Ranking of T14, from most to least prestigious Forum

[Neander]

Concerning Chicago: Before applying to UGs, I actually hadn't ever heard of Chicago. Dunno why Chicago suffers from less prestige than it should have. Maybe for the same reason Penn does (University of...)

A name like "Duke" or "Cornell" or (especially) "Dartmouth" kind of yells prestige and douchebaggery.

Yes. I was even shocked to learn in my late teens that Notre Dame was actually "the University of Notre Dame". I always wondered why it wasn't "Notre Dame University" or "Notre Dame College".

Conversely, I know people who thing Boston College is in the same league as Harvard. For that matter, any school in the northeast is seen as prestigious. They might as well be Harvard or Yale.

In the aggregate, schools NOT named after places have more lay prestige. School named after people - fictitious or not - are thought to be most prestigious. Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Columbia, Baylor, Rice, Purdue...

Eh, not sure about Baylor and Purdue

[moneybagsphd]

Just for the lulz.

I'm surprised a lot of people think UChicago has lay prestige. My experience has shown the opposite (West Coast).

Here's my rankings:
Harvard
Princeton Law
Yale
Stanford
Georgetown
Columbia
Berkeley
Cornell
Penn
Duke
Northwestern
NYU
Chicago
Michigan
Virginia

Georgetown higher than Columbia? Outed as Georgetown student.

LOL dude will be a Columbia student. But he's right. People think really highly of Georgetown, although not in DC, apparently.

Definitely not thought of as more prestigious than Columbia, but yeah Gtown has the biggest disparity between lay-actual prestige.

[PDaddy]

Eh, not sure about Baylor and Purdue

Ask people on the street. Those names sound like hot shit! As a matter of fact, I bet people think Baylor and Purdue have hot shit law schools, just like Princeton.

[bernaldiaz]

Also, the T14 law schools probably wouldn't have the top 14 spots in lay prestige. I think Notre Dame (maybe UCLA too) would probably be more impressive to the average Joe than a few t14s, since lay prestige is largely predicated on strength of undergrad.

[3ThrowAway99]

Also, the T14 law schools probably wouldn't have the top 14 spots in lay prestige. I think Notre Dame (maybe UCLA too) would probably be more impressive to the average Joe than a few t14s, since lay prestige is largely predicated on strength of undergrad.

Yeah, I think UCLA has pretty high lay prefstige at least.

[kwais]

Eh, not sure about Baylor and Purdue

Ask people on the street. Those names sound like hot shit! As a matter of fact, I bet people think Baylor and Purdue have hot shit law schools, just like Princeton.

really depends on where you are from. There is not a soul I knew growing up in New England who thinks that a prestigious school could exist in Texas and in whatever state Purdue is in.

[El_Gallo]

I'm surprised at all the love Chicago is getting. As a lay man of Washington State, this is my list:

H
Y
S
Berkeley
Georgetown/UCLA/University of Washington
Columbia/Cornell
NYU/Duke

Very few of my friends would know that PENN is an ivy. Chi, M, V, and NW would all be off the radar completely.

[admisionquestion]

After talking with my parents for a while this is what they concluded... Id call them "lay."

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Princeton
3. Chicago (we are from midwest)
4. Stanford
5. Georgetown
6. Penn state
7. Duke
8. "Somewhere in Texas has to be good"
9. Northwestern
10. Georgetown.

[3ThrowAway99]

Eh, not sure about Baylor and Purdue

As a matter of fact, I bet people think Baylor and Purdue have hot shit law schools.

Lol what? Ok, maybe Baylor, because their med school is known to be pretty good.

[3ThrowAway99]

I'm surprised at all the love Chicago is getting. As a lay man of Washington State, this is my list:

H
Y
S
Berkeley
Georgetown/UCLA/University of Washington
Columbia/Cornell
NYU/Duke

Very few of my friends would know that PENN is an ivy. Chi, M, V, and NW would all be off the radar completely.

Yeah, on West Coast Berk is super prefstigious, and in West PENN doesn't really register (though I think that is at least as much true for NYU).

[powder]

.

[moneybagsphd]

After talking with my parents for a while this is what they concluded... Id call them "lay."

