<p>Jipperag, Imperial and LSE are excellent but highly specialised. One could argue that this is why they are excellent and ranked very highly. The OP mentioned wanting to major in subjects these universities specialise in, so perhaps this should be discussed in a new thread, but v high achieving students interested in say, archaeology, history or english lit, would naturally be looking to attend the likes of Durham or UCL. Having lived in the UL my entire life, these unis are SERIOUS. I have a strong arts/humanities bent, of course. ;-)</p>
<p>Missypie is correct. SMU has the feel that the OP is striving for, without the selectivity. People in Texas seem to think it’s quite prestigious.</p>
<p>artgirl19, if you are strongly into arts and the like, I admit that LSE/Imperial will not make you happy. I might have focused too much on the social sciences and politics, subjects in which LSE is in the top league of the world together with Harvard, Yale etc.
As you said, Europeans get the “liberal arts education” of 1st year US college already in high school.</p>
<p>Jipperag, I have to say I finally agree. Arts/humanities subjects are regarded as ‘classic’ subjects to pursue at degree level, maybe because of the history of say, literature and erm, history in the UK and Europe in general. Econ and poli sci are v important at a more international level, especially in recent years so perhaps we’re talking at cross purposes. This stemmed from seeing posts on cc talking about the universities I’ve mentioned as ‘up and coming’. They are genuinely not regarded as such in the UK. London is a highly international city too, whereas places like Durham are tiny university cities full of academics + pretty enclosed, rather than places ripe with networking opportunities.</p>
<p>jipperag, got it right on the last page there is some …legendary vibe coming from Oxbridge…Like wow…This is the original English speaking University. Tradition and being vital to the history of man (I mean where would be be without the scientific method) make Oxbridge one of my favorites…</p>
<p>Yes it kinda is a Hogwarts like feel…sadly without magic.</p>
<p>You say SMU is prestigious, but I have never heard of it…until today
Also they are dedicating a library to GW Bush, huge turnoff. </p>
<p>Anyways, With the exception of Oxbridge, Universities in the US are still preferred for financial reasons…But I will look into some Scottish universities as well.,</p>
<p>Generally speaking, Chicago is a good fit. But if by selectivity, you mean you don’t have top end stats, it actually won’t be much or any easier to get into Chicago than it would be any other top school. Chicago’s admissions stats are usually very similar to the elite schools you listed. UofC just has fewer applications (generally less than half of HYPS) and lower yield. So you have better odds of being accepted if you have the stats, but you’re not likely to get in if you don’t have them. </p>
<p>As to SMU, those comments make no sense. SMU isn’t considered a particularly prestigious school even in Dallas. Pretty much on par with the 4 other major Texas schools (UT, A&M, Baylor and TCU).</p>
<p>My rankings of Texas schools in terms of prestige would be…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Rice, UT, A&M</p></li>
<li><p>SMU, Baylor, TCU and Trinity</p></li>
<li><p>Southwestern, UTD, Tech and probably one or two more schools</p></li>
</ul>
<p>1990Dad: Have you ever lived, or better yet, even visited Texas? I ask because your opinions of Texas schools seems rather skewed.</p>
<p>First, to say SMU isn’t prestigious in Dallas is just plain ignorant. In Dallas, SMU is just a notch below the big three (Rice, UT and A&M) in most areas, and considered equal for business. Basically, if you want to be on the fast track towards becoming a successful businessman in Dallas, SMU Cox is the place to attend. I think it’s safe to say that a good percentage of Dallas’ most successful businessmen are SMU graduates.</p>
<p>Second, I don’t know anyone who considers TCU to be one of Texas’ major schools. And most people I know wouldn’t consider Baylor to be one of Texas’ major schools. </p>
<p>Third, how can you attempt to name Texas’ major schools and completely forget about Rice? Wow. You probably shouldn’t make comments about Texas schools if you have no clue what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>You realize other than Rice…no one really considers any of those schools to be fairly prestigious outside of Texas. Not saying their bad, but in the sense of national recognition.</p>
<p>Rice is prestigious especially in sciences for its rather small size.
