher the admit rate.

Engineering grad schools will take a 3.0 because THEY KNOW how extremely competitive engineering is at the top ranked schools.

btw, Penn had more votes on both sides. For some reason, in this sort of game, there are people who don’t like to see a school get too far ahead of the pack or it gets taken down hard. Berkeley comes to mind. And at one point, Penn was up to 22 before people decided to bring it back to reality. haha.

OHMighty · August 16, 2012, 3:03pm

Honestly, Columbia’s been the quiet conservator in this game. Until recently - when we hit the top 10 -Columbia was not even touched by anyone besides myself. While most people support more ostentatious - probably not the best word, but the only I could think of - colleges, Columbia’s been silently chugging along. Why? No one seems to have much against it. I’ll be heading there shortly, and personally, I love the school because of its personality, being in the midst of New York and all.

Oh and its International Relations Program is top notch. :D

ptontiger16 · August 16, 2012, 3:04pm

There is a chart showing medical school admission rates from Princeton over the years from before grade deflation and after it. I can no longer find this chart but I’m sure if you want to dig around the Princeton Pre-Health Professions webpage, you can find it. The statistics show that the admissions rate to medical school for Princeton graduates did NOT change after imposition of the grade deflation policy. There may have been some normal fluctuation between the years, but no change was noted. Your charts show only GPA and MCAT scores vs. admission rate but those aren’t specifically tailored for each school. I, like you, would like to see such a chart for Princeton. Either way, Princeton is still a top feeder school to top medical schools. Here is the article.
[Admins:</a> Data suggest law, medical school admissions unaffected by deflation - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/11/17/24452/]Admins:”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/11/17/24452/)

karatekid666 · August 16, 2012, 3:32pm

WOOOO! Jhu (hopeful) represent!

lagunal · August 16, 2012, 3:45pm

@Pt.
I read the article about Princeton’s grade deflation. And then I read the COMMENTs!

Did YOU read the 30+ comments? Scary.

ptontiger16 · August 16, 2012, 3:58pm

The comments are nothing more than opinionated students. There are obviously two schools of thought: 1) grade deflation hurts Princeton students 2) grade deflation is negligible among students.

But as I said, grade deflation changed nothing for science/engineering students. Those classes gave out fewer than 30% A’s anyway. Think about it logically. The grade deflation policy only affected the humanities classes. So it only leveled the playing field between humanities majors and STEM majors, accounting for the difficulty of the major. If what you say about grade deflation is true, then engineers from any school (since engineering grades are usually deflated anyway) shouldn’t be able to get into medical school. But they do.

The only ones groaning about grade deflation are the humanities students who chose “easy” majors to inflate their own GPA for medical school. I am disgusted by this practice because it puts those of us who are following a passion at a disadvantage. Now, I’m not referring to those who truly love the humanities - I’m referring to those who “game” the system for inflated grades.

retrohippo · August 16, 2012, 5:04pm

1.
2.
3.
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

OHMighty · August 16, 2012, 6:45pm

1.
2.
3.
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

TheKongo · August 16, 2012, 6:48pm

1.
2.
3.
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

Aureliano · August 16, 2012, 6:51pm

1.
2.
3.
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

MutaRiSC · August 16, 2012, 7:12pm

1.
2.
3. Princeton University
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

collegeluva101 · August 16, 2012, 8:47pm

1.
2.
3. Princeton University
4. Johns Hopkins University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. Northwestern University
7. University of Michigan
8. Duke University
9. Cornell University
10. Brown University
11. Harvard University
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
13. University of Oxford
15. The University of Tokyo
15. University of Toronto
17. University of Melbourne
17. University College London
19. Yale University
20. King’s College London
21. University of Manchester
22. University of Chicago
23. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
24. Imperial College London
25. University of Cambridge
26. Kyoto University
27. University of California - Berkeley
28. National University of Singapore
29.

OHMighty · August 16, 2012, 9:12pm

TO THE NEXT POSTER:

Look at yourself. Did you do something with your hair? Looks nice
Anyway, I want you to think long and hard about your decision. You could end the game (And terminate all the fun, what a grinch) or you can perpetuate it. Wouldn’t you like that? Take a look at your self in the mirror. Look long and hard. Keep looking. Take as long as you need. Savor the moment when you end this game. Think long and hard, next poster. Do you really want to kill Columbia? Do you?

dfree124 · August 16, 2012, 9:16pm

^ 10/10

When the clock strikes twelve I will +Penn and -Columbia, if the game is still going that is. Columbia days (minutes?) are numbered.

Let's Play the College Ranking Game (Plus/Minus)

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