COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

New York University or Georgetown


the thing is though, i've lived in Washington D.C. for all 18 years of my life. Georgetown is actually closer to my house than my high school is.

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Comparable schools, so it comes down to straight personal choice: Do you want to get away from the house, or stay close by? I wanted to get far away, and I was happy in the end that I did.

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Assuming money isnt an issue, I'd go NYU to have a "real" college experience. Both schools have good names, but dont you wanna see something different?

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I'd go NYU to have a "real" college experience.

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actually I was talking to Evan about this awhile back and we both agreed that NYC is not a place to get the typical college experience, especially NYU. whereas a lot of colleges tend to define the town they're in, NYU is just a dot in one of the biggest, busiest cities in the world. there's no football team and the village, though hip, is not collegey. if you choose NYU expect to "grow up" pretty quickly in terms of social activities and blow through a ton of money. that said, NYC is an awesome place to be.

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one other thing tho, i got into gtowns school of foreign service which apparently is v. good.

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Yeah, NYU will not provide the typical college experience.

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I'd go NYU to have a "real" college experience.

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actually I was talking to Evan about this awhile back and we both agreed that NYC is not a place to get the typical college experience, especially NYU. whereas a lot of colleges tend to define the town they're in, NYU is just a dot in one of the biggest, busiest cities in the world. there's no football team and the village, though hip, is not collegey. if you choose NYU expect to "grow up" pretty quickly in terms of social activities and blow through a ton of money. that said, NYC is an awesome place to be.

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Yea, if you asked me to pick one phrase that did NOT describe NYU it would be "real college experience". Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is entirely up to you, but what you'll get here is very very far away from what 99.9% of people would call a college experience. There's positives to that and there's negatives. I'm not going to write about all of them now, but trust me that it's very different.

As I write this, if I look over my left shoulder my entire window is filled by the 15th tallest building in the country. If I go into my living room I see the Brooklyn Bridge. If I were to go onto the roof I'd see the 2nd and 5th tallest buildings in the country. It's easy to get lost in the crowd here and that alone makes it way way different than pretty much any other university in the world.

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I don't know much about NYU, but I lived in New York for 2 years and absolutely hated it. It's like everyone in that state is a dick head, I will never go back there. College there could be totally different though idk.

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Go to NYU. You will created a whole new group of freinds. If you go to Georgetwon chances are you will be hanging out with the same losers you are now.

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When I opened the OP and saw the poll Georgetown was my immediate preference. I really like DC.

But the fact that you are from DC and live that close to GTown makes it NYU and its not really close.

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Ok, I should probably explain myself better. Going to NYU will not be your "typical college experience". I went to an SEC school and lived in a college town of like 80,000 where the school was everything in that town, you will not have that type of experience. NYC obv is a huge city, but so is DC. Honestly I've never been to DC but I know its one of the bigger cities in the US. NYC will be different Id assume, but its not like youre moving there from BFE Iowa or something, youll be able to adjust. eviljeff is right, NYC is crazy expensive but its also a lot of fun if you can afford it IMO.

What I meant to say was that its cool to go somewhere new where you know no one and start over. I remember walking into my freshman dorm and not knowing a soul, but I met new people and had a blast. If you stay in DC you probably know a bunch of people already and it can be easy to keep the same circle of friends that you have now. Theres nothing wrong with that, its just I personally think meeting new, interesting people is one of the best aspects of college.

I really dont know much about either school, except for the fact that theyre both rather prestigious institutions. Basically, Im just saying that I advocate going away to college. Its a great experience and Im very happy that I did it.

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I don't know much about NYU, but I lived in New York for 2 years and absolutely hated it. It's like everyone in that state is a dick head, I will never go back there. College there could be totally different though idk.

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I get such a kick out of people saying this. It ranks a close second to "OMG NYC is so overpriced I could buy a 4 bedroom house in [insert town I don't want to live in] for half as much as you pay in rent!!!!"

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Ok, I should probably explain myself better. Going to NYU will not be your "typical college experience". I went to an SEC school and lived in a college town of like 80,000 where the school was everything in that town, you will not have that type of experience. NYC obv is a huge city, but so is DC. Honestly I've never been to DC but I know its one of the bigger cities in the US. NYC will be different Id assume, but its not like youre moving there from BFE Iowa or something, youll be able to adjust.

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It's not so much the size of the city that makes NYU so different as much as the fact that there's no boundaries between school and city. Columbia is in Manhattan too, but what I'm saying about NYU really doesn't hold true for it. They have a fairly traditional campus. NYU just owns buildings interspersed with the city. It's very different, that's all I can say.

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thx for all the input. I love the city , and i really want to get outta DC. Goin up to visit nyu tomorrow; thx again for the advice

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thx for all the input. I love the city , and i really want to get outta DC. Goin up to visit nyu tomorrow; thx again for the advice

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No problem. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

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Umm, I don't know what people are talking about as far as acedemic ranking, but Georgetown is way ahead of NYU there. IMO it's Georgetown and its not even close. NYU is huge, and from people I know who go/graduated there they say its easy. NYU only became well known in the late 70s, it was (or very close to it) bankrupt back then, and then they turned it all around. Georgetown is Georgetown.

Go to Georgetown, and forget your local friends, it's really not that hard especially when most of them will probably be going to college too right? In the worst case you'll be the cool kid that knows where to get cheap food for dinner and such. Easy choice in my opinion, ESPECIALLY when you got into the school of foreign service. You're just not going to get NEARLY the personal attention at NYU, or quite frankly the personal connections when you graduate.

Lets not forget Georgetown basketball.

NYU is only popular because it's NYC and everyone wants to be Carrie on Sex and the City. It's not anything special in itself. GTown FTW.

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Umm, I don't know what people are talking about as far as acedemic ranking, but Georgetown is way ahead of NYU there. IMO it's Georgetown and its not even close. NYU is huge, and from people I know who go/graduated there they say its easy. NYU only became well known in the late 70s, it was (or very close to it) bankrupt back then, and then they turned it all around. Georgetown is Georgetown.

Go to Georgetown, and forget your local friends, it's really not that hard especially when most of them will probably be going to college too right? In the worst case you'll be the cool kid that knows where to get cheap food for dinner and such. Easy choice in my opinion, ESPECIALLY when you got into the school of foreign service. You're just not going to get NEARLY the personal attention at NYU, or quite frankly the personal connections when you graduate.

Lets not forget Georgetown basketball.

