T14...Layman Style (useless ranking ITT) Forum

[rinkrat19]

Came in here to suggest Princeton. Scooped.

Relevant: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/11/de ... chool.html
(interesting to note that the dude eventually got into Harvard.)

[Killingly]

Would definitely kick NYU down to the bottom 12-14 for layman. I say this as an self-pitying NYU student who thirsts for the Prestige.

I'm an East Coaster, and people I run into seem to think NYU is in the top 3. Also, plenty think Georgetown is amazing and have no clue UMich is a "good" school at all.

[20130312]

This is regionally subjective. Where I live, it would go Yale, Harvard, Penn, and everything else would follow from there.

[splitbrain]

This is regionally subjective.

This.

Although this is pretty funny to think about...

I think bar girls in CA would probably be familiar with at most half those schools.

Top 3 would probably be:

1. HARVARD (If only because of "Legally Blonde" - I wish I was kidding when I say that)
2. STANFORD ("That's here in California, right?")
3. YALE ("Ooooh there's a lot of rich people there")

The rest I am not sure about but I have a feeling the response to Columbia might be "What, like, the country?"

[SehMeSerrious]

I grew up in Europe, which meant not getting the same kind of awareness of the top schools.
At the time, I, and most of my friends, would probably have ranked them:

1: Harvard
2: Yale
3: Columbia
4: Berkeley
5: Cornell
5: Georgetown
5: Duke
8: Stanford
8: NYU
10: Penn (although I wouldn't have known the difference between UPenn and Penn State)
UVA, Michigan, Chicago, NU wouldn't have ranked at all

I think this is the most accurate lay-ranking, except I would have put Stanford above Columbia and instead of Penn or NYC, Princeton would be in there somewhere.

My West Coast bias would have put Duke lower, but I recognize that as West Coast bias.

[caputlupinum]

I have literally had 5 different people say almost exactly, "wow that's the best one in the country isn't it?" When I tell them I applied to UNC.... People in North Cackalacky think UNC is like Oxford or Cambridge...

[westinghouse60]

I have literally had 5 different people say almost exactly, "wow that's the best one in the country isn't it?" When I tell them I applied to UNC.... People in North Cackalacky think UNC is like Oxford or Cambridge...

+1. Mostly due to awareness from sports/every NC high school kid who isn't HYP material wants to go to UNC. I know people who turned down Duke/Stanford to go there. (Really not a bad decision for undergrad if you'll be taking out loans).

This is regionally subjective. Where I live, it would go Yale, Harvard, Penn, and everything else would follow from there.

This is true, but for some reason GULC and Cornell really impress people even in the south.

[Moriarty]

I'm an East Coaster, too, and people tend to think of Harvard, Columbia, GULC, Duke, and Cornell as the best schools. And I'm not trolling when I say that they'd most likely rank Vanderbilt over the west coast T-14s, as well as over UChi and Michigan. *shrugs*

[r6_philly]

How many? Sigh...

[ConfidenceMan2]

I have literally had 5 different people say almost exactly, "wow that's the best one in the country isn't it?" When I tell them I applied to UNC.... People in North Cackalacky think UNC is like Oxford or Cambridge...

I don't know where in NC you are, but aside from the general assumption that Carolina Law is a ticket to glory and riches, I hear a lot of "NC Central is on the rise. I hear it's ranked in the top [some extremely falsified number, like 10 or 5]." I always nod my head and agree. "Great school, for sure." Which, for all I know, is absolutely correct, even if I do know that it's not ranked very highly.

[DonnaDraper]

Notre Dame should be ranked ahead of NYU, as is evidenced by one of my top 3 favorite films, iforgethetitlebutithaskatehudsonandthatchickfromthepolygamyshow. Kate Hudson's character paraded around an acceptance to ND Law that she never took up while silly polygamist girl cowers around because she only got in to NYU (the implication being that she was rejected from ND). BUT WHO GETS THE GUY? ikr.

LOL. "You know how hard it is to get into Notre Dame!" says the NYU grad in a jealous rage.

[yngblkgifted]

As a UVA student, I'd like to propose that we move down to 14.... . Oh how I wish my school had lay prestige outside of Charlottesville bars.

[bernaldiaz]

As a UVA student, I'd like to propose that we move down to 14.... . Oh how I wish my school had lay prestige outside of Charlottesville bars.

I think you guys have a bit of lay prestige. Up in New England we definitely appreciate UVA.

I'd put the lay rankings like this.

Layman T14 (best guess)
1. HARVARD
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Georgetown
5. Columbia
6. Penn
7. NYU
8. Duke
9. Cornell
10. Berkeley
11. Virginia
12. Chicago
13. Northwestern
14. MICHIGAN

[yngblkgifted]

As a UVA student, I'd like to propose that we move down to 14.... . Oh how I wish my school had lay prestige outside of Charlottesville bars.

I think you guys have a bit of lay prestige. Up in New England we definitely appreciate UVA.

I'd put the lay rankings like this.

Layman T14 (best guess)
1. HARVARD
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Georgetown
5. Columbia
6. Penn
7. NYU
8. Duke
9. Cornell
10. Berkeley
11. Virginia
12. Chicago
13. Northwestern
14. MICHIGAN

New England? Haven't spent much time up there, but I've spent time in the mid-atlantic/northeast and people generally have no idea what UVA is. This looks like a list of someone who actually grew up in VA.

[bernaldiaz]

As a UVA student, I'd like to propose that we move down to 14.... . Oh how I wish my school had lay prestige outside of Charlottesville bars.

I think you guys have a bit of lay prestige. Up in New England we definitely appreciate UVA.

I'd put the lay rankings like this.

