In the past few years my wife and I have toured a number of colleges. Here are our impressions of them. This list we toured is biased towards schools we personally considered, and will not include all the top universities. We are in North Carolina, and thus considered mostly East Coast Schools.
The Ivy League Colleges and Universities
Harvard
location: Cambridge, MA. Founded 1636. Endowment $36.4billion. USN/SWU rank: 2/1. Accepts 5.97% of applicants. total enrollment: 6,722 (1675 per class), 3971 graduate. male/female: 52:48. 50% white, 21% Asian, 11% Hispanic, 7% black.Receives 35,023 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 712/695/2108 , avg compACT 31. total cost: $63,000/yr.
Harvard being just a couple subway stops from MIT was easily accessible by subway which was clean, safe and very crowded at peak time. The Harvard campus inundated with Chinese tour groups. In the past year a direct flight from Beijing to Boston was established; the crowds of Chinese tourists have been a topic of discussion around Boston since - 60 minutes did a story on it recently also. There was a free Harvard tour that required a ticket so that the groups were not too large. Our tour guide was a current Harvard student who told us the history of the campus. It was an excellent dynamic guide and he recommended Pinocchio's pizza which was delicious - when we arrived, it was a dive, but had pictures of FaceBook founder Mark Zuckerberg on the walls - apparently it was Zuckerberg's favorite place. The impressions of campus was that the campus was not as ornate as some of the other ivies in terms of the outer buildings. The freshman dining hall was not open for tours but touted as the model for Harry Potter dining hall. The classroom for the admission talk was inside the prominent church-like building, but not very comfortable. Radcliffe, originally the women's college equivalent to Harvard, is now part of Harvard campus and was very peaceful and quiet place to look around. Their admission director did a round table of students- they encouraged all to apply- if you believe, all your dreams may come true.
I was once told that Boston is like NYC in slowed down and spread out. I don't think this is true. Boston has its very own flair and character, quite different from New York. My non-politically-correct opinion is that it's because the demographics are quite different from New York or Philadelphia - perhaps a higher level of education, social awareness or something of this nature. Here are the comparisons from the latest US Census: Boston has a population within the city of 646,000. 54% are white. 24% are black, 18% are Hispanic, 9% are Asian. This is a bit of a different mix than NYC, a population of 19.8million with 71% white, 18% black, 18% Hispanic, and 8% Asian; or Philadelphia, a population of 1.5million, 46% white, 44% black, 13% Hispanic, and 7% Asian. Though quite international in character, particularly around Harvard Square, the teeming hordes of people around the Harvard campus seemed to be generally well-behaved and polite, if not friendly.
We were waiting for trains in the Bunker Hill area of Boston when the transportation system shutdown city-wide. We had to pile into a bus and go to the nearest center to walk to our destination. Despite the enormous pile-up of people this caused, everybody all around were on their best behavior, deferring to each other, under control, dealing with the situation without much fuss.
Overall, I'd say if you are NOT a city-person, you will not enjoy Harvard. It is a very busy place. If you like the excitement of being surrounded by people, don't mind waiting in line, don't mind busy traffic and crowds everywhere, then you are fine here. The opportunities, the sports, entertainment, museums, dynamic city-life available in town as well as on campus will be a great experience. The primary reason for coming here would have to be the other students of course (like everywhere else), but the students here are likely to be nonpareil - a great place to make connections, dream up future business ideas, get involved in research at possibly the world's leading center for research.
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Yale
location: New Haven, CT. Founded 1701. Endowment: $20.7billion. USN/SWU rank: 3/11. Accepts 6.3% of applicants. total enrollment: 5,430 (1363/class), 3355 graduate. male/female: 51:49. 53% white, 18% Asian, 11% Hispanic, 8% black. Receives 29,610 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 712/702/2120 , avg compACT 32. total cost: $64,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
Getting to Yale, one has to drive through some of the poorer areas of New Haven. It did not feel very safe compared to all the other schools we visited. The external structures of Yale were some of the most beautiful. The freshman are in a central quad locked by large gates. There are numerous police surrounding campus. The admission director stated for all to not be crushed if they were not accepted by Yale, their dream school, but to apply to the local state school as well - the first admission adviser to note how random the acceptance process can be. Our guide was a previous physics major who was now a music major. Yale seems to have a lot of music and political science students.
Getting to Yale, one has to drive through some of the poorer areas of New Haven. It did not feel very safe compared to all the other schools we visited. The external structures of Yale were some of the most beautiful. The freshman are in a central quad locked by large gates. There are numerous police surrounding campus. The admission director stated for all to not be crushed if they were not accepted by Yale, their dream school, but to apply to the local state school as well - the first admission adviser to note how random the acceptance process can be. Our guide was a previous physics major who was now a music major. Yale seems to have a lot of music and political science students.
Though my wife didn't like Yale as much as expected. I thought the campus was one of the most impressive of any of the Ivy League campuses I've seen. The grandeur and scale of its soaring architecture is something to behold. Having lived in huge cities for parts of my life, I didn't find New Haven to be particularly difficult - it was however a much more "city-like feel" than the population would suggest. Though about 862,000 population, the demographics are 79% white, 16% Hispanic, 14% black, and 4% Asian. These numbers don't quite tell the story though. I would agree that though the population is closer to Charlotte NC than Atlanta, GA, the feel of the city is more like Atlanta.
The impression of Yale is of being very private, secretive, and "cloistered" - the dorms are all within locked gates and the gates are kept locked at night. The dorms are often underground - our guide described the extensive underground tunnel-work and facilities at Yale. It would be nice if we were allowed to glimpse these as they must form a large part of the student experience. Parts of the campus were imposing granite and marble construction, like governmental buildings. The entire campus bespoke money oozing from every edifice.
By visiting this campus, one can begin to see how and why this place is always in the top 5 of colleges nationwide. The accumulation of wealth and power here is evidenced by the expansive aggregation of mostly gothic ornate buildings, spread over real estate much greater than the size of the student body would suggest. The main "Old Campus" area is quite impressive as shown in these pictures. But Yale owns other parts of town such as its 136 acre research center, and the Yale Bowl area, and the New Haven Green area for instance.