NYU is only popular because it's NYC and everyone wants to be Carrie on Sex and the City. It's not anything special in itself. GTown FTW.

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Not that simple, each school has strengths in different areas.

Agreed if OP doesn't know WTF he wants to major in, GTown gets the general academic nod, but if he wants to go into, say, business, NYU is the clear choice.

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the fact that you are from DC and live that close to GTown makes it NYU and its not really close.

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QFT, leave home. Going to college in the town you grew up in is a MISTAKE, or at least it was for me. Go to New York, meet new people, see a new town.

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NYU is only popular because it's NYC

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This seems very shortsighted to me, but even if it were true I think location is probably an important factor for lots of people. The obvious reply here is that DC is a good/big/real/important/whatever city. That's true, it's all those things. However, it is vastly different from living in NYC and it obviously has a completely different set of benefits, resources, culture and contacts.

It doesn't make a difference to me where OP goes to school, but I think it's kind of stupid to write off something like being located in the most important city in America as fleeting.

Also, as other people have pointed out, saying "School x is better than school y" is often stupid without more granular information.

Now if the school of foreign service implies he wants to go into politics (never heard of it before this thread) DC certainly seems to make sense.

Oh, and one more thing. I think you're walking on pretty thin ice by trying to use personal connections as an argument against NYU for pretty much any school out there. If you're talking about technology at Stanford or business at Harvard or Penn then I can see it, but outside of a pretty select handful that's not the angle I would take.

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NYU is only popular because it's NYC

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This seems very shortsighted to me, but even if it were true I think location is probably an important factor for lots of people. The obvious reply here is that DC is a good/big/real/important/whatever city. That's true, it's all those things. However, it is vastly different from living in NYC and it obviously has a completely different set of benefits, resources, culture and contacts.



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The point is more along the lines of NYU gets more credit than it's due because of its location. Sure, location might matter (although honestly I might even dispute this, to me its very minor), but it seems to me that people want to go to NYU just to be in NYC, which really shouldn't be what college is about.

College is about learning and getting ready for your future, where you live to me really shouldn't be a big part of that. If OP really wants to live in NYC, he can do that when he graduates. IMO where you go to school really isn't that important.

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It doesn't make a difference to me where OP goes to school, but I think it's kind of stupid to write off something like being located in the most important city in America as fleeting.



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Heh, most important city in America.

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Also, as other people have pointed out, saying "School x is better than school y" is often stupid without more granular information.


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Usually I agree with that and wouldn't say go to school x because it's one spot above school y in the US news rankings. Generally I believe in looking at schools in "tiers" of about 10, except the top 20 or so really are all the same. Georgetown is there, NYU is not. Again, I think NYU is even where it is because it gets too much of a bump from being in NYC. Unless he's going into Stern (which he's probably not), NYU is just not the same as Georgetown acedemically/prestige wise.

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Now if the school of foreign service implies he wants to go into politics (never heard of it before this thread) DC certainly seems to make sense.


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Yeah, GTown specializes in things like this, and the school of foreign service is very prestigious. If OP passes that up, it would be quite a shame.

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Oh, and one more thing. I think you're walking on pretty thin ice by trying to use personal connections as an argument against NYU for pretty much any school out there. If you're talking about technology at Stanford or business at Harvard or Penn then I can see it, but outside of a pretty select handful that's not the angle I would take.

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You're saying that NYU would have better connections than GTown for when he graduates? I think we know that NYU might have better business connections, but otherwise...umm no. Georgetown is an elite school with lots of prestigious alumni, NYU might as well be a state school. It's just not comparable (except obviously NYU will have some better connections in NYC, obviously).

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Dave D,

NYU is widely considered a better school than Georgetown.

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Dave D,

NYU is widely considered a better school than Georgetown.

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By...?

Not US News.

Like I said, the people I know who went there said it was easy. I also tend to look down on state/big schools generally because they are easy, it's a fact. If you're the first kid in your family to go to college and you can only afford a state school, then that's fine. But given a choice, I'm always going to choose the small private because I know you're going to be challenged there far more.

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FWIW NYU has a far better reputation internationally than Georgetown or at least it does in my neck of the woods

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it seems to me that people want to go to NYU just to be in NYC, which really shouldn't be what college is about.

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It's still relatively unclear to me why you have this opinion on in what way you're qualified to comment on the issue, but that's not really the point. More importantly, I think it's fairly presumptuous of you to tell someone else what college ought to be about for them.

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College is about learning and getting ready for your future, where you live to me really shouldn't be a big part of that. If OP really wants to live in NYC, he can do that when he graduates. IMO where you go to school really isn't that important.

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Some people would consider living in an urban, exposed environment a learning experience that prepares them for the future. While you might disagree, that really does nothing to suggest that those you feel that way are wrong. Maybe he can live in NYC after he graduates, but how can you possibly know or guarantee that? He can live there now and I doubt he can predict what his life is going to be like in four years as well as he can predict four months. The fact is that it's not just as simple as "he can do that later." Again, you've been very clear about your opinion that location isn't an important factor in choosing a school. Unfortunately it makes little sense to me why you keep repeating it since it's just an anecdote with no reasoning provided.

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Heh, most important city in America.

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This is about the level of response I expected. Feel free to reply with why you think DC/LA/Boston/Chicago/Tuscon is the most important city in America.

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top 20 or so really are all the same

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I haven't looked at college rankings in years but this strikes me as ridiculous. I just opened up the us news rankings to see what schools were where and I noticed that NYU and Georgetown were 24 and 23, respectively. Keep in mind, I have no opinion on which school is better and I know almost nothing about Georgetown, but this was a lot closer to a difference of only 10 (what you said constitutes comparable schools) than I expected given what you've said about the clear choice of Georgetown over NYU.

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I think NYU is even where it is because it gets too much of a bump from being in NYC

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Can you at least admit that you might value this less than some people? Average people, even? I think Georgetown gets too much of a bump for having a good politics program. Politics isn't important to me and college isn't about politics. I think you're confusing the issue of which school is better and which one is better for you.

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You're saying that NYU would have better connections than GTown for when he graduates?

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Obviously this is what I was saying.

