<p>I am trying to get a feel for how one would rank / group the following colleges w.r.t. (a) academic reputation and (b) difficulty of getting admission. In other words, I am wondering if this list can be broken up into different tiers. Here is the list.</p>
<p>Stanford
Harvard
Princeton
Cornell
Duke
Rice
Johns Hopkins
Wash U at St Louis
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>I would also add that the major of interest would be something in the biological / biomedical sciences area.</p>
<p>No…all in the same elite tier, each with different personalities and campus culture and some with a broader range of superb programs…and some with a stronger focus on undergraduates than graduate students…and others with more focus on graduate students. </p>
<p>You have to prioritize them according to YOUR interests, personality and needs. The ranking is what is in YOUR head and heart, not what some magazine says.</p>
<p>Some people love Harvard and some people hate it. Some people love Duke and some people hate it. Its up to you.</p>
<p>My question was regarding my daughter, who is currently a sophomore at a reasonably competitive high school in Texas. She has a 5.38 W / 4.00 UW GPA, is ranked 7th in a class of 800+, and recently scored 219 on her first PSAT try. She is taking the usual slew of honors and AP classes, and has a reasonable slate of ECs.</p>
<p>I was trying to figure out how to categorize the colleges in terms of reach v/s match v/s safety.</p>
<p>It could be that all of this is a bit premature!</p>
<p>You’ll get a superb education at all of those schools, even though some are more competitive to get in to than others.
If you’re really into science as a field for serious study (i.e. you want to earn a PhD, MD, MPH, MD/PhD or any combination of the three), then you ought to take a closer look at Johns Hopkins, I’d say. HYPS are great and all, but they really don’t strike me as seriously intellectual schools.</p>
<p>If she keeps up her current level academic achievement, she can apply to any college in the country and be a viable candidate for admission. I agree with others that said the goal should not be to figure out which is more of a reach or more prestigious than the next, but to look for which campus gives her the best “fit” for academic program opportunities, location, clubs-activities, social atmosphere, and all the other things that go into the college experience. </p>
<p>To answer your question briefly, though, imo, H and P are on their own higher level of “reach” for almost every applicant. All the rest on the list will most likely be matches. I don’t see a true safety. Carnegie Mellon does admit women at a higher rate, but even then, the admittance rate is only 37 percent. There should be some sure-thing type safeties that she would also be happy to attend.</p>
<p>You may be premature to talk about where your D will apply, but you’re not premature to be thinking about what colleges she should have on a get-to-know list and to start casually working a campus visit into a vacation trip. (As in "hey, we’ve always wanted to visit Boston or Baltimore or St. Louis or Ithaca and while we’re there…)</p>
<p>Jazzymom, the safety is U. of Texas at Austin. I agree that the final selection should be governed by ‘where do I fit best’ and not by USNWR-type rankings. My thinking is to develop a long short list of reach v/s match colleges (in addition to UT) that could be the basis for additional research.</p>
<p>Any other colleges that should be on our list?</p>
<p>Also, I have seen links in other CC threads to articles about how the student experience / satisfaction at places like Harvard have been less than optimal (primarily because tenured professors are too busy to teach). Do the folks in this forum have any information / thoughts in this regard?</p>
<p>Some of the people who responded to this thread said that you should be looking to match your interests, etc, but then proceeded to mention Harvard and Princeton as the best. With an interest in biological sciences I truely think that Johns Hopkins and Duke are the best fits for your daughter.</p>
<p>Following up on my earlier question, what do people think about the level of student satisfaction at these universities? I read somewhere that Harvard was ranked rather low because many classes were taught by grad students and profs were seldom available. Does that carry over to other places such as Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Rice, JHU etc?</p>
<p>Difficulty of admissions and academic rep for UNDERGRAD for the following schools would be along the lines of:</p>
<p>1: Stanford, Harvard, Princeton
2: Duke
3: Cornell, JHU, Wash U, Rice
4: CMU</p>
<p>The gap in student strength between Stanford and Duke is the same between Duke and JHU, and the same as JHU and CMU, etc. (ie the gaps are very small, in reality all of these universities are great choices).</p>
<p>This list is the same as any placement ranking, US News ranking, SAT score listing, list of NMS, etc.</p>
<p>Harvard is considered the pinnacle of American academics by the masses.</p>
<p>Princeton is considered the pinnacle of American acadmeics by the more well-informed.</p>
<p>Stanford is considered the pinnacle of American academics by those who think the West is independent of the east.</p>
<p>Duke is considered the pinnacle of American academics by those who factor athletics into it as well and dislike Stanford.</p>
<p>Cornell is considered the pinnacle of American academics by those who consider “academics” to be engineering and hotel managment.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is considered the pinnacle of American academics by those whose parents are both doctors.</p>
<p>Washington University is considered the pinnacle of American academics by those who think Ivy League schools are “old news” and prefer to attend the “in” school this year.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is considered the pinnacle of American academics by those with a pet robot.</p>
<p>The fact is, you’ll get a good education at all of those schools…but if you really want a truly GREAT education, you should focus on faculty-student ratios, the % of classes under 50 (or 25 or whatever you prefer), and the amount of classes you’ll be taking that are taught by TAs.</p>
<p>For biomedical sciences, Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Rice are the TOPS.</p>
<p>sxm – that’s a great list of schools. If you’re looking solely at quality of life, in our investigation of those schools we found that the happiest students overall were at Stanford, Rice and Wash U (and Duke to a slightly lesser degree).</p>
<p>Several of the colleges on your list (Harvard and Princeton) require three SAT Subject Tests. Most of the others require (Rice) or recommend (JHU and Stanford) two such tests. The earlier your daughter can take them, the more time she will have later on to visit colleges, fill out applications, etc.</p>