Penn vs Georgetown Social Experience

PennCAS2014
Tue, 28 Nov 2017 03:49:25 +0000

@Cue7 now you’re starting to get my point! I don’t deny that HYPSM (an acronym literally only used here so I can’t explain to you how a bunch of 16 year olds decided they liked those 5 schools better than poor little Caltech and wee little Chicago) have more name recognition. Of course they do! But I’m saying that the “certain rigid hierarchy of schools” IS INDEED EXHAUSTING! And the vague comments about HYPSM’s superiority for undergraduates without evidence that students from those schools are actually finding better jobs, enjoying better resources because other schools lack those resources and not because they choose to provide equally valid but different resources, and the like, actually perpetuates a ridiculous overarching hierarchy that obfuscates actual distinctions between the many schools we often discuss! The name recognition and cachet among those five schools isn’t translating into better opportunities than those you would find at the Penns and Columbias of the world anymore, even if they used to back 30 or 40 or 50 years ago. The disparity in “exit opportunities, … resources, and the like” at Penn/Columbia and HYPSM just simply is not greater than those offered by P&C vs Georgetown. But if people on this board insist on recognizing the “differences” between HYPSM and Columbia/Penn then they must be equally willing to recognize the EXACT SAME differences between a Penn/Columbia and a Georgetown. It doesn’t help me sleep better at night-- it’s just the intellectually honest extension of the kinds of comments made in this thread and all over these boards. A 10 billion dollar difference in Penn’s endowment and Princeton’s only means something if the 11 billion dollar difference between Penn’s endowment and Georgetown’s also means something. The ten point difference in Penn’s entering class’ SAT’s and Princeton’s only means something if the 30 point difference between Penn’s entering class’ SAT’s and Georgetown’s means something. The fact that some businesses only seriously recruit at Penn/HYPS and not Georgetown only matters if the fact that all of the same recruiters come to Penn and HYPS. What’s good for the goose is good for the Georgetown, is my point.

And if you read through my posts on this board, more often than not (maybe always? but sometimes i get sloppy) i recommend that students pick colleges at which they can thrive and at which they will find genuine joy in what they study. But just because two schools can be peers in a lot of ways, doesn’t mean they’re identical. So among schools that are all pretty brand-name-y, I usually say “these are the differences between these schools. These are the ACTUAL differences that we can point to and these are the REAL opportunities you forego by choosing one school over another. These are the standout programs at this school you should really take a look at, regardless of the uni’s overall rank or name recognition. But at the end of the day, you’ve gotta be happy! So go where you’ll find yourself most capable of doing well and succeeding.” But I, unlike many other posters, don’t pretend like that advice becomes irrelevant once that magical fairy dust of ~HyPsM~ enters the conversation. If those 5 are playing on a different level, educating their students in ways Columbia/Penn could never even dream of, then why are we all ending up with the same jobs and graduate degrees in the same cities and countries?