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I think we know that NYU might have better business connections, but otherwise...umm no. Georgetown is an elite school with lots of prestigious alumni

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Couple things here. (1)Business connections tend to be pretty important to a lot of people (2)I know you hate considering the city around a school, since that's "not what college is about," but it's relevant here. Probably more relevant than alumni in terms of networking. I know maybe 10 people that graduated from NYU before I was here, so prestigious alumni has never really affected me one way or another. However, I know tons of people who live/work in New York City that never had anything to do with NYU. I never really understood why people talked about alumni as though it had a big effect on connections. Are other people getting email addresses of of alumni newsletters and emailing people just because you went to the same school? That's never really made sense to me. I guess if you go into a job interview and the guy went to the sames school as you that's cool. Even in that case though, NYU has got to have some sort of benefit just by having more graduates. You're more likely to run into an alum from a school of 35,000 than a school of 5,000, and the surrounding city has always been a better source of contacts for me than mostly unconnected alumni.

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NYU might as well be a state school. It's just not comparable (except obviously NYU will have some better connections in NYC, obviously).

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I'm not really sure what you mean by "NYU might as well be a state school," especially given that this seems to be in regard to networking contacts. Can you just clarify how you know anything about what sort of contacts people make at different schools? I know you said you know people who went to NYU, but I know people at lots of schools and I wouldn't feel even remotely qualified to talk about what sort of connections were possible. I made the general assumption that NYU would have more to offer in that area because New York City has more people/money/jobs than anywhere else in the country and that's ultimately what these connections are all about. It's still very unclear to me what your reasoning is for anything you've said.

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I also tend to look down on state/big schools generally because they are easy, it's a fact. If you're the first kid in your family to go to college and you can only afford a state school, then that's fine.

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Again, I have no idea what you're talking about. NYU is neither affordable, nor a state school.

Also, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse but I think it bears repeating that different people have different values. For many people a smaller school would be a negative, not a positive.

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it seems to me that people want to go to NYU just to be in NYC, which really shouldn't be what college is about.

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It's still relatively unclear to me why you have this opinion on in what way you're qualified to comment on the issue, but that's not really the point.

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neither of us is really "qualified" to talk about it, we're not really experts are we, we're just giving opinions. That is my opinion, that lots of people probably pick NYU just because it's in NYC and they want to mess around for 4 years in NYC. It's like the other thread about people choosing USC over Yale, one of the big reasons people said USC was "omg hot chix" and to a large extent "omg socal." Those are reasons you choose to go on vacation somewhere, or maybe even live all things being equal career wise. However, banging [censored] isn't a reason to go to college, at least not for people serious about acedemics, like it seems OP is. If he were asking where is the better party school because he only cares about partyhing, that would be something else, but he's asking about which is the better ALL AROUND school. My point is that location is only one factor, and it shouldn't be the overriding one, and that I believe NYU derives much (too much) of it's ranking/prestige etc from the fact that it's in NYC. It is my philosophy of education that it's about what you're taught, not where you are, in large part. Also, OP isn't from Mid America somewhere, he's from DC, a big metropolitan area. I think a lot of his possible learing "big city life" goes out the window right there.

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More importantly, I think it's fairly presumptuous of you to tell someone else what college ought to be about for them.


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We're all discussing opinions here aren't we? OP asked for advice and I'm giving mine. It's hard to do that without making some sort of value judgements about what college is, or should be, or at the very least i should give my view so as to make it clear where I'm coming from so that OP can read my opinion better for what it is. Lying/ommitting/pretending like you dont have any biases defeats the point in this regard.

Also, I doubt OP has any idea what college is really about at this stage in his life, even if he thinks he does. I'm giving my sage wisdom on the matter, as a somewhat recent college graduate. Hiding in skeptisim and relativity ("we can't tell him", "he has to find out for himself", "there's no way to know" etc) really doesn't help OP here.


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College is about learning and getting ready for your future, where you live to me really shouldn't be a big part of that. If OP really wants to live in NYC, he can do that when he graduates. IMO where you go to school really isn't that important.

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Some people would consider living in an urban, exposed environment a learning experience that prepares them for the future. While you might disagree, that really does nothing to suggest that those you feel that way are wrong.


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I've tried to make it clear that I understand there are many who feel this way, and I think they might be right to a point. However, it is my opinion that that advantage is vastly overrated. This is always going to be an opinion question, and there's not really any way for the OP to figure this out without reading about the issue, maybe. Again, I doubt OP really can even tell for himself now, but whatever.

Also, one added point to this, I went to college in a medium sized city (not a college town, it really was a bubble) and now go to law school in a big city where I grew up. I'm in a unique position to be able to tell OP these things because, to a large extent, I've seen both sides of the coin. Law school is different from college, and actually law schools in big cities do have an advantage because a lot of it is about getting experiance and listing on your resume where you've worked and such and there's just more oppurtunities for that in the city, whereas college is more about your GPA, what classes you took, etc. You can always say "the city is my classroom", and again, that's true in part, but it is my opinion that that aspect is overrated. The reality is that it's very easy to get distracted in a big city, and get caught up doing things that you don't need to go to college for. Granted, GTown is also in a big city, but it's not NYC in it's distraction capabilities (at least as far as I can tell), and Georgetown, from what I gather seems like a fairly insular place in that respect.

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Maybe he can live in NYC after he graduates, but how can you possibly know or guarantee that? He can live there now and I doubt he can predict what his life is going to be like in four years as well as he can predict four months.


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So what you're saying is, he can't know where he'll be in 4 years, so he should go live in NYC because he doesn't know. That's circular logic. The reality is that I'm sure he'd get hooked up with something at Georgetown in NYC if he wanted to in 4 years. Also, I believe the Georgetown name on his resume will get him jobs in NYC in 4 years if he still wants to do that. Saying "he doesn't know what will happen in 4 years" is the kind of thing you think about when you're planning what you're going to do with the year or two between college and law school, or in the few months before a job starts, not when choosing a college. Choosing a college is about the oppurtunities you're giving yourself, and choosing the place that's going to give you the most oppurtunities, for the OP I believe this is Georgetown and stand by that.

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Heh, most important city in America.

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This is about the level of response I expected. Feel free to reply with why you think DC/LA/Boston/Chicago/Tuscon is the most important city in America.


Yeah I guess sarcastic humor is too much for you. I was also getting at the fact that I live in Boston. It's a little presumptuous to say it's the greatest city in the world isn't it? Like many things, I believe that certain cities are on a tier with each other, and there isn't one that's greater than others, each has it's own advantages and disadvantages. Ligthen up.