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Princeton
location: Princeton, NJ. Founded 1746. Endowment: $18.8billion.USN/SWU rank:1/6. Accepts 7.4% of applicants. total enrollment: 5323 (1,314/class), 2691 graduate. male/female: 49:51. 53% white, 23% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 9% black. Receives 26,498 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 722/703/2131 , avg compACT 32. total cost: $60,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
Princeton was the first campus we visited. It looked very much like Duke. We had taken the engineering school tour and the general school tour. Both were very excellent- both of our tour guides were engineers who loved their school and sports. One of the unique features of Princeton over the other ivies were the dining clubs to which one applies Junior year. Every Ivy tries to keep the experience more intimate by assigning students to halls. Princeton, unlike the other schools, has freshmen, sophomores, juniors all in the same house. All the other schools keep the Freshmen together the first year and then assign them to the different houses. Every house has faculty advisors to help direct and keep peace. I suspect the environment would be even more cut throat without an adult supervisor. Princeton is a bit smaller environment than the other Ivies in that it does not have large graduate programs, mostly undergraduates- which is supposed to allow for more teacher interaction versus graduate student teaching. A disadvantage may be the lack of graduate level peers but less competition and therefore better research opportunities. It is required to have senior thesis for all the BA graduates, and the engineering students must all have a senior project.
This campus is renowned and one can see why. The combination of Gothic and Romanesque architecture seem somehow harmonious and the central arched covered stone walkway motifs throughout the campus helps unify the architectural feel of the place somehow. This is not a small campus, but well-defined and personal enough to allow good walk-ability. This is fortunate because just beyond the campus borders is a train depot for forays into NYC or Philadelphia. There is a very busy congested US 1 and state road 206 that stretch through either side of the otherwise shaded private campus.
The students here seem to be uniquely dedicated and loyal to this place. I've spoken with hundreds of people from all of these top 10 level schools throughout my life and Princeton people generally seem to share this trait. The alumni donation data backs up this point. Princetonians have the highest post graduation donation percentages of any others in the nation. I believe this lends evidence to the good experience that students generally have here. The extreme popularity of this place, along with its #1 ranking in many lists over the past 30 years makes this place one of the most selective and desirable.
Though pushed by the guides as a major advantage, I think the small size of the graduate student population is probably actually a detractor. Professors need dedicated graduates and post-doc fellows to do the nuts & bolts of heavy-duty research. An undergrad is often too busy to be reliable in this manner. Therefore the type of research published here at Princeton is likely to be smaller in scale than BIG studies often published out of Harvard or Cornell for instance.
We were told that the Duke University campus was modeled after Princeton's. Though not absolutely confirmed, the story is that industrialist James Duke saw Princeton around 1924, was so awed by its architecture that he offered Princeton a large sum of money to change their name to Duke. When they refused, he looked for a campus where he could attach his name with this Princeton "look." This story is apparently considered a "myth" after this history was found to be unconfirmable.
In walking around the campus, I got the impression that it was quite different from Duke's - probably more a mesh of Yale, Duke, and UNC's campus would better describe it. Not that architecture or buildings are why one would choose one school over another, but the feel and atmosphere of a place does play a role in how one remembers one's college experience.
In walking around the campus, I got the impression that it was quite different from Duke's - probably more a mesh of Yale, Duke, and UNC's campus would better describe it. Not that architecture or buildings are why one would choose one school over another, but the feel and atmosphere of a place does play a role in how one remembers one's college experience.
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Columbia
location: New York, NYC. Founded 1754. Endowment: $9.2billion. USN/SWU rank: 4/8. Accepts 7% of applicants. total enrollment: ~6068 (1424/yr), 18,568 graduate. male/female: 53:47. 38% white, 22% Asian, 17% Hispanic, 14% black. Receives 31,851 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 697/687/2068 , avg compACT 32. total cost: $64,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
Columbia has the best location - in the heart of NYC. Columbia has the common core - everyone has to take the same humanities/literature classes which does provide a link among alumni.
Columbia has the best location - in the heart of NYC. Columbia has the common core - everyone has to take the same humanities/literature classes which does provide a link among alumni.
The main square of Columbia University is awesome and famous. It is seen in many films such as Ghostbusters and the Spiderman movies with Tobie McGuire. The campus is in a beautiful part of Harlem between Morningside Drive on the East and Riverside and the Hudson River on the West between W110th and W123rd streets just a couple blocks north by northwest from the top edge of Manhattan's Central Park. I always thought there was more to Columbia's campus, but actually for the undergrads, this square is it. The buildings mostly line/surround this huge central square - making the campus very walk-able, even in winter snows. The famous Education department buildings are outside this square, as is the infamous Medical school complex which is located over 40 blocks north in the much more treacherous Spanish Harlem area.
When touring the undergraduate campus, one isn't shown much of the insides of buildings. One just stares at the outside edifices, making this tour one of the worst we've seen. One could do just as well by walking around the square without a guide.
New York is my all-time favorite city, so I'll try not to let that color my opinion of this school.
The tremendous hub of activity and opportunity that NYC is certainly imparts a special flavor to Columbia, more than any other school. Though other famous schools like NYU exist inside NYC. Columbia is certainly its flagship.
The tremendous hub of activity and opportunity that NYC is certainly imparts a special flavor to Columbia, more than any other school. Though other famous schools like NYU exist inside NYC. Columbia is certainly its flagship.
Columbia's accumulation of famous alumni is as impressive as any other school's, possibly the most impressive of all. The one concern we had was that since there is so much to do outside the campus, do undergrads stick around inside the square to hobnob with each other? This concern is valid - evidence from survey data seems to show that Columbia students seem to have a bit less "esprit de corps" than other Ivies evidenced by lower post-graduation donation numbers.
As a parent we worry, but having an embarrassment of riches in terms of things to do (when not studying) is probably an advantage in the minds of its students and potential application candidates. My final impression of Columbia as I toured it was that I would have loved to have been an undergrad here. What an experience one could have with the city and the supremely talented student body here.
Penn
location: Philadelphia, PA. Founded 1740. Endowment: $9.6billion. USN/SWU rank: 8/16. Accepts 12% of applicants. total enrollment: 9712 (2428/yr), 11,646 graduate. male/female: 50:50. 51% white, 21% Asian, 11% Hispanic, 8% black. Receives 31,282 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 703/678/2065 , avg compACT 32. total cost: $65,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
Penn has the Wharton business school, the nursing school, engineering school, and humanities school, It was a very urban campus. Lots of food trucks and interesting areas- has the Curtis institute of music nearby.
I went to this school for undergrad, so this strongly colors my opinion. My impression when I first arrived as a Freshman here was of being overwhelmed. The loud honking traffic outside made sleeping difficult in my first few nights. I stayed at Hill House which is a starkly beautiful fortress-like building designed by Eero Saarinen in 1958. This is the dorm Freshman are encouraged to enter. It has the best dining facilities on campus and, if you are an Engineer or Math, Physics, Chemistry, or English major, the nearest one to these complexes. But the famous, ornate "Quad" dorms are the most popular by the entering class as well as by upper classmen. I stayed in the Cleeman house in the Quad my Sophomore year and it was a beautiful large single room with gleaming wood floors, lead-glass ironworks windows with gothic granite gargoyles outside my windows. I had my own sink and it was my first experience of living independently and alone unbothered by humanity - this was an experience I'll always treasure.
