Not especially prestigious . There is this , though.
Did not mean to quote you, DaphneBlack… whoops!
I can’t be the only graduate from C (no hyphen) M (no U)*, can I?
As to whether it was worth it… Yes, I am glad I went there for chemistry. I think I got a great edimucasun in general. Could I have gotten as good an education at, e.g. Penn State? Probably. But I fit in quite well with all of the geeks at Carnegie. So for me, it’s not so much what I picked up in class.
OTOH, I am now in URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography, which is, of course, a part of a state school. But GSO is a totally separate campus, so it feels like we are in a separate world. (And those random few times when I have to go to main campus prove that it is a separate world.)
Cheers
-geek
*At some point in the 90’s, Carnegie-Mellon University decided that it wanted to be known as “Carnegie Mellon”. Thus the moniker of C (no hyphen) M (no U). Strangely, tho, the webpage is still www.cmu.edu.
I did my undergrad at University of Waterloo and grad school at University of Texas at Austin. The quality of education should be fairly decent at any top 50/100 school. The difference comes in the people that you meet and name recognition. Waterloo has one of the top reputations in Canada and a reasonable name recognition here in Texas especially in groundwater and it’s helped somewhat. I’m not sure how well UT fairs outside of Texas but in Texas it helps to be from one of the top few (most notably A&M and UT). Of course once you get out working several years where you went to school is irrelevant if you can’t back it up.
I became curious on how these schools ranked and found the following website: Top 500 Worldwide Universities
I was surprised at how low they ranked Waterloo. Of course ranking is quite difficult and they’re looking at the overall university not specific areas like engineering.
Looks like my degree is from #18 on the list.
For me, it was pretty much a waste of money. Not a bad school, but a fairly… childish one. I went for a semester, dropped out, waited two years, then went back. By that point, the school was so not for me, mostly white, mostly middle to upper middle class, mostly Catholic, mostly fresh out of high school, mostly living on campus. Blah.
My niece is attending NYU and I look at that school with envy. That wouldn’t have been blah. Gosh, I’m jealous.
I went there for a year, before they decided that Engineering wasn’t for me. Apparently my low grades were a sign of low interest, so they suspended me for a year. In reality, I just decided that I didn’t need to study. Hey, it worked out fine in high school. I never went back, except once to visit my friends during carnival. I ended up getting a Bachelor’s in Statisitics and Actuarial Science from a not-so-highly-ranked state college.
I did eventually redeem myself with an MBA from Rice.
…but somehow, I never learned how to spell Statistics.
I went to Cal Berkeley, and I know several other Dopers did too.
I loved Berkeley. I had a lot of catching up to do, actually; I went to a pretty rotten high school and had no real idea of how to write good papers, and I was a lit major! That was a problem for me the whole time, and I only really got good at it in grad school. If I were to change anything, it would be level of preparation I brought to the experience. I feel like I probably missed a lot through sheer ignorance.
My instructors were mostly very good, though one or two professors come to mind who weren’t so great. I met lots of neat people (and lots of pretentious snots too). Just walking through the various libraries made me very happy–I’m a librarian now. I was introduced to a whole new world, pretty much, and I am a little horrified at how close I came to having a different life without it.
On the whole, I loved pretty much everything about Berkeley and still miss it in some ways, though I would no longer want to actually live there (I love my home here). It’s not for everyone by any means, but it was perfect for me. And I met DangerDad there, too!
I also went to MIT and loved it. You get exposure to top professors, you get to use really cool equipment, and today it is much better, with students getting a lot more exposure to research than we did. I also had a lot of fun. My hall did not exactly have the highest average cum of all of MIT, so I didn’t feel much competitive pressure. I am pretty certain that being from MIT helped getting into grad school, and even in work when I had MIT bosses.
I don’t know for sure, but my impression is that a higher percentage of MIT students wear their brass rats (the class ring) than just about any other college. Cal, do you wear yours?
Of course the tuition even 35 years ago was Too Damn Much, but it was worth it.
:eek:
Well, I guess since you didn’t have the highest average cum, you didn’t have much pressure at all. Maybe if you built it up for a few weeks before releaseing it? 