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top 20 or so really are all the same

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I haven't looked at college rankings in years but this strikes me as ridiculous. I just opened up the us news rankings to see what schools were where and I noticed that NYU and Georgetown were 24 and 23, respectively. Keep in mind, I have no opinion on which school is better and I know almost nothing about Georgetown, but this was a lot closer to a difference of only 10 (what you said constitutes comparable schools) than I expected given what you've said about the clear choice of Georgetown over NYU.


For the record, the difference is 23 and 34. I guess I wasn't clear about that, what I was basically trying to say is that within the top schools, I look at it as the first 20 are roughly the same quality, the next 10 are the same, the next 10 are the same, etc. There's a few exceptions, and it's a rough estimate, but the point is still there, that NYU and Georgetown are seperated by a fairly significant margin. Especially when considering all the "ties", there's more than just 10 schools seperating them.


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I think NYU is even where it is because it gets too much of a bump from being in NYC

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Can you at least admit that you might value this less than some people?


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Yes, some people definitely value going to a party school over all else, or "I have to be in Malibu" or "I have to be in SoCal", but those aren't good reasons for going to a school. That's my point.
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Average people, even?


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I think the average, intelligent, competitive student considers location (other than general geographic regions, like NE, Mid Atlantic, SE) as pretty minor factors. Otherwise you'd have people passing up Columbia for Maryland or something.

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I think Georgetown gets too much of a bump for having a good politics program. Politics isn't important to me and college isn't about politics. I think you're confusing the issue of which school is better and which one is better for you.


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Evidently it is important for him because the OP applied to, and got into, a very competitive politics program. He never mentioned business as an interest. Getting a bump for being acedemically "good" is better than getting a bump for where you happen to be located. I think Georgetown probably gets a bump for the fact that it's DC as well, there are so many opinions/viewpoints in that city, and it's right on the North/South dividing line (ok NOVA is the line, but whatever).

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You're saying that NYU would have better connections than GTown for when he graduates?

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Obviously this is what I was saying.

I think we know that NYU might have better business connections, but otherwise...umm no. Georgetown is an elite school with lots of prestigious alumni

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Couple things here. (1)Business connections tend to be pretty important to a lot of people


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See above.

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(2)I know you hate considering the city around a school, since that's "not what college is about," but it's relevant here. Probably more relevant than alumni in terms of networking.


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What it comes down to really is 'what's going to give me the most future options', not 'where can I have the most fun'. yes, I know that being in NYC and the advantages aren't just "fun" based, but lets be honest, that's what a lot of them are.
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I never really understood why people talked about alumni as though it had a big effect on connections. Are other people getting email addresses of of alumni newsletters and emailing people just because you went to the same school?


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Here's one example: Fraternities. Your fraternity has an alumni event, lots of sucessful alumni come out. You talk to one in a field you're interested in, and he gives you his card. You've got a huge leg up over all the other applicants when it's time to apply for jobs. Aditionally, I think the name/prestige recognition on the resume will be better from Georgetown than NYU. I think NYU is a lot more regional, and everyone's heard of Georgetown, if only because of basketball recently. Additionally, schools maintain databases of alumni that call up and say "this summer I have room for 2 interns, feed me some" and such. Job fairs, stuff like that. Also its the type of people who go there. It is my opinion that the people you make friends with at Georgetown are more likely to have sucessful parents/friends that will hook you up in the future. It's just networking.
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Even in that case though, NYU has got to have some sort of benefit just by having more graduates.


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Only in NYC. I just don't think the name recognition is there outside of NYC. Also, more graduates doesn't mean they're quality graduates. I think Georgetown simply has more quality graduates.


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NYU might as well be a state school. It's just not comparable (except obviously NYU will have some better connections in NYC, obviously).

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I'm not really sure what you mean by "NYU might as well be a state school," especially given that this seems to be in regard to networking contacts. Can you just clarify how you know anything about what sort of contacts people make at different schools? I know you said you know people who went to NYU, but I know people at lots of schools and I wouldn't feel even remotely qualified to talk about what sort of connections were possible. I made the general assumption that NYU would have more to offer in that area because New York City has more people/money/jobs than anywhere else in the country and that's ultimately what these connections are all about. It's still very unclear to me what your reasoning is for anything you've said.

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That was talking much more about the quality of the education. It's my impression that the big private schools are basically party schools that simply aren't that challenging acedemically. How challenging the acedemics are is my primary concern.

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I also tend to look down on state/big schools generally because they are easy, it's a fact. If you're the first kid in your family to go to college and you can only afford a state school, then that's fine.

[/ QUOTE ]
Again, I have no idea what you're talking about. NYU is neither affordable, nor a state school.

Also, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse but I think it bears repeating that different people have different values. For many people a smaller school would be a negative, not a positive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please re-read the point, it should become clear.


Ok just to summarize, what I mean there is that big/state schools are easy. They arent as acedemically challenging. I made an exception for people that don't have many options, that I don't fault them for choosing an easy school. However, OP has options, so he shouldn't choose the easy school.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

imo, once you get past the top 5 or so schools academically, the primary concern should be enjoying college - atmosphere, location, etc. dave, you may be correct for someone heading to law school, but undergrad is about way more than academics.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

Dave D,

I was going off general consensus with people I've talked to etc. It seems US News doesn't corroborate. I wanna say NYU was much higher when I started college 4 years ago. Now they are 34th which isn't good. Any ideas why?

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

NYU's specialty schools (stern, tisch, etc) are much more highly regarded than its college of arts and sciences or whatever they call it.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

FWIW, I had the same choice 3 years ago and picked Georgetown without thinking about it very much. I definitely do not regret it.

I haven't read most of the thread but your situation is definitely different from mine. I grew up near NYC.

Personal preferences matter so much here. It would be easier to give you direction if you told us specific questions and specific things you want to get out of college. I'll say that the SFS is considered the most difficult and prestigious of the schools here.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

[ QUOTE ]
imo, once you get past the top 5 or so schools academically, the primary concern should be enjoying college - atmosphere, location, etc. dave, you may be correct for someone heading to law school, but undergrad is about way more than academics.

[/ QUOTE ]

I definitly agree its about much more than academics, my point is more along the lines of you can have fun anywhere and you should be making the choice for the most competitive school if you're a top student. I had a great time at WF socially, as well as acedemically. Sure a random state school would be *more* fun, but I'm one of those people that thinks there is such a thing as too much fun, college isn't club med for 4 years etc.

