<p>Upon further consideration I would substitute Syracuse for Tulane as the most overrated school. Not that is that highly regarded. Syracuse is very average at best but a lot of their grads act like it is something special. It is basically an expensive state school with an focus on sports. Take a look at their stats sometime.</p>
<p>So:<br>
No. 1 Syracuse (by a large margin)
No. 2 Tulane</p>
<p>Overrated: UPenn (ugh), Brown (double Ugh), Dartmouth</p>
<p>slightly overrated: every other ivy league</p>
<p>Underrated: most top 25 state schools</p>
<p>Now I knooow that everyone is going to say [insert my school’s name] is the most underrated school, but I’m serious, my school–Oklahoma State–is probably the most underrated school. </p>
<p>We are one of the biggest schools in the Big 12 with about 25,000 on our flagship campus in Stillwater and 33,000 system-wide, and we have a pretty decent out of state enrollment, mostly from Texas. The school is really good at picking up awards and recognition, not to mention large donations from its prominent alumni, many of whom now head major oil companies. The school’s alumni is probably the best in the entire Big 12. </p>
<p>I’ll post the wiki article for OSU, as well as a list of prominent alumni, which includes powerful Senators like Tom Coburn and Don Nickles, country artists like Garth Brooks, Hoyt Axton, and Keith Anderson, oilman T. Boone Pickens, several astronauts, and many others…We have a pretty sizable alumni base outside of Oklahoma, in fact Texas newspapers also have sections for OSU athletics, speaking of which, we have the fourth-most athletic championships in the NCAA, (behind only UCLA, USC, and Stanford, which makes us #1 outside the Pac 10).</p>
<p>[Oklahoma</a> State University?Stillwater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_State_University]Oklahoma”>Oklahoma State University–Stillwater - Wikipedia)
[List</a> of Oklahoma State University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oklahoma_State_University_people]List”>List of Oklahoma State University people - Wikipedia)
[List</a> of Oklahoma State University Greek alumni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notable_OSU_Greek_Alumni]List”>List of Oklahoma State University Greek alumni - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The reason I’d call us underrated: Every time I open up a book that ranks colleges or talks about them or whatever, it will have like 300+ colleges…and it won’t include Oklahoma State. In fact, this website doesn’t even include Oklahoma State. How f’ing sad is that?</p>
<p>oops double</p>
<p>UCD, UCI, UCSB are all overrated. I agree with Harry that Syracuse is also very overrated.</p>
<p>Overrated: Brown University</p>
<p>hehehe sure diontechristmas</p>
<p>Epic fail by you.</p>
<p>I honestly think Brown is underrated… so is Cornell…</p>
<p>Epic fail by diontechristmas : P who hails from Temple/BU.</p>
<p>I hail from Pennsylvania. I dont hail from a college.</p>
<p>overrated: upenn, duke, emory, vanderbilt
underrated: rice, cornell, brown</p>
<p>I have been perusing these forums for a while, and I decided to actually start posting in them.
People seem to cite the same few schools (WUSTL, Emory, UPenn, etc) as being overrated. In WUSTL’s case, they either offer no evidence for why the school is overrated, except that it “manipulates the rankings with admissions tactics.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the percent admitted each year only make up 1.5% of the ranking? And doesn’t Peer Assessment, a highly subjective (and objectionable) ranking system in which administrators in other schools rank each school account for 25%? I have heard that these surveys are not taken very seriously by the people filling them out, and why should they? I’m sure these people are very busy. Apparently, they often just tell their underlings to “fill it out like we have always filled it out.” I think that would make it difficult for a school like WUSTL to earn the respect it deserves, especially when you have the entrenched Ivy League trying to maintain its position at the top.</p>
<p>^ There is a separate study that shows that WUSTL is TIED WITH MIT in a USNews rankings without PA scores…</p>
<p>WUSTL TIED WITH MIT at #6 in the nation… Only PA scores can normalize everything and prevent WUSTL from gaming the system…or else Wustl would be tied with Harvard at #1 if it wasn’t for WUSTL’s abysmal PA score…</p>
<p>Rankings without PA score here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/220855-peer-assessment-free-rankings.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/220855-peer-assessment-free-rankings.html</a></p>
<p>WUSTL games rankings: <a href=“http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i38/38a01502.htm#washington[/url]”>http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i38/38a01502.htm#washington</a> (arguably the most respected major news service in the US academic world.)</p>
<p>Do you want to know how to WIN at the rankings like WUSTL?</p>
<p>Go here: <a href=“http://chronicle.com/media/flash/v53/i38/usnews/game/[/url]”>http://chronicle.com/media/flash/v53/i38/usnews/game/</a></p>
<p>Phead128, so are you saying that WashU building better facilities, attracting better faculty, having smaller classes, building nicer dorms and improving quality of life, attracting better students, providing students with academic help, and fundraising are bad things?</p>
<p>And providing faculty with comparatively higher pay in relation to cost of living is “gaming the system”?</p>
<p>I seem to have missed your point (unless you were being sarcastic). I did, however, catch that you have some deep-seeded animosity towards WashU.
I still believe that PA score only skews the rankings in favor of the entrenched group of schools that want to stay that way. I mean how dare a school like WUSTL rise in the rankings so quickly and provide quality education outside the Ivy League and few other elites?
Your Chronicle’s game seems to have a similar view of PA score as me, in that schools create a brochure to appeal to administrators at other schools to rank them higher, not that the administrators actually know why they’re ranking schools a certain way (I mean do you really think anyone has time to visit each school individually to see what that school is doing?)</p>
<p>Agreed with WellSaid. Admins usually pull out last year’s survey and just copy what was there with may be a little shuffling of schools here and there (Harvard #1 one year, Princeton #1 another). Some ivies like Dartmouth have lower acceptance rates than UChicago, even thought Chicago is higher ranked academically. Cache does influence PA.</p>
<p>“Syracuse is very average at best but a lot of their grads act like it is something special. It is basically an expensive state school with an focus on sports. Take a look at their stats sometime.”</p>
<p>Harry, you just got to kidding me. You and others need to STOP. Just STOP with the crude comments. If you look at Syracuse as a whole you would see the quality programs/level of education it provided for it’s students, the peer assessment rate compared to other Universitys, the grad rate and the job placement rate are all top notch. SU is more than a school with a great athletic atmosphere. I suggest you do your research before posting.</p>
<p>Honestly, this thread puts down too many schools. It should just be a “most underrated school” thread. Leave the schools that are worthy of extensive fame alone. Obviously they are considered “Overrated” for a reason.</p>
<p>Syracuse is definitely underrated if anything…</p>
<p>underrated: Occidental</p>
<p>Cuse is underrated if anything? LOL</p>
<p>Look at Cuse’s numbers. SAT scores that wouldn’t get you into Penn State.
Reading: 520-620
Math: 550-650
Academic Rating: 82!</p>