I want to go to a Ivy League school for college and I really want to go to Cornell because I’ve heard they have a strong history department so tell me which one has the best history department from worst to best
Harvard has the best history department. This is because Harvard is really old and has been around for most of history.
Yale is the next best, because Yale is also really old, but Yale had to throw some acid on their buildings to make them look like they have a better history department. They have some insecurity issues they need to get over.
Penn, Princeton, and Columbia all argue over the order of the next. This is because Penn has been around a little longer than the others, but it actually didn’t have any professors to pay attention to history until after Princeton and Columbia opened. So Penn says it’s the best while Princeton says that it’s the best and Columbia says Princeton is the best, but Penn is worse than Columbia. I happen to like Columbia so I’m going to go with their definition.
So Princeton has the 3rd best history department, Columbia has the 4th, and Penn has the 5th.
Brown opened shortly after, giving them the 6th best (or 2nd worst) history department. Their professors missed the entire French and Indian war, so I hope you don’t care about that.
Cornell has the worst history department. They opened very late but at least were around for most of contemporary history and Cornell is a solid choice if you’re interested in, say, WWII or Hippies.
Dartmouth would be better than Cornell but Hannover doesn’t have mail service or electricity. No one at Dartmouth is aware of the rest of the world existing or the passage of time, and there is no history department.
Hope this helps!
P.S. If you actually want to study history seriously I recommend the University of Bologna, the University of Oxford, or the University of Salamanca. It doesn’t get better than those, though they are not ivy league.
Again: why do you insist on pursuing such difficult schools???
What are the chances that you will be able to “max out” any of the Ivy League History departments?
Because I want to prove to myself and everyone I can actually get to a good school and be successful people have told me my whole life that I can’t do it because I have learning disabilities but I want to prove them wrong and prove to myself that kids with my problems can go to top schools and be successful
Perhaps you could start with proving to yourself that you can handle honors classes. Then AP. Then college-level. Then Ivy League. Baby steps…you’re putting the cart before the horse if you’re planning to magically get better when faced with more challenging environments.
YogSoThoth, the age of the university has little to do with the quality of the history department. Berkeley (1868), Chicago (1890), Johns Hopkins (1875), Stanford (1890) and UCLA (1882) are all relatively young universities with top 10 History departments.
Among the Ivy League, Harvard, Princeton and Yale are roughly equal, followed by Columbia, Cornell and Penn. Brown is not far behind. All 7 of those universities have excellent History departments. Dartmouth is smaller, so it will likely not have the same breadth and depth, but it too has an excellent History department as far as undergraduate education is concerned.
@Alexandre I’m pretty sure YogSothoth was kidding.
@Alexandre - yep. @porcupine98 has it.
No doubt porcupine (I particularly enjoyed the comments about Dartmouth), but it is a common misconception that older universities have stronger history departments.
News to me… Anyway, “best” is complicated. As @JustOneDad pointed out, what are the odds any undergraduate is going to max out the history resources at any of the above. If he or she has a very specific interest (say, Latin American History), perhaps some departments may have particular strength in a given area, but it doesn’t sound as if that’s the question here.
They would all be outstanding departments which take students to the PhD level. If there is an area of history that appeals to you you might want to research the faculty of each school and see who has a professor or two that might have published in your area of particular interest.
In general you cannot go wrong with any of these schools and you will have the best experience at the school that is the best overall match for you. Also recognize that all of these schools are hyper-competitive so have a balanced list of schools to apply to.
DO NOT make your college application process revolve about proving people wrong because you can get into an Ivy college with a learning disability. You would not be the first or the last student to do this. Make your college search about finding a school that works for you. Find schools that excite you, that match your learning style, that are affordable, that feel right socially etc. There are tons of amazing colleges and universities out there so don’t limit yourself just to prove a point. Instead I would focus on having a happy and successful life.
I want to go to a Ivy League but I also want to go to Northwestern
To be blunt, that is an unrealistic goal with your current academic background. You need to look for colleges that are viable options.
Start by figuring out what you want in a college. Examples of things to think about:
– Public/private
– Coed/single-sex
– Small/medium/large
– Rural/suburban/urban
– Region/state within the US
– Cost
– Selectivity
Judging from your post in the Cornell forum, you really do need to start taking honors classes and AP classes. Before you can try to get into Cornell or any other Ivy, you need to work on succeeding in those classes so that you can succeed at that level in college. Plus, success in those classes might give you a chance at getting in to one of the schools on your list. Otherwise, it’s pretty unlikely to happen.
Judging from your post in the Cornell forum you should likely not be looking at Ivy and equivalent type schools. If you could not handle one honors class in HS you will more than likely 1) not get admitted to an Ivy/Ivy equivalent school and 2) not be able to handle the workload at an Ivy/Ivy equivalent school (which I would probably be more difficult than taking 4 honor/AP classes at the same time in HS.)
Why do you want to set yourself for disappointment and academic struggle? I strongly suggest that you talk to your guidance counselor and try to come up with a realistic list of schools where you can get in and succeed. There are so many fantastic colleges and universities out there where you can get a great education.
As a personal example my S had learning issues, didn’t take many honors/AP classes in HS. He went to a very good (but not Ivy or equivalent) university that was the right fit for his personality and academic interests. He did great there, went to a fantastic grad school and now he has a wonderful job. Had he started at an Ivy or equivalent school he likely would have been academically blown out right away and would not have gone on to be the successful young man he is today.
there is no such thing as the best history department. it is 100% subjective. go to the school you like the most …you can afford and admits you.
And your definition of this is limited to eight out of three thousand or so colleges in the USA? Lepin, this will be the last time I address you. You’ve gotten lots of advice from strangers who have no desire to put you down. They actually took time to share with you their knowledge and opinion. Two things have been consistent: 1) replies which warn you that based upon self-reported info, you’re not a candidate for top schools such as Ivies or NU, and 2) your defensive posture in response.
I’ll leave you with this challenge (I’ve said it twice before). I’m sure HS is about to restart. Make an appt within the first week and ask your guid counselor for a candid evaluation and suggestions for your next steps. If you truly want to know where you stand and desire concrete direction, then do that one thing. **Don’t make another single reply or start any other threads here on CC until you’ve done that. ** If you continue to bray here on CC without doing that, people are going to rightly assume you’re an empty vessel – only looking for "atta boy " type of answers. That’s a disservice to you. You deserve the truth – not BS sympathy pats on the head. Stop being the main impediment to getting at the truth. Good luck to you on that counselor appointment.
Ok thank you I understand
What area (geographical and/or topical) and what period of history are you most interested in?