Only on special occasions. The Brass Rat has got to be one of the biggest and most uncomfortable school rings there is. It feels like wearing a hex nut on your finger.
But it looks cool…
I went to (and I quote) “A small prestigious liberal arts men’s college on the Main Line”. Still on the Main Line, but I am glad to say no longer men-only; in fact it is currently 56% women.
College was traumatic for me, but I don’t link this to the school at all. In fact, I picked up a lot of really great values and ideas from that school. I studied chemistry, at which I was really terrible! But I’m thankful because I learned tons. I developed an appreciation for the universe around us that I never would have had otherwise. I got to play varsity sports and do many other things that I never would have done at a larger school.
Still, the best thing was going in a kid and leaving a young adult. My school really stressed the importance of personal integrity, values, and conscience. Once you begin to believe that, you never stop. The best education is the one that you discover is still happening even when you’re 50.
Oh, and by the way, it was Haverford College. An accidental discovery, to be sure, but one that changed my life.
I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (ranked #14 in the above listing)as an undergraduate and loved it. My real regret is I didn’t take more advantage of the opportunities there.
I did my graduate studies in Economics at the University of Rochester and regret it to this day. It just did not work out for me, unfortunately.
I went to the University of Virginia, which is a fairly high-ranked school (#23 in the 2006 US News list) but not so prestigious. It was a good fit for me, and I got a great education there, but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s made a big difference in my working life.
I went to #9 on the worldwide list (University of Chicago) before I got frustrated with the lack of real world knowledge imparted in most of the classes, and the incredible social awkwardness of the much of the student population, and left after a year.
Do I regret it? I like my life now, but yeah, I do regret leaving somewhat. I wish I had waited a year after high school before going on to college.
My Hubby attended UW-Madison (#34 or #16) as an undergrad and grad student (biochemistry, then molecular biology). I went to the University of Cincinnati, as did my sister.
The two are worlds apart.
Not to say there aren’t good teachers and good experiences to be had anywhere you go. Nearly every lesser-ranked school is going to have some really strong departments - UC’s DAA§, CCM, and College of Engineering were well regarded when I was there 20+ years ago.
It’s the overall experience that’s vastly different.
Just one example - when my Hubby graduated (we only went to his BS ceremony), it was a huge celebration. The fieldhouse was rockin’, the band was playing, the banners were flying; the speaker was somebody somewhat famous who had profound things to say; the students sang and danced, they’d decorated their hats (what are those things called?) with all kinds of stuff to indicate their future plans (or lack thereof - plenty of them had printed “Need a Job” in masking tape). Something mattered.
When my sister graduated from the University of Cincinnati a couple of years later, the “ceremony” was in a half-empty gym, the decorations were a few potted plants, the speaker system barely worked, and then everyone left. It was dank. My sister remarked that she’d just graduated from a second-rate school.
My undergrad was ranked top 30-ish nationally and is one of the highest ranked non-Ivy schools in the Northeast. I wouldn’t call it “elite” like Harvard or Stamford. More like 2nd tier elite.
Advantages:
Name recognition - you get a lot of “that’s a pretty good college”.
Networking - People who graduate from there tend to have a strong bond to the school
Active social scene - Strong Greek culture, drinking, drugs, parties
Disadvantages:
Social pressure - strong Greek culture, drinking, drugs, parties
Lack of diversity - great place to be yourself provided you’re just like the rest of us
Lot of “trust fund kids”
Can develop somewhat of an elitist attitude
As someone who transfered mid year from an nth rate B-school to what would be considered 2nd tier, I can tell you that there were some big differences. The quality of the students, faculty, campus and career services and the companies interviewing on campus were all substantially lower at my original school. And all that does handicap you when you get into the working world. Especially if your interest is in working at a prestigeous and competitive (and high paying) company.
I’m curious about what some of the bottom-rated colleges and universities are, outside of unaccredited Bible schools and two-year community colleges.
when I went there only 12% of students were coeds - so more than a few weeks.
cum stands for cumulative average, and pronounced as the first syllable of that word. We were too cool for gpas. 