Why Penn? The opportunities here are tremendous. It's one of the best places for those kids who need to find themselves because they're not quite sure "who they are." Because Penn has so many strong, world-renowned departments, one can explore options during his years here. Penn's Anthropology department is famous for its worldwide excavations and the Penn Museum should be visited to glimpse this history. The business school needs no discussion by me, as some of the most infamous businessmen of our times graduated from Wharton. Trump, Lauder, Milken, among others. Warren Buffet went here before transferring out to Nebraska because he didn't like how sarcastic the students here were to him. Penn's Medical school, the first in the nation, supplied the Surgeon General to both the North and the South during America's Civil War. This is a powerful medical school with multi-faceted research pouring out of it. I got into research even in my first semester as a Freshman - it paid off eventually when the project I worked on got published in one of the leading Medical Journals when I was in Med School.
This is a very competitive environment and will pressure one to work rather than play - you have to be ready to compete on arrival or your grades will suffer. The kids who come here, as with all the other Ivies I'm sure, will steal your lunch unless you compete hard. There is a difficult to describe peer-pressure to work hard - days before Exam times, the campus goes quiet, and your classmates disappear to various nooks and studying carrels wanting to be left alone to grind away at problem sets or whatever. If you are one to avoid study and play instead, this atmosphere in which you can witness the hard work by others plays on your psyche such that you feel you must join in on the studying in order to maintain an inner peace. Yet at the same time the number of exciting venues for extracurricular activities here can be enticing. I was heavily involved in the Philadelphia music scene: Curtis Institute, the Academy of Music, opera. I went to several Sixers basketball games when Charles Barkley played here. The Philadelphia people are rough around the edges - loud, a bit pushy, and raw. The city experience here is unique in this way.
You have to prepare yourself for a raw urban experience. The campus is not closed and private like Princeton, Yale, or Brown. The city flows through the campus, and Drexel's campus immediately adjoins Penn on one side. You have to remind yourself that your'e here for the other students, the faculty, the programs, the entire Philadelphia experience.
Just to say a few words about Wharton from an outsider looking in. Wharton is by far the most elite of the programs at Penn, especially the Fisher M&T program. From an investment standpoint, going to Wharton for a career in finance seems like possibly the wisest thing for a student to do - it will pay off handsomely deeply and quickly after graduation. But you have to be the right type of person to go into this field. Wharton seems to especially specialize in producing the "Quants" that huge financial corporations so desire. So pure math majors, if you want to parlay your quantitative talents into money, Wharton is the place for you.
After initially getting worn down by Philadelphia's rawness, by the end of my time here, I grew to love Philadelphia. The place forces you to come out of your upper middle-class suburban shell and see the world from the perspectives of the city-dweller. If you are a "people-person" you'll love it here. If you are NOT a "people-person" this place will show you the rewards of being one, and probably turn you into one.
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Dartmouth
location: New Hanover, NH. Founded 1769. Endowment: $3.4billion. USN/SWU rank: 11/118. Accepts 10% of applicants. total enrollment: 4276 (1069/yr), 2066 graduate. male/female: 51:49. 51% white, 15% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 7% black.Receives 22,428 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 704/694/2094 , avg compACT 32. total cost: $66,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
This was the most isolated campus I saw. Hanover NH is a small town that seemed to have a very homogeneous (white) population. Over half of the student body is involved in a fraternity/sororitiy. Dr Seuss and Robert Frost are two of the most famous alumni. Fred Rogers (Mr.Roger's Neighborhood) also went to grad school here. 3 hrs by bus from Boston.
This school reminded me of a wealthy Prep School like Hotchkiss, Groton, or Phillips Exeter. For those wanting a quiet college town, but with an enormous reputation, Dartmouth fits the description. Dartmouth is known for its many illustrious CEOs of major corporations. Tuck business school, and the Geisel Medical School are the two graduate programs that dominate the campus in terms of buildings and resources. But the Thayer Engineering school is also tucked into the aggregation of buildings strewn over the green park-like campus. We were able to walk the campus from end to end in a few minutes, so in the Fall and late Spring this is a very walk-able campus. But the 7+ foot Fire Hydrant markers gives warning that in the frequent snows of winter, this walk may not be easy without snowshoes.
Compared to the bustle of the urban campuses, Dartmouth had a quiet about it that was almost surreal, at least to me, someone more used to urban campuses. I can imagine that the students here could grow especially close during their time here as there is less to do outside of being around each other than in Boston, NYC, or Philadelphia. Travel into and out from Dartmouth takes time unless one used chartered flights from its small nearby airport (something many wealthy kids at Dartmouth might do). One of the primary features of coming here related by our guide was the opportunities to easily get into the parks for hikes and explorations of the outdoors. The huge White Mountains National Forest area to the northeast, Mt. Kearsarge State Forest in the southeast, the Green Mountain National Forest in the southwest, and Coolidge State Forest, Mt. Cushman, among other woodlands practically enclose and surround the Darmouth campus. Outdoorsmen who desire an Ivy League credential should look nowhere else but here.
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Brown
location: Providence, RI. Founded 1764. Endowment: $3.2billion. USN/SWU rank: 16/74. Accepts 9% of applicants. total enrollment: 6455 (1613/yr), 2488 graduate. male/female: 48:52. 49% white, 14% Asian, 12% Hispanic, 7% black. Receives 28,919 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 696/688/2076 , avg compACT 31. total cost: $63,000/yr.
Most liberal feeling of all the Ivies - they allow you to create your own curriculum. They have an annual day where all students are encouraged to go nude. The city of Providence was very nice. Their beautiful pipe organ inside Sayles Hall is the world's largest Hutchings-Votey organ - this is where students gather for hot chocolate apparently. The Brown campus was very beautiful- had safe surroundings, hilly and full of character.
Providence has a surprisingly small-town feel for a city of 178,000. The demographics of Providence is 50% white, 16% black, 38% Hispanic, and 6% Asian. There is an "artisanal" quality and feel to the city as well as to Brown that is otherwise difficult to describe. The food culture, arts and music scene here is described as unique and fantastic.
If I were a humanities or social science major, this would be great place to come as an undergraduate. Brown was also once the known for their 6-year combined undergrad-medical school program with Dartmouth. This program was abolished, but Brown still has the PLME, an 8-year guaranteed undergrad-medical degree program which is quite elite and selective with less than 5% acceptance rates. The thought I had was that agreeing to the PLME program entails agreeing to more $525,000 in expenses over the 8 years if you today's expenses. But getting into medical school right out of high school would mean not having to study for the MCATs which entails enormous time expenditure during your undergrad years for most med school applicants.