UT Austin is also rather well known, and they are always highly ranked.
Then again, They have 36k people and the one of the best football teams.
You’d be surprised to see how a football team can bring Prestige(points to BC)</p>
<p>“Oxford and Cambridge have endowments far below that of comparable American colleges, and they DO NOT offer undergraduate research. So for all intents and purposes, OP, if you want research, these might not be the places for you.”</p>
<p>I recently read that Oxford and Cambridge have endowments that would rank them in the middle of the Ivy League. So they’re a long way from Harvard, but that’s true for most universities.</p>
<p>For those unfamiliar with Texas colleges, read # 68 again. crs nails it. </p>
<p>As for prestige outside of Texas, I don’t think any, including Rice, have great prestige and name recognition on a national basis. Rice, UT, and A&M are dominated by Texans and most folks stay home when done with their undergraduate studies. Probably most important, I don’t think many folks in Texas are losing a lot of sleep at their relative lack of national acclaim. Texans have got a pretty good thing going, academically and economically, and they’d just as soon keep it for themselves. :)</p>
<p>“You realize other than Rice…no one really considers any of those schools to be fairly prestigious outside of Texas. Not saying their bad, but in the sense of national recognition.”</p>
<p>True, but so what? Texans don’t care. They’re not salivating over the Ivies and associated schools the way you are. A UT or an SMU degree might well be a better bargain than a Duke or Princeton degree for someone who wishes to stay in Dallas. Which gets back to … prestige is regional.</p>
<p>pizzagirl you crack me up. You go on a thread just to try and insult me, with no knowledge of the topic. Did you read the thread? It says “Looking for Prestigious feel without selectivity.” Thus we are talking about prestige. Got a problem with that then don’t read it. Thus everything I said was right, Rice is the only university in Texas with the degree of national prestige he is seeking…prestige is not as regional as you make it out to be. HYPS are prestigious anywhere, so are the other Ivies and Duke and some other schools. The schools that are not quite to that level may be regional and that just further demonstrates the different tiers of prestige.</p>
<p>I agree with both Pizzagirl and Bescraze.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl is right, Prestige is regional in many cases. If you don’t plan on moving out of Texas, then UT Austin is probably higher ranked then Duke.</p>
<p>But if you want to travel the world, Duke is more prestigious…Partially because Duke is Duke, they’re on TV more than Leave it to Beaver reruns…Someone better get this…</p>
<p>To be honest it seems the only ppl who care about Rice are ppl who are not from Texas, bc in Texas it is UT then A&M. But UT is alot better than Rice overall, by that I mean the true measure of a university is not their undergrad but their grad programs. Few if any of Rice’s graduate schools are tops, whereas Texas has several good ones (business, law, medicine, engineering).<br>
Also ppl in other states should realize Texas is different i.e. we don’t care about other states and few ppl from Texas actually want to leave Texas. Case in point: My teacher’s son the valdictorian went to UPenn and I thought he was going to Penn State, I had did not know that Dartmouth was an Ivy League school, and several ppl probably don’t even know about the university of Chicago. This may just be in Texas, but the whole national prestige thing is really not what Texans care about.</p>
<p>Oh and SMU is NOT prestigious outside of Dallas. My cousin went there and got a degree in electrical engineering.</p>
<p>Go to Wake Forest. It’s like SMU, but exponentially better. Trust me, I live in Dallas, and prestige for SMU is limited only locally. UT has more name recognition than UT. Prestige seems to be limited to how many are accepted that apply, nowadays.</p>
<p>Edit: UT has more name recognition than SMU.</p>
<p>I don’t know if Wake Forest is considered most prestigious regionally, but nationally it’s not very recognizable. We know of it in the south, but even here Wake Forest isn’t considered particularly ‘prestigious’…well, at least where I live.</p>
<p>I’ve just realized that you can’t get away from Duke. I bet that I could search for threads regarding universities in China and Duke will pop up. Enough already.</p>