Layman T14 (best guess)
1. HARVARD
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Georgetown
5. Columbia
6. Penn
7. NYU
8. Duke
9. Cornell
10. Berkeley
11. Virginia
12. Chicago
13. Northwestern
14. MICHIGAN

New England? Haven't spent much time up there, but I've spent time in the mid-atlantic/northeast and people generally have no idea what UVA is. This looks like a list of someone who actually grew up in VA.

I'm from a classic New England town (think like Exeter, Andover) that appreciates that sort of old money, historical, WASPy type of school. UVa definitely has some major cred in those type of circles. Actually tempted to put UVa up to 7 after Penn now that I'm looking at it (not that it matters what I think haha)

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

All these lists are missing the big named local school at the 5 or 6 position. Usually these schools are public are public and have big football stadiums, but they don't have to be. In Colorado the list is probably something like:

1. Harvard
2. Standford
3. Duke
3. Yale/Cornell/Vandy
4. University of Denver
5. UCLA/USC/ (maybe other random T-14 that people think they have heard good things about.. Columbia comes to mind)
6. University of Colorado/ Notre Dame
7. through 50. random other schools they have seen on TV

It is actually kind of strange that in Colorado 4/5 people think DU is better than CU. Lay perceptions are hard to understand in some cases, and I think here they are influenced by Boulders rep as a party school, DU's undergrad being ranked well (although not really ranked better than CU....), and the fact that DU is private.

In other states I have lived in the lists would be similar, subbing out the DU spot for Emory/UGA, in GA, OU, in Oklahoma, and OSU, for Ohio.

I have lived in Texas and the list is something more like this:

1. UT/Harvard/Stanford
2. A&M (actually UT and A&M are switched depending on what part of the state you are from)
3. Baylor/Yale/Cornell/Duke/Andy
4. SMU/ Notre Dame
5. UH/Tech/TCU
6. Random tiny Texas schools. St. Marys. ASU.. etc
7. through 50. doesn't matter or hasn't heard of any other schools.

Totally a product of the sub culture but all these lists are missing the local schools. I based my lists on the ability to pick up girls at a bar or impress people when dropping the school, which is what most people think of when they define "prestige," but other definitions that take academic rigor into account are obviously useful as well.

[icpb]

The lay prestige I was exposed to can be represented by tiers:
1. Harvard
distance
2. Stanford/Yale/Oxford
3. Columbia/Princeton/Cambridge
distance
4. Chicago/Penn/Cornell/Michigan/Berkeley/Virginia/Duke/Georgetown/Notre Dame + local schools
5. All others

[cubbiesyear]

...thinks it's funny when people get mad about repeat threads..pick your battles..

..Bows out..

[hoos89]

/

[charliep]

in cleveland, cleveland-marshall would definately make the list

[murray18]

In SEC country, it seems to be very different. Here's my take.

1. Harvard/Yale
2. Duke
3. Vanderbilt
4. Emory
5. Closest SEC school
6. Oooooh you're going to law school?! You're gonna be rich, right?!
.
.
.
.
204. Florida (At least in GA).

But obviously Princeton tops them all.

[banjo]

Here's the lay list among Asian parents.

Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Columbia (switch with Stanford if on east coast)
UPenn
Cornell
NYU
Berkeley (switch with NYU if on west coast)
Michigan
Chicago
Duke
Northwestern
Georgetown
Virginia

[Nelson10]

All these lists are missing the big named local school at the 5 or 6 position. Usually these schools are public are public and have big football stadiums, but they don't have to be. In Colorado the list is probably something like:

1. Harvard
2. Standford
3. Duke
3. Yale/Cornell/Vandy
4. University of Denver
5. UCLA/USC/ (maybe other random T-14 that people think they have heard good things about.. Columbia comes to mind)
6. University of Colorado/ Notre Dame
7. through 50. random other schools they have seen on TV

It is actually kind of strange that in Colorado 4/5 people think DU is better than CU. Lay perceptions are hard to understand in some cases, and I think here they are influenced by Boulders rep as a party school, DU's undergrad being ranked well (although not really ranked better than CU....), and the fact that DU is private.

In other states I have lived in the lists would be similar, subbing out the DU spot for Emory/UGA, in GA, OU, in Oklahoma, and OSU, for Ohio.

I have lived in Texas and the list is something more like this:

1. UT/Harvard/Stanford
2. A&M (actually UT and A&M are switched depending on what part of the state you are from)
3. Baylor/Yale/Cornell/Duke/Andy
4. SMU/ Notre Dame
5. UH/Tech/TCU
6. Random tiny Texas schools. St. Marys. ASU.. etc
7. through 50. doesn't matter or hasn't heard of any other schools.

Totally a product of the sub culture but all these lists are missing the local schools. I based my lists on the ability to pick up girls at a bar or impress people when dropping the school, which is what most people think of when they define "prestige," but other definitions that take academic rigor into account are obviously useful as well.

I live in Buffalo and almost every time I tell someone I'm going to UVA I get one of two responses. Most often it's why aren't you going to UB. Slightly less often it's something along the lines of "Well what happened I thought you applied to Notre Dame/Georgetown/Duke."

[Mr. Somebody]

UVA is definitely the worst T14 when it comes to the all-important lay prestige

[thecactus]

Here's the lay list among Asian parents.

Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Columbia (switch with Stanford if on east coast)
UPenn
Cornell
NYU
Berkeley (switch with NYU if on west coast)
Michigan
Chicago
Duke
Northwestern
Georgetown
Virginia

Having grown up with crazy Asian parents, I think this is pretty accurate...although I would rank Duke below Georgetown. Southern schools don't seem to impress Asians that much. All my mom's Mahjong buddies are telling me to go to Cornell instead of UVa.