If I were a humanities or social science major, this would be great place to come as an undergraduate. Brown was also once the known for their 6-year combined undergrad-medical school program with Dartmouth. This program was abolished, but Brown still has the PLME, an 8-year guaranteed undergrad-medical degree program which is quite elite and selective with less than 5% acceptance rates. The thought I had was that agreeing to the PLME program entails agreeing to more $525,000 in expenses over the 8 years if you today's expenses. But getting into medical school right out of high school would mean not having to study for the MCATs which entails enormous time expenditure during your undergrad years for most med school applicants.
Brown has the highest ratio of females to males, which might be a bonus for you depending on how you see it. The kids here are quite elite as the popularity of Brown has never waned in over 30 years. In terms of selectivity, Brown is the most difficult school to gain admittance to after the top 4 of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. This selectivity allows the Brown admission committee to select truly talented kids to fill its classes.
During our tour here and during the discussion by the admission directors, they labored to explain away Brown's infamous "liberal" label. In fact, I'd bet Brown's students do try to aspire to their reputations as fairly liberal group of kids - but in fact, all the kids and faculty at these top ten schools are quite liberal in their social and political viewpoints. You would have to consider religious institutions like Oral Roberts, Bob Jones, or BYU if you were concerned about avoiding overly liberal institutions. Personally I would want to associate with liberal-minded people during my college experience anyway, so I didn't see this as a problem, but your opinion could certainly be quite different. Among the Ivy League schools, my sense is that the highest number of kids with conservative mindsets might be at Dartmouth, Penn, or Cornell - but this is purely anecdotal. All the Ivy League schools are bastions of Liberal Ideology for sure.
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Cornell:
location: Ithaca, NY. Founded 1865. Endowment: $6.2billion. USN/SWU rank: 15/13. Accepts 16% of applicants. total enrollment: 14,393 (3600/yr), 7200 graduate. male/female: 49:51. 47% white, 18% Asian, 12% Hispanic, 7% black.Receives 39,999 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 706/670/2053 , avg compACT 31. total cost: $64,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
Largest campus in acreage among the schools we've visited - huge graduate programs are admixed together physically with undergraduate programs and kids. Felt like campus is too large to be walk-able. Freshman are on campus across the gorge. Beautiful, hilly campus. Ithaca is a much larger town than Hanover, but still has a townie feel. More focused on science compared to the other ivies. Famous alumni includes Bill Nye the science guy, Kurt Vonnegut, Pearl Buck, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, EB White, Janet Reno, several astronauts, among others. Lots of sports here - athletics seem to be huge for Cornell.
Largest campus in acreage among the schools we've visited - huge graduate programs are admixed together physically with undergraduate programs and kids. Felt like campus is too large to be walk-able. Freshman are on campus across the gorge. Beautiful, hilly campus. Ithaca is a much larger town than Hanover, but still has a townie feel. More focused on science compared to the other ivies. Famous alumni includes Bill Nye the science guy, Kurt Vonnegut, Pearl Buck, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, EB White, Janet Reno, several astronauts, among others. Lots of sports here - athletics seem to be huge for Cornell.
Cornell is very different from all the other Ivy League schools. It is the newest of the Ivy League schools, the only one created in the 1800s. The school has "land grant" programs for residents of New York state, making it a hybrid school between a private and public school for those kids. This aspect along with the STEM-focus by Cornell, the career-specific programs like the famous school of Hotel Administration, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Cornell's famous Agriculture as well as Veterinary School - makes Cornell feel very similar to NC State University in our backyard. What differentiates Cornell is its enormous reputation, its list of illustrious alumni, and its literally gorgeous campus. The campus was huge, epic in scope.
Cornell's Weill Medical School is possibly the most desirable medical school to gain admittance to - called "the White Palace" for the past 50+ years, Cornell's medical school is tucked away in an Upper East-side wealthy enclave of Manhattan next to the East River a few blocks from the lower end of Central Park. As such, though there is a lot of basic medical research done at Cornell's main campus in Ithaca, undergraduates looking at a "pre-med" experience at Cornell could miss out on the type of premed experience once could get at Harvard, Yale, Penn, Brown, or Dartmouth with their on/near campus medical centers.
We were surprised at how beautiful Cornell's campus was - this doesn't seem to get nearly the press that Brown or Princeton's campus gets. Cornell's gorges are easily hike-able during a quick lunch break as it surrounds the central campus.
Cornell gets a bad rap for a famous string of student suicides accomplished by their launching themselves over the high bridges crossing the gorges. The Cornell administration reacted to these few incidents by over-protectively placing steel mesh netting all over the bridges, totally ruining the look, as well as inadvertently drawing unwanted attention to these suicides. Those kids who may have never even thought about hurtling off these bridges, now will think about it. The thought was during the dark, gray, cold, snowy winters of Ithaca, would the convenient opportunity presented by these bridges hundreds of feet over rocky rivers be irresistible to the depressed? One cannot stop a suicidal person from accomplishing their desire - prevention in this way may seem comforting (that they at least tried), but probably accomplishes very little, as the number of kids who would do this is small, and they could always resort to other methods. I'd suggest taking down the netting - it's bad marketing.
Cornell gets a bad rap for a famous string of student suicides accomplished by their launching themselves over the high bridges crossing the gorges. The Cornell administration reacted to these few incidents by over-protectively placing steel mesh netting all over the bridges, totally ruining the look, as well as inadvertently drawing unwanted attention to these suicides. Those kids who may have never even thought about hurtling off these bridges, now will think about it. The thought was during the dark, gray, cold, snowy winters of Ithaca, would the convenient opportunity presented by these bridges hundreds of feet over rocky rivers be irresistible to the depressed? One cannot stop a suicidal person from accomplishing their desire - prevention in this way may seem comforting (that they at least tried), but probably accomplishes very little, as the number of kids who would do this is small, and they could always resort to other methods. I'd suggest taking down the netting - it's bad marketing.
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The Most Elite non-Ivy League Colleges and Universities
MIT:
location: Cambridge, MA. Founded 1861. Endowment: $12.4billion. USN/SWU rank: 7/3. Accepts 8% of applicants. total enrollment: 4528 (1132/yr), 6773 graduate. male/female: 55:45. 41% white, 27% Asian, 18% Hispanic, 6% black.Receives 18,989 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 738/696/2129 , avg comp ACT 32. total cost: $62,000/yr.
My wife's impression:
MIT was the most fun - their history of hacks/pranks is hilarious. This school has the most science/math-focused feel to campus. The campus was entirely modern and industrial with new-wave interestingly shaped buildings. Their emphasis was on creativity, founding businesses, and thinking and creating outside of the box. About half of the students are in fraternity. They had themed dorms. Creativity and individuality stressed.