If you seriously think there's a difference between #5 and #10 on US news, you're just wrong. Penn is the same as Harvard acedemically, it's all just (I guess?) penis waving at that point. The top 20 are all roughly comparable, maybe even the top 25. And I'm very skeptical about the state schools on the list, I always felt like they were included for political reasons. I've heard bad things about Berkeley (for example) just being an over crowded mess, difficult to register for classes, just not being that hard etc. The RESOURCES might be awesome there, but 18 year olds are dumb and need to be pushed and told what to do/learn to some extent, that I always felt like even the state schools on the list are lacking. In other words, the fact that you can breeze through at those schools without a lot of work is an indite, as opposed to most top privates you really can't.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

[ QUOTE ]
Dave D,

I was going off general consensus with people I've talked to etc. It seems US News doesn't corroborate. I wanna say NYU was much higher when I started college 4 years ago. Now they are 34th which isn't good. Any ideas why?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think NYU was ever above Gtown on the list. I mean it's been a while, and I didn't apply to NYU in large part because I didn't want to go to such a massive school. It's also very expensive tution/cost of living wise. You might be right about NYU once being ranked above Gtown, but I doubt it. As I said in an earlier post, NYU was bankrupt (or close to it) in the early 70s. I don't think it has the name recognition other schools do, or the alumni base that a place like Georgetown does. There's a Georgetown grad on the Supreme Court (and no NYU grads) right? The tradition is there.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

Okay, please learn to use the quote function and preview posts before you submit them. This was almost unreadable.

[ QUOTE ]
It is my philosophy of education that it's about what you're taught

[/ QUOTE ]
There are very many people who would disagree with this.

[ QUOTE ]
OP isn't from Mid America somewhere, he's from DC, a big metropolitan area. I think a lot of his possible learing "big city life" goes out the window right there.

[/ QUOTE ]
Big difference.

[ QUOTE ]
We're all discussing opinions here aren't we? OP asked for advice and I'm giving mine. It's hard to do that without making some sort of value judgements about what college is

[/ QUOTE ]
The difference between saying "location wasn't important to me" and "location shouldn't be important to you" ought to be obvious. This isn't like saying "you should study for finals".

[ QUOTE ]
The reality is that it's very easy to get distracted in a big city, and get caught up doing things that you don't need to go to college for. Granted, GTown is also in a big city, but it's not NYC in it's distraction capabilities (at least as far as I can tell), and Georgetown, from what I gather seems like a fairly insular place in that respect.

[/ QUOTE ]
Remember when I said some people value living in a major metropolitan area as a learning experience?

[ QUOTE ]
So what you're saying is, he can't know where he'll be in 4 years, so he should go live in NYC because he doesn't know. That's circular logic.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know what exactly you think circular logic is, but it's not this. I never said he should live in NYC, I said that it was stupid to write off living in NYC as something he can do after college whenever he wants because that's simply not true.

[ QUOTE ]
Saying "he doesn't know what will happen in 4 years" is the kind of thing you think about when you're planning what you're going to do with the year or two between college and law school, or in the few months before a job starts, not when choosing a college.

[/ QUOTE ]
Listen man, if you want to talk about the "sage advise" you're handing out here please don't say crap like this. You can't just make broad sweeping statements like "you don't do this" and expect to be taken seriously without any reasoning.

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah I guess sarcastic humor is too much for you.

[/ QUOTE ]
That wasn't sarcastic and that wasn't humor. You just added "heh" to part of what I wrote. You need to reach a little further to get to humor.

[ QUOTE ]
I was also getting at the fact that I live in Boston.

[/ QUOTE ]
No you weren't, not by the standards of any reasonable person.

[ QUOTE ]
It's a little presumptuous to say it's the greatest city in the world isn't it?

[/ QUOTE ]
I specifically said America.

[ QUOTE ]
Like many things, I believe that certain cities are on a tier with each other, and there isn't one that's greater than others, each has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sure, each city has benefits. Don't try to tell me the top 10 cities are the same. By the way, you reminded me of this post.

[ QUOTE ]
For the record, the difference is 23 and 34.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yea, I typed a 2 instead of a 3.

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I wasn't clear about that, what I was basically trying to say is that within the top schools, I look at it as the first 20 are roughly the same quality, the next 10 are the same, the next 10 are the same, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know how you could possibly think that was unclear. Especially considering that I used that exact idea to explain that given your system they're closer than I would expect considering that you believe there's a clear distinction. I have no particular opinion about this groups of 10 idea, but you suggested it. I think it sounds pretty random personally, but whatever.

[ QUOTE ]
the point is still there, that NYU and Georgetown are seperated by a fairly significant margin.

[/ QUOTE ]
Uh, wtf man? I didn't apply to Georgetown so I'm not sure if I fall into that realm of intelligence, but I can damn well count to 10. I can even count to 11, so I know they're right next to each other. So just to be clear, are you telling me that Ranking 1 - Ranking 2 = 10 implies that the schools are pretty similar, but Ranking 1 - Ranking 2 = 11 implies that one is a clear choice and it would be a shame to pick the other? Please figure this out and get back to me.

[ QUOTE ]
Especially when considering all the "ties", there's more than just 10 schools seperating them.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay man, listen. You really need to look at this stuff closer. I feel like an idiot explaining this, but apparently it needs to be said. If there's a tie for the 27th spot, for example, the next tone would be 29, not 28. I don't know how you could not understand that, but I also don't know how you could think ties affect the numbers of items between two rankings.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think NYU is even where it is because it gets too much of a bump from being in NYC

[/ QUOTE ]
Can you at least admit that you might value this less than some people?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, some people definitely value going to a party school over all else, or "I have to be in Malibu" or "I have to be in SoCal", but those aren't good reasons for going to a school.

[/ QUOTE ]
Is this John Thompson's gimmick account? I mean, come on dude. Only advantage to New York City is parties? Give me a break.

[ QUOTE ]
I think the average, intelligent, competitive student considers location (other than general geographic regions, like NE, Mid Atlantic, SE) as pretty minor factors. Otherwise you'd have people passing up Columbia for Maryland or something.

[/ QUOTE ]
Um, you would?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think Georgetown gets too much of a bump for having a good politics program. Politics isn't important to me and college isn't about politics. I think you're confusing the issue of which school is better and which one is better for you.

