<p>Just a question here. I will apply to northwestern and UChicago early in the fall. What exactly is so bad about northwestern? I know that UChicago is stronger academically and has truly incredible programs. But are you guys just saying that northwestern is overrated because of what people say about it? From what I have read and heard, they are both incredible although UC slightly edges it out</p>
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<p>I just don’t think that Northwestern is worth the cost if you are an Illinois resident.</p>
<p>I went to high school with a few people that went to NU, and their academic profile in high school was nearly identical to mine (top 1%, 30 ACT). Since they were both engineers, I was amazed that they chose the much more expensive NU over UIUC.</p>
<p>I tried to explain to them that the admissions standards at UIUC for engineering are comparable to NU, but they wouldn’t even listen.</p>
<p>California:</p>
<p>Overrated: USC ( tuition is over priced and very few merit-aids compared to other private schools)
Overrated: The public universities ( tuition keeps going up and not enough classes)</p>
<p>Underrated: Caltech; Chapman</p>
<p>Well, didn’t we revive a lil ole’ thread from the dead.</p>
<p>Anyway, here’s my thoughts for North Carolina</p>
<p>Underrated: Appalachian State - biased though I may be, there are some awesome programs at App, especially in business and education. Boone really is an awesome college town experience as well.</p>
<p>East Carolina University - These guys getting a really bad rap for being a party school. While it certainly IS a party school, a lot of people don’t realize that it’s a doctoral research institute with a medical school and a great musical theatre program.</p>
<p>NC State - A lot of people think this just the place you go if you didn’t get into Chapel Hill. NC State stands on its own as a great school in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to engineering. </p>
<p>Almost (I’ll get to that) every UNC and public school - A lot of people, especially people from out of state, think that “UNC” = UNC Chapel Hill. People ignore awesome things like the fact that we have a public LAC, UNC-Asheville, that there’s a rising filmmaking program at UNC-Wilmington, or that UNC-Pembroke is very unique in being a Native American-serving institute. </p>
<p>Overrated: Wake Forest - There’s no denying the academics are excellent, but being a Winston-Salem resident, I know a LOT of Wake students. And a lot of them are unsatisfied with the city they’re in, the fact that greek life dominates the social scene, campus overcrowding, and a WHOLE lot of other issues. Also, these are THE most stressed out college students I’ve ever met. </p>
<p>UNC-Charlotte - Okay, nobody’s going to go around saying that UNCC is the beacon of knowledge in a dark world, but I see a lot of people overestimating this school because it has a pretty campus and a big student body. I hear they have good advanced programs, but the undergraduate program is very non-selective, class sizes are large, and retention and graduation rates are both rather low. Charlotte is a good city, but depending on traffic it actually takes 20-30 minutes to get to downtown Charlotte, the University stands way on the outskirts of the city. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a less selective public university, but I’ve seen people turn down better schools because they didn’t actually look much into it. </p>
<p>Guilford College - Contrary to the opinion of people who visit, Guilford is NOT the be-all, end-all of academia just because they’re run by a bunch of really nice Quakers. It’s a less-selective, extremely expensive LAC with very little notability. And I swear between this school and places like Montreat, Mars Hill, and Brevard, we have the market CORNERED on those.</p>
<p>I have deep roots in 2 states.</p>
<p>Michigan: Overrated: U of M, Oakland, and MSU
Underrated: Kalamazoo College
Since this has gotten a bit of controversial feedback, Michigan’s big schools (U of M and MSU) get FAR more attention than a small LAC type institution. Because I’m not personally attracted to the fit of a large school for me, I thought I had to go out of state. Now I might end up at Kalamazoo, the best college in MI for me. U of M and MSU attract different types of students and are both good schools; however that doesn’t mean they aren’t over rated. In my suburbia MI, Kalamazoo is overlooked despite its grad school results & job programs have higher stats than any other school in MI. It depends on fit and what you want out of college.</p>
<p>Ohio: Overrated: OSU
Underrated: Kenyon & Hiram</p>
<p>Massachusetts
Over: BC, BU, Harvard, NU
Under: Babson, UMass Amherst, Amherst, Smith, and, most of all… OLIN- a lot of people I know majoring in engineering have never even heard of it and I live 3 towns away.</p>
<p>Michigan </p>
<p>Underrated: Grand Valley, Wayne State and Michigan Tech</p>
<p>Overrated: Michigan State</p>
<p>Massachusetts:</p>
<p>OVERrated = Boston College
UNDERrated = Northeastern</p>
<p>New York</p>
<p>O’errated:</p>
<p>SUNY Binghamton - Not sure why anyone would label this generic state school a “public Ivy”. They are nowhere near the great state schools and will likely never be.</p>