MIT was never a place I thought too highly of until I visited. The campus gives a feeling of being a governmental complex, like the Smithsonian edifices in DC. After a fantastic and smart presentation by the admission directors, I was totally sold on what MIT is about.
MIT is extremely selective - accepting only 8% of its applicant pool - similar to Princeton in selectivity, but perhaps more so as they are looking primary at Math & Science types.
I think if I were a kid looking to innovate, to patent ideas, to fund a research idea, or build new things, MIT is the only place I'd want to be. There are no other schools in the Ivy League like this. Perhaps CalTech or Stanford might give you similar opportunities, but for someone wanting to stay on the East coast, MIT is unique this way. Princeton and Harvard has some resources to allow STEM research, but not to the fullest and deepest degree that MIT gives you. For instance, if a kid had an idea to create a new toilet/commode, he could take his idea from design, troubleshooting, and build/manufacture probably within a semester. Where else could you do that? Because of the practical, career-focused aspect of this school, the MIT credential is probably one of the closest things to a guarantee for future success that one could have. MIT and Harvard also have an arrangement such that students at either campus can take courses at its neighboring school. This certainly enhances the reputation and opportunities at both schools.
The "nerd" reputation of MIT is a bit trumped up by media and possibly its own students. My impression is that MIT kids are generally fairly diverse, dynamic, hyper-social and extreme-leadership types. Not characteristics I'd associate with the "nerd" label. MIT students were infamous during the '80s and '90s for a host of widely publicized tech-pranks like the bomb going off at a halftime of a Harvard-Yale game (unimaginable nowadays), a full police cruiser perched atop the famous MIT dome hundreds of feet above ground, and a game of Tetris being played on MIT's Green Building via some ingenious large LED lighting effects.
Many of my friends who know about MIT say the same thing - MIT is NOT full of nerds at all, but rather if anything, it is full of party animals. A friend of mine back the 1990s transferred out of MIT to Harvard because the other kids there WOULD NOT ALLOW HIM TO STUDY. He said studying was considered gauche - MIT was a place for the "naturally smart" who didn't need to grind to do well. I don't know if this idea persists - as a parent, I hope not. The professors at MIT have several methods to allow the free expression of these types. They mention the 3 week "free study" period during the year where "anything goes" unsupervised - no classes, no grades - the only requirement being that something must be produced - a presentation, a project, or something showing that they didn't just zone out during this time. There are also NO RECORDED GRADES during the first few months at MIT for Freshman - a nice way to gauge how much one must study to keep up with all the quants at MIT.
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Stanford
location: Palo Alto, CA. Founded 1891. Endowment: $21.4billion. USN/SWU rank: 4/2. Accepts 6% of applicants. total enrollment: 7061 (1765yr), 11,075 graduate. male/female: 53:47. 40% white, 21% Asian, 18% Hispanic, 7% black. Receives 38,828 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 710/686/2084 , avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $63,000/yr.
Not much I can say about Stanford as I never toured it (the only one on this post I didn't tour) - but wanted to include it since I feel like it's one that needs to be included to complete this discussion. As its endowment and rankings would indicate, it is every bit the equal of the schools in the top 5 in terms of selectivity, endowment, general rankings, and general reputation. Even in the mid-1980s when I was applying to colleges, Stanford had a status and reputation as a top 5 school. As it is unfortunately the only school at this level on the entire West coast of the US, it's selectivity is unusually enhanced, reflected in the acceptance percentage and the number of applications it receives. West coast students especially will certainly be hard-pressed to expect to gain admittance to Stanford's small (1,765) class. This unusual asymmetric distribution of highly selective colleges geographically is an anomaly of the short history of the US. Since the East Coast was so far ahead developmentally in terms of civilization building (by over 200 years), all West Coast colleges have very little history in comparison, and thus a lot of catching up to do. Stanford was not a huge consideration for older folks who grew up prior to the age of NASA. Stanford gained ascendancy only since the age of technology beginning with the Space race in the 1960s. At the dawn of Silicon Valley when the internet was rudimentary and virtually unknown, companies like Google, Apple, among others created the massive wealth and power that shot Stanford's rank and reputation into the stratosphere. For those interested in technology and computer science developments should especially consider Stanford over any other schools. But Stanford has developed into a wide-ranging university offering strong departmental programs powered by their choice of the most talented people not only from the Western half of the country, but pulling in some of the most talented people from the population centers in the East Coast as well. 3 of my friends from Europe who toured colleges throughout the US and Europe told me each that they thought Stanford had clearly the most beautiful campus of any they had seen - perhaps this is subjective, but there's no arguing that Stanford's campus is singularly unique compared to Eastern top 10 schools.
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Duke
location: Durham, NC. Founded 1838. Endowment: $7billion. USN/SWU rank: 8/31. Accepts 8% of applicants. total enrollment: 6655 (1664/yr), 8731 graduate. male/female: 50:50. 48% white, 21% Asian, 7% Hispanic, 13% black.Receives 30,374 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 696/672/2043 , avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $65,000/yr.
Duke is in the best climate unless you do not like heat. Beautiful campus. Majority of students from outside of NC. Campus was built as copy of Princeton. Has the engineering school, graduate schools of medicine, law, and business school. Not as well known as Ivies outside of the US. Has good name recognition in NC and SE.
As a nearby resident of the Triangle, Duke is huge in the state of NC. If one were going to live in NC, this is the premier place to be credentialed by, as it labels you with the golden touch ensuring success in application and hiring for the remainder of your life in NC. Duke has a gorgeous campus and the students here seem more down-to-earth and friendly compared to some of the more ferocious competitors in the NorthEast (just my opinion). However compared to the typical laid-back UNC students, Duke kids are definitely more along the lines of the top 10 in drive and energy. The strengths at Duke seem to be the opportunities for research and volunteering for PreMeds in the "City of Medicine" as well as for general science students as Duke is centered in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. Duke also runs a program on the Outer Banks of NC where marine biology students can do their research. Duke seemingly has it all: one of the Nation's top Medical Schools, a Business school (Fuqua), an Engineering school (Pratt), and a Law school that counts a former President among its alumni. As an undergrad, having these big programs may seem unimportant, but if interested in research or when seeking mentors, having these programs right on campus is definitely a plus.