[/ QUOTE ]
Evidently it is important for him because the OP applied to, and got into, a very competitive politics program. He never mentioned business as an interest. Getting a bump for being acedemically "good" is better than getting a bump for where you happen to be located. I think Georgetown probably gets a bump for the fact that it's DC as well, there are so many opinions/viewpoints in that city, and it's right on the North/South dividing line (ok NOVA is the line, but whatever).

[/ QUOTE ]
Remember when you told me I didn't get sarcasm? Yea.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(2)I know you hate considering the city around a school, since that's "not what college is about," but it's relevant here. Probably more relevant than alumni in terms of networking.

[/ QUOTE ]What it comes down to really is 'what's going to give me the most future options', not 'where can I have the most fun'. yes, I know that being in NYC and the advantages aren't just "fun" based, but lets be honest, that's what a lot of them are.

[/ QUOTE ]
Did you read the part you quoted? I was talking about the advantage of a bigger city for networking. You, apparently, thought it would be relevant to tell me NYC has lots of parties. Stop doing this. It's hard enough to read a post that looks like edward scissorhands did the tag nesting without having to go back up to see wtf someone is talking about.

[ QUOTE ]
Here's one example: Fraternities. Your fraternity has an alumni event, lots of sucessful alumni come out. You talk to one in a field you're interested in, and he gives you his card. You've got a huge leg up over all the other applicants when it's time to apply for jobs.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay. I go to a bar and meet some successful guy. He gives me his card. I bet I run into most people who would be beneficial to know in an average night out than you would at the average fraternity party in Georgetown.

[ QUOTE ]
Aditionally, I think the name/prestige recognition on the resume will be better from Georgetown than NYU. I think NYU is a lot more regional, and everyone's heard of Georgetown, if only because of basketball recently.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have no idea which one people consider more prestigious, but I've never met anyone who hasn't heard of NYU.

[ QUOTE ]
Additionally, schools maintain databases of alumni that call up and say "this summer I have room for 2 interns, feed me some" and such. Job fairs, stuff like that.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yea, again, I just wouldn't use the job recruiting line as a stance against NYU. That doesn't seem like your best play.

[ QUOTE ]
Also its the type of people who go there. It is my opinion that the people you make friends with at Georgetown are more likely to have sucessful parents/friends that will hook you up in the future. It's just networking.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's great that it is your opinion, but until you post some reasoning it's not going to be much more than that.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Even in that case though, NYU has got to have some sort of benefit just by having more graduates.

[/ QUOTE ]Only in NYC. I just don't think the name recognition is there outside of NYC. Also, more graduates doesn't mean they're quality graduates. I think Georgetown simply has more quality graduates.

[/ QUOTE ]
Again, I've never met anyone who doesn't recognize the name NYU. I have no idea what's considered more prestigious but I get the sense you don't either. Just out of curiosity, if NYU only has a relevant number of graduates in NYC, where would Georgetown's be located? Georgetown's undergrad population is listed at 6700. NYU's is 21,000. I doubt geographic coverage of graduates is an issue it makes a lot of sense for you to compete on. Quality graduates...I have no idea man. I'm not even sure what that means. Just volume of people in jobs you want?

[ QUOTE ]
That was talking much more about the quality of the education. It's my impression that the big private schools are basically party schools that simply aren't that challenging acedemically. How challenging the acedemics are is my primary concern.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have no way of judging academics at other schools and it seems weird that you'd think you do. Please don't tell me again that he was asking for opinions. I know that. Still, I'm not sure he was asking for made up opinions. This isn't to say Georgwtown isn't a harder school, or even a much harder school, just that I don't really understand why you'd know that as it seems you haven't attended either.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

[ QUOTE ]

There's a Georgetown grad on the Supreme Court (and no NYU grads) right? The tradition is there.

[/ QUOTE ]
NYU
Georgetown

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, please learn to use the quote function and preview posts before you submit them. This was almost unreadable.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'll try. I haven't had a lot of these types of back and forth arguments that went on for lots of quoted text.

[ QUOTE ]
It is my philosophy of education that it's about what you're taught

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

There are very many people who would disagree with this.


[/ QUOTE ]
I know what you're getting at, but I think that kind of idea has its use in later years, like senior year. Look, you can't learn the quadratic formula by looking at cool buildings. Experiance is a great teacher, but classroom instruction with 15 students has its place, and I think is the vast majority of what needs to be taught in college. You have your whole life to "experiance", this is only 4 years (and maybe less if you go abroad for some time).

[ QUOTE ]
OP isn't from Mid America somewhere, he's from DC, a big metropolitan area. I think a lot of his possible learing "big city life" goes out the window right there.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Big difference.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sure there is, but not one to be basing a college decision about. Unless OP wants to live in NYC for the rest of his life. Then everything obviously becomes moot, and we're sorta not assuming that for the sake of argument.

[ QUOTE ]
We're all discussing opinions here aren't we? OP asked for advice and I'm giving mine. It's hard to do that without making some sort of value judgements about what college is

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

The difference between saying "location wasn't important to me" and "location shouldn't be important to you" ought to be obvious. This isn't like saying "you should study for finals".

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree with this fundamentally. I'm saying its simply a bad idea to go to california, or florida, because the weather is nicer and the chicks are hotter. It's *a* consideration, but a 10% at best one. It's my opinion that that's how it should be for a good student. IF OP were considering GTown and Emory, or Emory and Vandy, or Brown and Princeton, THEN I start considering climate/location/what kind of city experiance I'm going to be having. Obviously this is my opinion, but I don't think it's unreasonable.

[ QUOTE ]
The reality is that it's very easy to get distracted in a big city, and get caught up doing things that you don't need to go to college for. Granted, GTown is also in a big city, but it's not NYC in it's distraction capabilities (at least as far as I can tell), and Georgetown, from what I gather seems like a fairly insular place in that respect.

[/ QUOTE ]
Remember when I said some people value living in a major metropolitan area as a learning experience?

[ QUOTE ]
So what you're saying is, he can't know where he'll be in 4 years, so he should go live in NYC because he doesn't know. That's circular logic.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know what exactly you think circular logic is, but it's not this. I never said he should live in NYC, I said that it was stupid to write off living in NYC as something he can do after college whenever he wants because that's simply not true.

[/ QUOTE ]
ok well I thought there was an implied "therefore" in there, I'm sorry. In that case, you've only tried to prove a negative. Just because he might not be able to live in NYC again, doesn't mean he should now. "I might not be able to live in NYC ever again" shouldn't be a real consideration, because like I said, I dont think he's going to have that hard of a time getting there with a Georgetown degree. At all.