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Princeton
3. Chicago (we are from midwest)
4. Stanford
5. Georgetown
6. Penn state
7. Duke
8. "Somewhere in Texas has to be good"
9. Northwestern
10. Georgetown.

wut.

[lawyerwannabe]

NE perspective: The weirdest T14 is Penn because a lot of people do not even know it exists and a lot of people randomly think Penn State is prestigious. True story: friend from HS who went to Penn State had a friend you obliviously wrote "University of Pennsylvania" on his resume and was really confused after he was "scolded" by an interviewer for lying.

[TTTehehe]

Harvard -> everyone knows H.
Yale -> everyone knows Y.
Stanford -> everyone knows S.

Cal Berkeley -> well respected public school; associated with left leanings.
Columbia -> sounds Ivy.
Cornell -> sounds Ivy.

Georgetown -> most people know "Hoyas."
Duke -> Basketball | Blue Devils.
UCLA -> Fresh Prince.

Northwestern -> Isn't that in Chicago?
UPenn -> Penn State?
NYU -> New York.

Michigan -> Football.
Chicago -> Oh, that's nice.
UVA -> Oh, that's nice.

Yes, I know it's 15 schools.

[PDaddy]

Eh, not sure about Baylor and Purdue

Ask people on the street. Those names sound like hot shit! As a matter of fact, I bet people think Baylor and Purdue have hot shit law schools, just like Princeton.

really depends on where you are from. There is not a soul I knew growing up in New England who thinks that a prestigious school could exist in Texas and in whatever state Purdue is in.

Credited, but mostly because everyone, even northeasterners, pretty much assumes that the northeast is the hotbed of U.S. education. Old reputations die hard. Purdue is a bit trickier, because it is in the midwest (Indiana) and part of the Big-10. Other than the Ivy league, the midwestern schools that comprise the pre-2000 Big-10 are believed to be the most impressive academic consortium. Besides, the people you mention have to know that Notre Dame is also in Indiana.

[Neander]

Harvard -> everyone knows H.
Yale -> everyone knows Y.
Stanford -> everyone knows S.

Cal Berkeley -> well respected public school; associated with left leanings.
Columbia -> sounds Ivy.
Cornell -> sounds Ivy.

Georgetown -> most people know "Hoyas."
Duke -> Basketball | Blue Devils.
UCLA -> Fresh Prince.

Northwestern -> Isn't that in Chicago?
UPenn -> Penn State?
NYU -> New York.

Michigan -> Football.
Chicago -> Oh, that's nice.
UVA -> Oh, that's nice.

Yes, I know it's 15 schools.

This seems pretty accurate. I feel bad for the Chicago kids TBH. Their school is on par with Duke/Georgetown/Dartmouth/Cornell, and yet they get no cred.

[kwais]

Eh, not sure about Baylor and Purdue

Ask people on the street. Those names sound like hot shit! As a matter of fact, I bet people think Baylor and Purdue have hot shit law schools, just like Princeton.

really depends on where you are from. There is not a soul I knew growing up in New England who thinks that a prestigious school could exist in Texas and in whatever state Purdue is in.

Credited, but mostly because everyone, even northeasterners, pretty much assumes that the northeast is the hotbed of U.S. education. Old reputations die hard. Purdue is a bit trickier, because it is in the midwest (Indiana) and part of the Big-10. Other than the Ivy league, the midwestern schools that comprise the pre-2000 Big-10 are believed to be the most impressive academic consortium. Besides, the people you mention have to know that Notre Dame is also in Indiana.

they do know this, because of Rudy and football in general. Nothing to do prestige though. I would also argue that although there are many excellent school scattered round the country, to say that the northeast education meme comes from an "old reputation" is inaccurate. In terms of excellent schools concentrated in one region, it is still true.

[PinkCow]

Harvard -> everyone knows H.
Yale -> everyone knows Y.
Stanford -> everyone knows S.

Cal Berkeley -> well respected public school; associated with left leanings.
Columbia -> sounds Ivy.
Cornell -> sounds Ivy.

Georgetown -> most people know "Hoyas."
Duke -> Basketball | Blue Devils.
UCLA -> Fresh Prince.

Northwestern -> Isn't that in Chicago?
UPenn -> Penn State?
NYU -> New York.