Being approximately half the size of neighboring UNC Chapel Hill, Duke students have more open space, fewer lines and waiting times for crucial services, and generally improved opportunities for choice programs. College is what you make of it, so one could easily squander one's opportunities by not being involved, or choosing to stay in your dorm in solitude doing little else but studying or wasting time on the internet for instance. But there is a difference in the level of effort one must expend to acquire certain services or opportunities as well. At the the end of one's time in college, there is a credentialing difference; how future employers perceive your degree (where you went, your major, your achievements etc.). The quality of one's college experience is driven by the entire process and how much energy one brings to it during the brief time there. When seeking friendships, the level of the other students one meets will vary from a school in the top 10, versus one ranked around 30, or 50, or 100. There is likely to be students just as talented at a school ranked about 100 as a student at a top 5 school. But the concentration and volume of such students will be much higher at the top 5 school, thus much more likely to be people the students will meet and become close with.
Being approximately half the size of neighboring UNC Chapel Hill, Duke students have more open space, fewer lines and waiting times for crucial services, and generally improved opportunities for choice programs. College is what you make of it, so one could easily squander one's opportunities by not being involved, or choosing to stay in your dorm in solitude doing little else but studying or wasting time on the internet for instance. But there is a difference in the level of effort one must expend to acquire certain services or opportunities as well. At the the end of one's time in college, there is a credentialing difference; how future employers perceive your degree (where you went, your major, your achievements etc.). The quality of one's college experience is driven by the entire process and how much energy one brings to it during the brief time there. When seeking friendships, the level of the other students one meets will vary from a school in the top 10, versus one ranked around 30, or 50, or 100. There is likely to be students just as talented at a school ranked about 100 as a student at a top 5 school. But the concentration and volume of such students will be much higher at the top 5 school, thus much more likely to be people the students will meet and become close with.
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Here are some other Colleges worth consideration in this group:
University of Chicago
location: Chicago, IL. Founded 1890. Endowment: $7.5billion. USN/SWU rank: 4/9. Accepts 9% of applicants. total enrollment: 5659 (1415/yr), 6630 graduate. male/female: 53:47. 51% white, 20% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 5% black.Receives 30,271 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 705/691/2086 , avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $65,000/yr.
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California Institute of Technology
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Johns Hopkins University
location: Baltimore, MD. Founded 1876. Endowment: $3.7billion. USN/SWU rank: 12/17. Accepts 17% of applicants. total enrollment: 5185 (1296/yr), 2031 graduate. male/female: 51:49. 64% white, 9% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 9% black.Receives 31,099 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 706/682//2070 , avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $65,000/yr.
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Northwestern University
location: Evanston, IL. Founded 1851. Endowment: $7.9billion. USN/SWU rank: 13/28. Accepts 15% of applicants. total enrollment: 8600 (2150/yr), 11,839 graduate. male/female: 51:49. 60% white, 20% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 6% black.Receives 32,060 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 706/685/2086, avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $66,000/yr.
Washington University in St. Louis
location: St.Louis, MO. Founded 1853. Endowment: $5.7billion. USN/SWU rank: 14/13. Accepts 16% of applicants. total enrollment: 7336 (1834/yr), 6696 graduate. male/female: 49:51. 60% white, 19% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 6% black.Receives 31,117 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 716/690/2109, avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $66,000/yr.
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University of Notre Dame
location: Notre Dame (South Bend), IN. Founded 1842. Endowment: $6.9billion. USN/SWU rank: 16/283. Accepts 22% of applicants. total enrollment: 8477 (2120/yr), 3647 graduate. male/female: 53:47. 60% white, 19% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 6% black.Receives 31,117 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 683/656/2009, avg comp ACT 30. total cost: $63,000/yr.
Vanderbilt University
location: Nashville, TN. Founded 1873. Endowment: $3billion. USN/SWU rank: 16/54. Accepts 13% of applicants. total enrollment: 6835 (1709/yr), 5922 graduate. male/female: 50:50. 53% white, 22% Asian, 12% Hispanic, 6% black.Receives 20,614 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 683/674/2036 , avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $63,000/yr.
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Emory University
location: Atlanta, GA. Founded 1936. Endowment: $5.8illion. USN/SWU rank: 19/106. Accepts 26% of applicants. total enrollment: 7836 (1959/yr), 6677 graduate. male/female: 43:57. 45% white, 24% Asian, 17% Hispanic, 7% black.Receives 17,681 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 668/654/1980, avg comp ACT 30. total cost: $62,000/yr.
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Rice University
location: Houston, TX. Founded 1912. Endowment: $4.8illion. USN/SWU rank: 21/45. Accepts 17% of applicants. total enrollment: 3965 (991/yr), 2663 graduate. male/female: 52:48. 48% white, 26% Asian, 7% Hispanic, 11% black.Receives 15,415 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 713/680/2081, avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $57,000/yr.
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University of California - Berkeley
location: Berkeley, CA. Founded 1868. Endowment: $6.4billion. USN/SWU rank: 20/4. Accepts 18% of applicants. total enrollment: 25,951 (6488/yr), 37,581 graduate. male/female: 48:52. 27% white, 39% Asian, 13% Hispanic, 3% black.Receives 67,717 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 677/703/2071, avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $58,000/yr.
Georgetown University
location: Washington,DC. Founded 1789. Endowment: $1.4billion. USN/SWU rank: 21/320. Accepts 17% of applicants. total enrollment: 7636 (1909/yr), 10,213 graduate. male/female: 45:55. 65% white, 10% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 7% black.Receives 19,885 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 670/672/2014, avg comp ACT 31. total cost: $62,000/yr.
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The In-State Selective Public Universities
UNC Chapel Hill
location: Chapel Hill, NC. Founded 1789. Endowment: $2.7billion. USN/SWU rank: 30/36. Accepts 27% of applicants. total enrollment: 18,370 (4593/yr), 10,757 graduate. male/female: 42:58. 68% white, 9% Asian, 7% Hispanic, 9% black.Receives 30,835 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 646/633/1914, avg comp ACT 29. total cost: $21,000/yr.
My wife's impression:Well known medical school, law and business. Undergraduates mostly premed, prelaw. Beautiful campus, good education and name recognition. Everyone looks good in blue.
The kids here are driven and talented, bust just slightly more laid back in attitude. There is a much larger percentage of caucasians here compared to the more diverse population at Duke and the Ivies. The UNC campus is second to none in beauty and layout. It is walk-able but takes some work - it's a long ~30minute walk from the hospital complex to the edge of the Planetarium. The history and diverse opportunities at UNC rightfully earns it the reputation of being possibly the best public university (UVA, UCLA and Berkeley would disagree), and definitely one of the best in the country. UNC is somewhat overly dominated by its athletic teams, which is good and bad. As a student, the strong basketball, football, baseball, and lacross programs must create a community of interest and esprit de corps. But it will also be distracting at times. The difficult parking situation during big games is a headache for Chapel Hill residents, but mostly not a concern for students who aren't allowed to have cars on campus anyway til Junior year. UNC is a bargain price for NC state residents compared to any other selective school in the nation, making it a major consideration from a value standpoint. When considering the enormous cost of graduate schools as well, expense becomes a large factor in the college choice decision dependent on one's financial position.