[ QUOTE ]
Saying "he doesn't know what will happen in 4 years" is the kind of thing you think about when you're planning what you're going to do with the year or two between college and law school, or in the few months before a job starts, not when choosing a college.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Listen man, if you want to talk about the "sage advise" you're handing out here please don't say crap like this. You can't just make broad sweeping statements like "you don't do this" and expect to be taken seriously without any reasoning.

[/ QUOTE ]
We're all just giving our opinion here. My point is basically that his world is still wide open, everything is still possible. I don't percieve any doors closing by him going to Georgetown, that's what my point here boils down to. This isn't really a "reasoning" thing, it's an outlook on life.

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah I guess sarcastic humor is too much for you.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That wasn't sarcastic and that wasn't humor. You just added "heh" to part of what I wrote. You need to reach a little further to get to humor.

[/ QUOTE ]
Brevity is the soul of wit. The point was made, sorry if it didn't satisfy a word minimum.

[ QUOTE ]
I was also getting at the fact that I live in Boston.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No you weren't, not by the standards of any reasonable person.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think a lot of the dorm readers probably know I'm from Boston due to my posts in the past on similar topics like this one. Furthermore, my location says Suffolk Law, and Beacon Hill. At least the second is reasonably well known as being in Boston (and the Departed gave my law school a little bit of publicity).

[ QUOTE ]
It's a little presumptuous to say it's the greatest city in the world isn't it?

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I specifically said America.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oops. Point is made the same though isn't it?

[ QUOTE ]
Like many things, I believe that certain cities are on a tier with each other, and there isn't one that's greater than others, each has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sure, each city has benefits. Don't try to tell me the top 10 cities are the same. By the way, you reminded me of this post.

[/ QUOTE ]
I didn't really say "the same", but we're talking about "greatest." That's a value judgement, and inherently subjective. All I'm saying is the top 10 cities (and you can even argue about what's in them), to me, are all roughly on equal footing in the overall "goodness" of them. As a sidenote, I see NYC's size as a major disadvantage, but I digress.

[ QUOTE ]
For the record, the difference is 23 and 34.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yea, I typed a 2 instead of a 3.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just clarified it for other readers.

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I wasn't clear about that, what I was basically trying to say is that within the top schools, I look at it as the first 20 are roughly the same quality, the next 10 are the same, the next 10 are the same, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know how you could possibly think that was unclear. Especially considering that I used that exact idea to explain that given your system they're closer than I would expect considering that you believe there's a clear distinction. I have no particular opinion about this groups of 10 idea, but you suggested it. I think it sounds pretty random personally, but whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure, it's my personal opinion. But I think it holds water generally, at least as a framework. You can argue it should be groups of 15, but that's why I said "roughly."

[ QUOTE ]
the point is still there, that NYU and Georgetown are seperated by a fairly significant margin.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Uh, wtf man? I didn't apply to Georgetown so I'm not sure if I fall into that realm of intelligence, but I can damn well count to 10. I can even count to 11, so I know they're right next to each other. So just to be clear, are you telling me that Ranking 1 - Ranking 2 = 10 implies that the schools are pretty similar, but Ranking 1 - Ranking 2 = 11 implies that one is a clear choice and it would be a shame to pick the other? Please figure this out and get back to me.

[/ QUOTE ]
No, it's still not clear to you. What I am saying is ranges, clusters of 10 which are all roughly similar, although you can start saying #1 is a little better than 10, but not that significantly. SO, all the first 20 are the same, or maybe #1-15 get 9/10 stars, and 16-20 get 8/10 stars, BUT once you get to 21-30, you start all over. THUS, if given a choice between #15 and #30, I never choose 30. If given a choice between #10 and #21, I never choose 21, categorically. HOWEVER, if given a choice between 19 and 21, I'd consider it (but still lean heavily toward 19), and start thinking about how much money I'm getting thrown at. Arguing that 19 isn't really better than 21 is inditing the fact that the rankings are fuzzy more than inditing the ranking system itself. THUS, #34 is enough spots away from #23 that it's not a close call. Get it?

[ QUOTE ]
Especially when considering all the "ties", there's more than just 10 schools seperating them.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Okay man, listen. You really need to look at this stuff closer. I feel like an idiot explaining this, but apparently it needs to be said. If there's a tie for the 27th spot, for example, the next tone would be 29, not 28. I don't know how you could not understand that, but I also don't know how you could think ties affect the numbers of items between two rankings.

[/ QUOTE ]

I meant more in a "sum of its parts" sense. The fact that there's 4 way ties means that the 5th one ISN'T in the tie, and thus significantly behind them. I mean you could say no, they're still grouped together, whatever, this was more of a conjecture on my part. What I meant is that if 4 are the same, the 5th one, by not being a tie, must have had something decisive about it not to make it as such. This really is a minor point though.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think NYU is even where it is because it gets too much of a bump from being in NYC

[/ QUOTE ]
Can you at least admit that you might value this less than some people?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, some people definitely value going to a party school over all else, or "I have to be in Malibu" or "I have to be in SoCal", but those aren't good reasons for going to a school.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Is this John Thompson's gimmick account? I mean, come on dude. Only advantage to New York City is parties? Give me a break.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know who that is. I'm not saying that the only advantage is parties. I was using SoCal etc as EXAMPLES to illustrate the point. I still take the stance that being in the city and all its advantages for one's "education" (in the Mark Twain I never let schooling interfere with my education) are secondary. Sorry Mark Twain, but that kind of education can be achieved after the 4 years of college (and I still think can be achieved, even at a middle of no where liberal arts college). I'm a believer of the build a groundwork and then put them out in the word concept of education. Also, practical "I can survive in the city" education is really only useful in certain spheres.

[ QUOTE ]
I think the average, intelligent, competitive student considers location (other than general geographic regions, like NE, Mid Atlantic, SE) as pretty minor factors. Otherwise you'd have people passing up Columbia for Maryland or something.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Um, you would?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Or to make the analogy fit better you'd have people going to Queens College instead of Princeton because they want to be in NYC. Pretty sure that doesn't happen for top students. Location is a consideration, but not a big one.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think Georgetown gets too much of a bump for having a good politics program. Politics isn't important to me and college isn't about politics. I think you're confusing the issue of which school is better and which one is better for you.