<p>New York University - Extremely expensive and uncompromising in their stinginess, a few top-notch departments (Mathematics, Anthropology, Film, Music) carry the entire “brand”.</p>
<p>Pace - Not that it’s highly rated, but I find it perplexing why anyone would choose this mediocre and somewhat expensive school over any of the better public options.</p>
<p>Barnard - Not saying that it’s a bad school, but it lives overshadowed by Columbia due to location and by Vassar in terms of prestige. Seems to be a school losing its identity.</p>
<p>Hofstra - Maybe their new school of Medicine will change its image, but for now it’s a school for well-to-do Long Island kids who love their pot.</p>
<p>Underrated:</p>
<p>City College of New York - Joint holder for most Nobel laurates among its graduates, amazing academics can be found in any department with a dash of proactiveness.</p>
<p>Queens College - Beautiful location and strong academics, with possibly the most diverse student body in the nation.</p>
<p>Hamilton College - Almost noone among the public at large has even heard of this school, a top-ranked liberal arts school with great name recognition for grad school.</p>
<p>Rensselear Polytechnic Institute - Strong academics in engineering and the hard sciences, often overlooked due to being located in a sh1thole.</p>
<p>
I overlooked it because the ungodly amount of mail and e-mails they sent me made me assume they were another tiny easy to get into school. Now that I know that isn’t the case, I have no idea why they contacted me because I clearly indicated I want to major in Political Science and they only have a minor.</p>
<p>Over - claremonts; chapman if you are comparing it to stanford,USC, cal etc</p>
<p>Under - UCI</p>
<p>SC
Over:Clemson, USC(unless studying international business)
Under: Furman</p>
<p>NC
Over: UNC(Especially OOS), Elon
Under: Wake Forest, Davidson</p>
<p>all schools are over rated. You are just too young to realize that.</p>
<p>Over: university of Oklahoma, everybody goes there</p>
<p>Under: University of Tulsa- a great school, does NMS scholarship, and boasts one of the best petroleum engineer programs in the country</p>
<p>Over: UVa
Under: Tech, W&M</p>
<p>Michigan
Underrated - Wayne State.
Many people assume it’s a terrible university because of it’s location (right in the center of Detroit), but it’s actually a very nice school with an exceptional honors college. It has a great med school, awesome dorms, and not a half bad campus (though it does still have a commuter feel because of the large student body, which can take away from the school spirit aspect.)</p>
<p>Overrated - Central Michigan
It’s often seen as the 2nd tier in Michigan. A step down from UM and MSU but still better than Kalamazoo and MTech, which is so wrong it’s silly. CMU is a party school through and through with a mediocre location, sub par academics, and a below average (for directional universities) student body. It’s basically the college you go to if you don’t really care why you’re going to college, only that you get a degree because it’ll “magically open doors”.</p>
<p>Not too many over rates under rated schools in NC from what I know, but from the little the I DO know, these are my opinions</p>
<p>Overrated- Duke, great school but I don’t understand why it needs to be 48k a year… It’s not really over rated, but it’s over priced I think.</p>
<p>Underrated- Wake Forrest . Okay so I live in south Charlotte and there’s a lot of pride between UNC and duke, like, ask almost anyone, look at almost any car and youll either see UNC or duke, or possibly ‘duke is puke’ a common phrase here. Maybe it’s because of the sports teams, but because of this, these are pretty much the two schools people want to go to. No one even considers wake or talks about it. It’s a pretty great school from what I hear.</p>
<p>Overrated: Miami University (of Ohio) It’s a great school… if you like being in a completely homogeneous white environment with a ludicrously dominant party scene and second-rate academics. OSU is also over-rated within the state, but nationally I think it’s about right. It’s a fine school, don’t get me wrong - it’s just that people here think it is the holy grail of higher education.</p>
<p>Underrated: Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan (and to a lesser degree Denison, as it has more recognition). Great colleges, great academics, great people. Oberlin and Kenyon are also awesome, but have a lot more respect (so I wouldn’t call them underrated).</p>
<p>Edit: also Wittenberg is underrated. Dayton is underrated, at least for some of its programs.</p>
<p>I’ll echo pretty much ever California poster so far in the overrated category.</p>
<p>Overrated: USC
Underrated: Claremont Colleges (Harvey Mudd lives in the shadow of Caltech, but it really shouldn’t), Santa Clara University, Pepperdine University</p>
<p>I don’t know about an over rated school in my state, but I think Washington and Lee is underrated. Not only is it a top LAC, but it has some science programs and engineering. Maybe it’s not so much underrated as it is lesser know among students.</p>