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NC State University
location: Raleigh, NC. Founded 1887. Endowment: $885million. USN/SWU rank: 95/160. Accepts 47% of applicants. total enrollment: 24,536 (6134/yr), 9473 graduate. male/female: 56:44. 77% white, 5% Asian, 4% Hispanic, 7% black.Receives 21,616 applications/yr. avg SAT M/V/t: 610/586/1915 , avg compACT 29. total cost: $21,000/yr.
This is the "other half" of the UNC system schools. As envisioned by the state legislature and education departments, UNC Chapel Hill and NC State University are two halves of a whole university. As such NC State lacks a medical school, a law school, a dental school, and many of the Humanities departments are truncated as compared to UNC Chapel Hill which has all these things but lacks the full Engineering School and the Veterinary school that NC State has. NCSU is set up as the STEM-focused school for the state of NC, and often the choice of many students of the state with primarily these interests. Situated within a fairly dynamic but easy to negotiate city (Raleigh), students here are able to easily access a range of performance arts, pro-sports (Hurricanes NHL hockey), nightlife, and culture (3 great museums, the NC Symphony, Carolina Ballet, etc.). NCSU suffers from comparison with the 2 other world-renowned Universities less than a hour's drive away, but would be able to hold its own against most other universities in the country. By examining the impressive numbers and reputations of NCSU and UNC, one can gain a better perspective on the towering stature of the top ten schools described above.
This is the "other half" of the UNC system schools. As envisioned by the state legislature and education departments, UNC Chapel Hill and NC State University are two halves of a whole university. As such NC State lacks a medical school, a law school, a dental school, and many of the Humanities departments are truncated as compared to UNC Chapel Hill which has all these things but lacks the full Engineering School and the Veterinary school that NC State has. NCSU is set up as the STEM-focused school for the state of NC, and often the choice of many students of the state with primarily these interests. Situated within a fairly dynamic but easy to negotiate city (Raleigh), students here are able to easily access a range of performance arts, pro-sports (Hurricanes NHL hockey), nightlife, and culture (3 great museums, the NC Symphony, Carolina Ballet, etc.). NCSU suffers from comparison with the 2 other world-renowned Universities less than a hour's drive away, but would be able to hold its own against most other universities in the country. By examining the impressive numbers and reputations of NCSU and UNC, one can gain a better perspective on the towering stature of the top ten schools described above.
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source collegedata.com
Established in 1954, competing with each other for centuries, the Ivy League colleges are a fixture in the top 10 school rankings lists since such things were a common concept with publication of annual ranking of colleges 30 years ago. Perhaps for political considerations and geographic diversity reasons, ranking systems labor to scatter the Ivy schools out in the rankings and allow in other schools. Schools like MIT, CalTech, Duke, MIT, Stanford, and Univ of Chicago for instance have made inroads into the top 10 and top 5, but in the realms of reputation, selectivity, and desirability for students and parents, the Ivy League Schools cast a huge shadow over the competition. The top four of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia have been solidly entrenched as the top 4 for years now. Due to the immensity of these schools’ endowments, accumulation of famous alumni, and overall growing influence and power, it is difficult for most other schools to encroach on their territory. The next 4 Ivy schools, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell, are also empowered with such assets, though to a lesser extent, but seem to suffer disproportionately from the ranking systems which bias toward diversity and political appeasements. So Stanford, which have gained in influence since the 1960s along with the silicon valley and the computing age, and Duke, which gains favor as a geographically Southern school (as well as due to its non-academic aspects like basketball), and Chicago due to its Mid Western location, have climbed in rankings precipitously over the past 40 years. But it would be a minority of East-coast students who would reject the top 4 Ivy schools in favor of these others. As the job market and the graduate school markets have become increasingly competitive, and as the price of college education at all private schools have climbed over the years to a stature similar to Ivy League schools’, the lure of the Ivy schools have grown to such an extent that a mania has taken hold among the upper middle classes to place their child into one of these schools.
Is this Ivy-Mania valid and based in reality or is this an example of over-hyped marketing?
Many (including Malcolm Gladwell in his most recent book David and Goliath) point to the analysis by Krueger and Dale examining salaries of “selective schools” graduates compared to “state schools” graduates which seems to show that kids who had what it takes to be admitted to Ivy schools but instead went to state schools had just as high earnings later in life. These studies don’t discriminate between the top 10 schools and a the next several groups of selective colleges with prices as high, but not quite as selective. This inclusion of a much broader swath of colleges contaminates the results, giving results the authors were biased toward presenting - science is often thus influenced by bias and confounds creating distortion and easily manipulated end results: garbage in equals garbage out. But even if one were to look at a result like salary for just the top 10 schools, there is certainly large variations in academic achievements and abilities in students at such schools. At very selective schools, there are drug-addled underachievers, famous celebrities and athletes, offspring of billionaires who are admitted for reasons other than their academic abilities. But in a college environment, the smart child can navigate clear of such trouble spots and find a community of like-minded individuals with whom he can find common ground. Assuming your child is not a film star, nor an Olympic athlete, nor a scion of the Apple fortune, the noise in this data is therefore unimportant.
Things to consider here would be reputation and influence worldwide. If one looks at the Shanghai rankings of world universities http://www.shanghairanking.com/ , one sees a slightly different rank list than the US News. The top ten list as measured out by US News are still prominent, but not so much the smaller ones. 6 of the 8 Ivy schools place into the top 16, and large American Universities still dominate this list, with only Cambridge at #5 and Oxford at #9. This rank created by an international board consisting of mostly non-Americans, with no apparent political or business agenda to empower American schools seems a more objective analysis of the reality of rankings as it is. Publications and high-powered research reputation plays a larger role on this list. Politics and the typical desire by such committees to pander to certain constituencies and political beliefs will still influence choices and metrics. Thus certain schools of lower selectivity make this list. When taken together however, all such lists create a gestalt along with life experiences to give those who are interested in such things a firm impression of the global stature of certain institutions. Other things besides reputation and influence matter when one chooses a college. What one learns, what one experiences in terms of the people, the traditions, and the facilities matter a great deal.