[/ QUOTE ]
Evidently it is important for him because the OP applied to, and got into, a very competitive politics program. He never mentioned business as an interest. Getting a bump for being acedemically "good" is better than getting a bump for where you happen to be located. I think Georgetown probably gets a bump for the fact that it's DC as well, there are so many opinions/viewpoints in that city, and it's right on the North/South dividing line (ok NOVA is the line, but whatever).

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Remember when you told me I didn't get sarcasm? Yea.

[/ QUOTE ]
I didn't see the sarcasm because I thought you were making a legitimate point that Georgetown's rating might be too highly inflated by its reputation in the political science type world. Didn't really come off as being that sarcastic. I also maintain that I'd rather be overrated for that reason than the happenstance of where I was.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(2)I know you hate considering the city around a school, since that's "not what college is about," but it's relevant here. Probably more relevant than alumni in terms of networking.

[/ QUOTE ]What it comes down to really is 'what's going to give me the most future options', not 'where can I have the most fun'. yes, I know that being in NYC and the advantages aren't just "fun" based, but lets be honest, that's what a lot of them are.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Did you read the part you quoted? I was talking about the advantage of a bigger city for networking.

[/ QUOTE ]
Only inside NYC would you take advantage of that. Especially when all the grads are concentrated in that city.
[ QUOTE ]

You, apparently, thought it would be relevant to tell me NYC has lots of parties. Stop doing this. It's hard enough to read a post that looks like edward scissorhands did the tag nesting without having to go back up to see wtf someone is talking about.

[/ QUOTE ]
It's not about parties, it's other stuff too. I wasn't just alluding to parties.

[ QUOTE ]
Here's one example: Fraternities. Your fraternity has an alumni event, lots of sucessful alumni come out. You talk to one in a field you're interested in, and he gives you his card. You've got a huge leg up over all the other applicants when it's time to apply for jobs.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Okay. I go to a bar and meet some successful guy. He gives me his card.


[/ QUOTE ]
You go to bars to meet dudes? That's cool by me, but I don't. More seriously, there's a big difference between an event which is more or less run around this idea, and randomly meeting someone out. One is "here's lots of people who want to help you" vs "I might maybe meet an NYU guy that might care about me." The connections are just fed to you.
[ QUOTE ]

I bet I run into most people who would be beneficial to know in an average night out than you would at the average fraternity party in Georgetown.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, ok, dozens (or more) of guys specifically looking to help their boys out. See above.

[ QUOTE ]
Aditionally, I think the name/prestige recognition on the resume will be better from Georgetown than NYU. I think NYU is a lot more regional, and everyone's heard of Georgetown, if only because of basketball recently.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have no idea which one people consider more prestigious, but I've never met anyone who hasn't heard of NYU.

[/ QUOTE ]
How often do you travel around? Also, there's something about small schools that just makes it feel more prestigous and people have more respect for you, both alumni as well as random people. Most smaller school grads generally feel tighter with people they meet who are alumni, wheras the larger school people generally know "well, he's one of 25 THOUSAND". I know for example from my school that if I meet someone around my year, we start talking about common people we know and IMMEDIATLY build a rapport. I would recognize probably 90% of my class year's faces/names, and if I saw them out would probably talk to them (if I was bored). That kind of feeling just doesn't happen at big schools. 25k students at NYU just feels more like a degree mill, whereas if you meet someone from a place like Georgetown, you just assume smart. Theres a reason that George Washington (GW) is commonly known as "Georgetown Waitlist".

[ QUOTE ]
Additionally, schools maintain databases of alumni that call up and say "this summer I have room for 2 interns, feed me some" and such. Job fairs, stuff like that.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yea, again, I just wouldn't use the job recruiting line as a stance against NYU. That doesn't seem like your best play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty confident it is better. I'm also pretty confident it's more diverse, in more areas of the country etc.

[ QUOTE ]
Also its the type of people who go there. It is my opinion that the people you make friends with at Georgetown are more likely to have sucessful parents/friends that will hook you up in the future. It's just networking.

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That's great that it is your opinion, but until you post some reasoning it's not going to be much more than that.

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I mean, would you dispute that for Yale? It might not be to the same degree at Georgetown, but I know its there. Neither of us are experts, we're just giving our opinions, but that's been my experiance.

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Even in that case though, NYU has got to have some sort of benefit just by having more graduates.

[/ QUOTE ]Only in NYC. I just don't think the name recognition is there outside of NYC. Also, more graduates doesn't mean they're quality graduates. I think Georgetown simply has more quality graduates.

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Again, I've never met anyone who doesn't recognize the name NYU. I have no idea what's considered more prestigious but I get the sense you don't either. Just out of curiosity, if NYU only has a relevant number of graduates in NYC, where would Georgetown's be located? Georgetown's undergrad population is listed at 6700. NYU's is 21,000. I doubt geographic coverage of graduates is an issue it makes a lot of sense for you to compete on. Quality graduates...I have no idea man. I'm not even sure what that means. Just volume of people in jobs you want?


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What I'm saying is that I'd rather have 2k graduates a year who have an avg salary of 55k, than 10k who have an avg of 40k (I'm obviously making up numbers here). More graduates doesn't help you get better jobs in the future. Quality over quantity.

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That was talking much more about the quality of the education. It's my impression that the big private schools are basically party schools that simply aren't that challenging acedemically. How challenging the acedemics are is my primary concern.

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I have no way of judging academics at other schools and it seems weird that you'd think you do.

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Talking to friends I trust at other schools.

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Please don't tell me again that he was asking for opinions. I know that. Still, I'm not sure he was asking for made up opinions. This isn't to say Georgwtown isn't a harder school, or even a much harder school, just that I don't really understand why you'd know that as it seems you haven't attended either.

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It's all anecdotal, sure I'll conceed that. But it's something I hear time and again. Friends/people I talk to who go to large schools consistantly say it's easy, people who go to small schools dont (assuming similar acedemic ranking, obviously a small low ranked school won't be as hard). There's a few exceptions, but for the most part its been my experiance. That's the point of this forum, to give our experiances.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

You win the battle of super long replies. I'm just going to say that I fundamentally disagree with you about a lot of things you've said and leave it at that.


By the way, you can nest ubb tags like you can nest html tags.

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
</pre><hr />

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Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

Dave,

Damn.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

Dave, that is the longest post I have ever seen. Congrats.

Re: COLLEGE CHOICE----HELP
 

I copied Dave's post into Word just out of curiosity. It came out to 14 pages.