'State' v. 'Private' Universities

[vodkazvictim]

:thumbsup: IMO, that's the absolute best advice that one could give to anyone in or entering college right now. It's just a shame that more young people in the U.S. won't or can't follow that advice.




Yes, but Bush is just an anecdotal example, and there's no indication that it represents the rule. More likely, it represents the exception. Whether we're talking about Yale and Harvard or Cambridge and Oxford, it's guaranteed that we'll be able to find the names of people who either didn't set the world on fire, or who failed their way to the top. But according to Forbes, approximately 90% of billionaires with MBA's obtained their master's degree from one of three Ivy League schools: Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, or Wharton Business School.

As for Blair, despite the controversy that now surrounds him, he is a former world leader. It is fairly common for universities to try to attract upper level political leaders into temporary teaching positions. It makes for good PR.

At some point these kinds of discussions become Chevy vs. Ford, or Jaguar vs. Mercedes, if you like. Based on where someone might have attended college, we all have our opinions and sentimental favorites. But the fact is, based on objective data, the U.S. has a global domination in the area of university level higher education.

I find it entirely too hard to reasonably disagree with your points, I'll just have to accept them as true.
:hatsoff:

 

[james85]

How many brothers do you see there tho? Boo-YAH!


Ifind your claim as laughable as this:

I don't think you're beingserious, I think you're just out for laughs, but I shall retort nonetheless.

Oh wow, asians, they have a small population; obviously they only go to the most elite unis
Seriously, I went to the university of Leeds and Moscow state university (both better than most american unis) and guess what: tons of asians.
America has the best higher education system in the world? This is bullshit. For example, doesn't george W "bushisms" Bush have a degree from an IVY league uni?

I mean bloody hell, European universities alone have given us:
Marx
Hagel
Tupolev
Tsiolevsky
Mikoyan
Guerrevich
Nietsche
Kant
And so many more.

I also go to The University of Leeds for my Masters, great courses and uni with loads of Asian students as mentioned.

 

[Supafly]

Ahem... Ivy League, brother Vodka. Ivy.

Is there an 'Ebony League' to match that :1orglaugh

They would have some Colleges in Compton as I understand

 

[Lust]

Addressing Scott's original question, the answer is and will always be: It Depends. It depends on such issues as what career are you looking to pursue? How much can you afford to spend on education. When does the law of diminishing returns take affect with the ratio of your career's estimated salary compared to how much you had to spend to get there education wise?

Private schools almost always beat the public school in positive perception but on some occasions the opposite is true.

doesn't change the fact that you never hear a good word about most american unis.

This statement is misinformed. I don't know where you obtained it but it sounds to me like a discussion at a bar. Please provide studies that back your claim up. I doubt you can, because every single Internationally respected academic group that rates schools has an overwhelming listing of British and American schools. Its not even close. All the studies are published available for public consumption and none of them back up your claim.

The latest QS rankings of the Top 50 Universities in the World has 16 American Universities in it. Britain comes in second with 8 Universities listed. The rest of the countries fall well short to either of these numbers.

As far as your claim that you never hear a good word about American Universities I seriously question who you're speaking with. I work with many companies around the world that are non-american and guess what? Most of the people I deal with went to American schools followed closely by British schools. They speak very highly of both.

I do international Tech Law consulting. I studied abroad and I received my JD from Stanford. I'll put my degrees up against any degree from any school in any country that you can come up with and I wouldn't hesitate one bit knowing I would fair well. Nearly every research performed on world wide academia agrees with this. I say nearly, but I have to find one single research publication that states otherwise. The world wide professional community most assuredly respects American higher education. And that's who is going to hire me, not the blue collar working stiff cos he can't afford me.

If Biff, Gary and Seth over in accounting told me the best way to perform open heart surgery is by removing the patient's feet despite every respected medical journey in the world contradicting this theory, I'd be a fool to let them perform the procedure on me. Research is our friend, not an enemy. Embrace the knowledge. And as for Biff, Gary and Seth over in accounting, they can go straight to hell.

Its cool with me if you have hatred or ambiguity towards the US. I would imagine that this negativity has a tremendous influence on your perception of American Universities rather than academic criteria. Please don't let that negative feeling distort reality because documented facts from minds greater than mine and yours state the opposite of what you are saying. If I'm going to decide on a school to go to, then I'll base my decision on their findings as opposed to the musings of Klause, my beer drinking buddy.

Harvard has been ranked as the best University in the World by many, many, many publications both in and out of the US as well as Yale and MIT. They are usually neck and neck with Cambridge, UCL, Oxford, and Imperial. These 7 schools are generally regarded as the greatest sources of education in the world. To say otherwise is a classic example of irrational denial.

I have a hard time believing that if you studied in any University and I mean ANY University including Esperanza's Beauty College of the Amazons located in BFE Columbia, that you would not know this. I'm not trying to be offensive and I'm not even trying to start a fight. However, I am an extreme zealot against misinformation and misrepresentation of researched and documented facts to legitimize or enhance an alternative agenda. IE: hatred of all things american.

Your example of Yale's credibility is shockingly lacking in any form of scientific research parameters. I can only assume you did not study statistics in college else you'd have caught that error right off the bat.

Does America rule the world in academics? No not at all. If anyone does it'd be Britain as they are a perfect example of Quality over Quantity. Its not that they're good. Its not that they're real good. It's that they are incredibly outstanding. But America is right behind her by only a fractional margin regardless of what you heard at Starbucks.

I wouldnt have said a word had you said the US ranks evenly alongside the rest of the world. I'd partially accept that and think nothing of it. However, to say that American higher education is not respected or even spoken about positively by the rest of the world is just plain silly. Seriously, lets try to at least to give a plausible argument next time. Firstly, don't make outlandish claims. Secondly, back it up with something other than your opinion such as an academically respected research group. Here's just a few examples......

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/news/article660845.ece
http://www.usnews.com/education/wor...21/worlds-best-universities-top-400-?PageNr=1
http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/08/worlds-top-100-universities-2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/...-with-th_n_603607.html#s97321&title=undefined

I could go on and on with the references but you get the idea. Again, I'm not trying to argue. I'm simply informing you with true, objective thoroughly researched criteria that is out there for our benefit. The benefit? To help us all make a better decision. Cheers.

 

[E-Ann-Hilden]

Only the top ones, like the ivory league ones.
Foreigners may study at the others, but they're not really considered any good.

That is hardly the case! Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, Northwestern, Virginia, Michigan, UCLA are excellent schools.

:dunno:

 

[E-Ann-Hilden]

"The best college in the world"? Weird; I've studied in English and Russian universities and never heard that Harvard was the best in the world...
...Looks like it's only americans who think it's the best in the world.
As for the whole affirmative action thing, I was basically making a joke because, not being overly concerned with american unis I mistaken called Ivy league unis Ivory league unis.
Of course, now I've explained the joke it's doubly funny, because a joke allways gets funnier once one explains it.

From a U.K. Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2008/oct/09/top200.universities.worldwide

Harvard is almost always in the Top 3, often #1.