However, $70k per year is willingly paid out by parents throughout the US not for a school’s facilities. This expense, the price of a large mortgage, is paid to give a child access and opportunity in a world increasingly discriminating toward eliteness. Eliteness grants one privileges that money cannot easily buy. Over the past 50 years, a new aristocracy based on intellectual merit has overtaken the traditional unspoken caste/class system entrenched in Europe and in the US. 10 years ago the NY Times did a series analyzing the class system in the US, suggesting the prominent contribution of education into this class system, especially the most elite education. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html . More recently (January 2015), the Economist makes this same point in an edition dedicated to this topic - http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21640331-importance-intellectual-capital-grows-privilege-has-become-increasingly . The most desirable friends and future spouses, the most desirable positions in even more elite graduate programs, the most desirable and highest paying of occupations and future jobs - all these things are most available to those who win this competition. Your peers often determine your lifestyle and your life. There is a lifelong assortative mating, a lifelong assortative friendship-making; “networking” as they call it, that is occurring here. There is also an objective assessment often made by those in positions of hiring or accepting candidates for desirable positions, that is often cruel and brutal in its efficiency and honesty. Those charged with finding the best people for the best positions tend not to gamble on marginal candidates. They want the best guarantees one can find - students who succeed at elite, competitive universities. This highly prized elite credentialing is the golden ticket to a lifetime of success, including opportunities provided to one’s future offspring by this gene pool - thus intellectual and academic success grants a type of generational wealth surrogate that money itself has become too unreliable to provide. This competition is not merely about money and lifestyle; it’s about the peer groups, the company of successful and talented friends and benefactors, and the intellectual fitness and opportunities available to your future offspring as well.
Things to consider here would be reputation and influence worldwide. If one looks at the Shanghai rankings of world universities http://www.shanghairanking.com/ , one sees a slightly different rank list than the US News. The top ten list as measured out by US News are still prominent, but not so much the smaller ones. 6 of the 8 Ivy schools place into the top 16, and large American Universities still dominate this list, with only Cambridge at #5 and Oxford at #9. This rank created by an international board consisting of mostly non-Americans, with no apparent political or business agenda to empower American schools seems a more objective analysis of the reality of rankings as it is. Publications and high-powered research reputation plays a larger role on this list. Politics and the typical desire by such committees to pander to certain constituencies and political beliefs will still influence choices and metrics. Thus certain schools of lower selectivity make this list. When taken together however, all such lists create a gestalt along with life experiences to give those who are interested in such things a firm impression of the global stature of certain institutions. Other things besides reputation and influence matter when one chooses a college. What one learns, what one experiences in terms of the people, the traditions, and the facilities matter a great deal.
However, $70k per year is willingly paid out by parents throughout the US not for a school’s facilities. This expense, the price of a large mortgage, is paid to give a child access and opportunity in a world increasingly discriminating toward eliteness. Eliteness grants one privileges that money cannot easily buy. Over the past 50 years, a new aristocracy based on intellectual merit has overtaken the traditional unspoken caste/class system entrenched in Europe and in the US. 10 years ago the NY Times did a series analyzing the class system in the US, suggesting the prominent contribution of education into this class system, especially the most elite education. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html . More recently (January 2015), the Economist makes this same point in an edition dedicated to this topic - http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21640331-importance-intellectual-capital-grows-privilege-has-become-increasingly . The most desirable friends and future spouses, the most desirable positions in even more elite graduate programs, the most desirable and highest paying of occupations and future jobs - all these things are most available to those who win this competition. Your peers often determine your lifestyle and your life. There is a lifelong assortative mating, a lifelong assortative friendship-making; “networking” as they call it, that is occurring here. There is also an objective assessment often made by those in positions of hiring or accepting candidates for desirable positions, that is often cruel and brutal in its efficiency and honesty. Those charged with finding the best people for the best positions tend not to gamble on marginal candidates. They want the best guarantees one can find - students who succeed at elite, competitive universities. This highly prized elite credentialing is the golden ticket to a lifetime of success, including opportunities provided to one’s future offspring by this gene pool - thus intellectual and academic success grants a type of generational wealth surrogate that money itself has become too unreliable to provide. This competition is not merely about money and lifestyle; it’s about the peer groups, the company of successful and talented friends and benefactors, and the intellectual fitness and opportunities available to your future offspring as well.
This is the brass ring for which parents and children are competing. It is not an unworthy goal seen in this light, and difficult to dismiss as insignificant as so many nowadays seek so desperately to do. The price seems in fact worth paying as one analyzes various choices, alternatives, and possibilities in life. What has come into this process is that various entities have been sniffing the trail of money, and the thousands of colleges, prep schools, and college-prep businesses have jumped into this process, confusing the issue for many. There is a finitude to the idea of prestige. Contrary to Garrison Keillor’s claim, not every child is above average. How one filters and winnows to determine what constitutes the set of criteria making a child eligible to become a member of a top ten school for instance becomes embroiled in a tangle of emotions and political wrangling. Nobody wants to admit that they are not worthy - it is in fact unacceptable to many when one is discussing one’s own offspring. And yet reality is difficult to delude ourselves from. Just as there is large business and political interest in denying the possibility of a bell curve in human intelligence, there is an equally large interest in denying the difference between these Ivy League schools (and a handful of non-Ivies) and the typical well-respected private or flagship state schools. This self-delusory psychology is what allows the typical private university nationwide to charge sums very similar (within $1-10k/yr) to Ivy League and top-ten schools. People are willing to pay such fees even for schools not ranked so highly as they enable the substitution of the price tag for the prestige and everything else that goes with it. Schools are happy to offer this delusion and are raking in billions of dollars, relentlessly inflating the higher-education bubble.
There are less than 20,000 spots available in the top ten schools for the 150,000 students graduating at the top 10% of the nation’s high school ranks each year. With various athletic teams, legacies, and affirmative action programs claiming large percentages of precious spots in the most elite of colleges, the opportunities dwindle alarmingly for anyone who is not unusually gifted in some way. As the demand of these premium positions rises as the value of each spot becomes increasingly clear in the minds of more and more people, other influences come into play - people with money and power perhaps unduly command these high-demand spots. Corruption is inevitable. But even those who corrupt the process realize that the value in these systems is in the very nature of eliteness. Once the talent departs facilities, the value departs along with them. With increasing competition, many are abandoning these top 10 lists and going down the list a few notches to find institutions possibly as full of talented individuals but without the attitude. Perhaps much is lost in this travel downstream, such as endowments, influence and power, as well as the reputation and prestige that grants one access and opportunities. But there is surely a proportionate value to be harvested from these schools in the top 20 and top 50 as well. Not everyone can have a coveted spot in the most elite schools; in that case, the wisest course is to grab the most elite position one can obtain; it becomes a higher-education game of musical chairs, and translates downstream. And so the basic recipe to allow one entry into these elite Ivy League schools, the top-10 schools, or whatever mark one may target, remains constant. One must demonstrate eliteness academically, intellectually, in as many ways as possible to allow the clearest recognition by these institutions for inclusion. Whether one can or will afford the financing of this education is a different matter. One must examine the long-term cost of one’s choice. There is an opportunity cost, and then there is a potential opportunity lost.
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