Michigan -> Football.
Chicago -> Oh, that's nice.
UVA -> Oh, that's nice.

Yes, I know it's 15 schools.

T-6 Baby!

[shredderrrrrr]

Using my Iowa family as a reference (note: They are pretty knowledgeable with colleges due to my sister visiting awesome schools and my mother working for the University in medicine)

1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. NYU
6. Chicago
7. Cornell
8. Berkeley
9. Virginia
10. Georgetown
11. Penn
12. Northwestern
13. Michigan
14. Duke

[cynthia rose]

Just for the hell of it I asked my sister what she thought of each school and how each was probably ranked. Keep in mind we are from Bumfuck, AL so we're talking lowest common denominator lay prestige here. These were her responses:

- Harvard - "They're probably ranked 0.5...half a step above #1."
- Yale - "Uh...0.75? Well really, I see Harvard and Yale as tied. Just a bunch of uppity white folks in the north."
- Georgetown - "umm....#2 or #3, I guess."
- Columbia - "That's in DC, right?" "No, NY." "Oh! Oops. Well, I've heard of them. They sent me some stuff when I was in high school. They must be pretty good."
- NYU - "The shittiest of the shit toilets that ever shitted." (Full disclosure: they are the only undergrad she applied to who rejected her, so she just hates them now and will never say anything nice about them. But since she did apply she must have thought highly of them at some point.)
- Cornell - "is that a black school? I've heard of them but I don't know anything about them."
- Michigan - *turns up nose* "Uh-uh, they're only good for churning out football players."
- Virginia - "Ew. They're in the south. The deep south. No bueno." This then reminded her to tell me about the all-white church convention a neighboring county is having this week that will end in a cross burning on the last day. Gotta love my state, huh. Well, this is apparently what she thinks folks in VA do, too.
- Chicago - "I wouldn't move to Chicago."
- UPenn - "I don't know them. But I'm sure they're good. Pennsylvania's an okay state. Just full of a bunch of hood white people." I have no idea what that even means.
- Duke - "Where are they, anyway? North Carolina? No, I wouldn't go there." Seemed turned off by the name.
- Stanford - "They're in Atlanta, right?" "No, they're in California." "Oh, right. What am I thinking of that is in Atlanta? Samford?" "Samford is in Birmingham." "Well damn! Whatever, I don't know anything about Stanford."
- Berkeley - "I don't know. But I know where they are!"
- Northwestern - "That's in Boston!" "No, that's Northeastern. Jesus. Have you ever heard of Northwestern?" "No. Apparently not."

My sister was being exceptionally dim tonight for some reason - she really should have known Stanford - but I suspect she's a close enough approximation to the familiarity - or lack thereof - that people in our area would have of these schools...the first four or five are really familiar to them, insert the top state school (UA) after that, and then 'med school' mentality kicks in (it's a law school so it must be fine). If you ask a bunch of die-hard college football fans though, the CA schools would probably be tied for fourth or fifth place. And Duke would probably have higher recognition than my sister would give it because of b-ball, though the douchebaggery vibe would remain no matter what.

I will always be mystified as to why the idea that Georgetown is highly prestigious is almost universal. How did they accomplish that? When I lived in DC lay prestige seriously had my circle of acquaintances there (some originally from the DMV area) convinced that it's at least a top 5 school, if not top 3. They also thought GW was a top 10.

[Yukos]

You guys forgot the lay prestige #1 school evar (well maybe #2 after Harvard) TULANE!

Seriously, I have no idea why, but when I asked my parents this question that was the first answer out of their mouths. Old people love Tulane.

[sfxx]

Chicago has no lay prestige on the west coast, I bet the "average" west coaster would put ucla/usc above chicago

[lilhugsy24]

From Cali
H
SY
Columbia
Berkeley
Georgetown
Cornell
Duke
NYU
Maybe Northwestern but I doubt it.

CMVP probably not even thought of. If I put in UCLA though it would probably be right under Berkeley or G.

[6lehderjets]

The most preftigious T14 is the one that gives me a full-ride with a stipend.

/thread

[3ThrowAway99]

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/overall2010.html

Usually a peaceful-minded guy, but someone needs to burn this effing school down. Figuratively of course.

Now they rank themselves #2 nationally? No wonder so many ppl hate this school.