I think you all missed the point with Dartmouth. The location of campus is beautiful, and allows students to go rock climbing, hike the Appalachian trail, or swim in the river on any day of the week. The restaurants in town are delicious. There are cozy little diners, cultural food from Nepal and Thailand, and steakhouses too. Although the winters are cold, Dartmouth is the only school in the nation with its own skiway! Buses can take students there whenever they want. Also, the annual school wide snowball fight, and winter carnival are ways that we celebrate the snow and have fun with it! Not to mention you get to see some of the most stunning changing leaves in the world. Although I agree that Princeton has buildings that are more architecturally marvelous, baker library and Dartmouth hall are both beautiful, and the situation of the school within a small New England college town allows for a stronger base in tradition and community.
I feel like Princeton and Yale arquitecture are very similar ( both beautiful) Also NYC isn’t an hour away, more like 1.5 driving without traffic or 2 hrs if you take the train bc of all the many stops. Boston is probably 2 hrs away by car depending on traffic as well.
The great appeal of a place like Cornell is you have a contained college experience in a "gorges" setting & quirky town. We have our whole drinking age life to live in cities
Yeah uh why is Cornell at the bottom of the list? Ithaca is a quaint college town with some of the most and best restaurants of any town in the USA? Beautiful fingerlake region surrounding and within the campus? Some newer and older architecture to appeal to everyone? Direct bus rides on university buses to NYC? The standards used to rank were a bit off as well. A lot of it is subjective
Yah, I vote Cornell as the most beautiful as well. Breath taking really- very few campuses really compare. I still get chills when I visit anytime between May and October (like once a decade). However, it is huge, it is in the middle of nowhere and the weather is really very challenging for about 3/4 of the school year. But that is part of the charm I guess.
The emphasis on seaside while completely ignoring gorges, waterfalls, lakes and mountains perplexed me. Seriously, I used to have a 30-min hike workout along a waterfall trail before dinner on a daily basis because the trail was literally behind my building. That to me is something to die for. I've lived in three countries over a 15 years period and that experience was one of the things I miss the most from my overseas memories. There're not many cities on earth where you can say "who needs a gym membership when you have an actual waterfall at your doorsteps!" On top of that, each time I went to NYC, I felt so relieved once I got back to Ithaca. I'm from Asia and I was so surprised how dirty NYC is. On the first visit someone was arguing in a subway station and their spit accidentally came flying right into my eye. On the second visit, a garbage truck ran over a roadside garbage bag and the bag exploded, sending smelly liquid all over my left arm. I know there're plus sides of living in a big city but this clip completely ignores the plus side of small cities. Maybe I'm also biased because when I think of big cities to live, I think of the clean and modern Singapore with amazing urban planning and well maintained infrastructure. NYC is the best destination for tourists, it's one of the most exciting cities to visit worldwide. But to live there, no. If I were to choose a big city in this list, Boston seems much better than NYC and Philly, so Harvard should be ranked higher than Columbia and Penn. As for the nature, US coast is nothing compared with southeast Asian beaches. However, Ithaca gorges especially in the falls is world-class. Maybe my opinion is biased due of the comparison to other countries where I've lived.
@@mottopanukeiku7406wow 3/4 of the year is bad weather? I thought it would just be Feb. & March which are challenging😢 what are the other months. Don't all kids go home in January?
@@chang958 November gets cold and grey quickly. It’s like Fall only seems to last a few glorious weeks and suddenly it gets grey and bleak. Until April it does not really let up either. So 6 months at least. I think I am remembering it as being longer 😀. That being said, if one ends up going there, you just have to embrace the crazy weather and do happy things when it is grey and freezing out. Spring and summer are glorious though.
I went to Yale. The architecture is to die for. But Princeton is in a much better setting. The town is cutesy cute. New Haven is not. I vote Princeton.
I went to Harvard. Putting my bias aside.....I really like the Princeton campus and town. You put a little too much emphasis on having a big city nearby. Students are poor and time constrained and tend to stay closer to campus. I went into Boston maybe a dozen times tops. And you think New Haven is a great town? Better than Cambridge? Really?
When Ezra Cornell said that he would found an institution "where any 'man' could find instruction in any study, his response to how he would control demand, he said, "Wait until you see where I'm going to put it."
All biases aside,yes....Yale is the most beautiful of all the Ivies....hands down.When on campus you are surrounded by beautiful gothic and Romanesque style buildings and feel like you are inside a Renaissance town somewhere in Europe.Many gates are finely carved and guilded, and you can find carved gargoyles on many buildings.In the fall,the beautiful elms blossom in spectacular multicolored foliage all over campus.And in the summer you can cruise the beautiful Connecticut shoreline for beautiful beaches, seafood restaurants and scenic harbors of your choice.Connecticut itself is an extremely beautiful state worth exploring which I did my Senior year,living off campus!!And then with NYC just an hour and a half away,you can have the best of two worlds!! Yep....I agree....Yale...first place for collegiate campus feel and beauty!!!However....when and if I ever have kids, I shall never be able to afford to send them there:)!!!
Sorry but Yale is not an 'hour' from NYC and New Haven is not the quaint mid-sized city you suggest it is. The New Haven waterfront is industrial and not really a place for R&R. Brown is lovely but largely in the middle of nowhere. Harvard and Princeton are hands down the best mix. Boston is a great college town and Princeton has easy access to TWO cities - NY and Philly. Plus the Princeton campus is by far the most idyllic setting,
Shouldn't safety be a part of this formula? Urban campuses Yale, Penn, Columbia and Harvard definitely have a different level of student and campus safety than schools like Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth.
You got Harvard spot-on; visiting as a tourist from the UK, it is hard to tell whether it is a university at all, because it looks like a mundane (albeit well-maintained) assemblage of neo-Georgian and mock-Georgian buildings. It's about as impressive as the average street in Kensington or Mayfair. The Yard must be the most underwhelming central space of any university I've seen, and unlike the immaculately sculpted lawns and medieval quads of Oxford and Cambridge, is crisscrossed with muddy trails and scattered trees, like an overgrown back lot. Even the much-vaunted Annenberg Hall is little more than a Victorian parish church. For a university of Harvard's age, reputation, and endowment, its built environment is an embarrassment.
This video is a little suspect and seems to target certain Ivy League schools. I've never heard of Harvard's campus described as "underwhelming." Likewise, criticizing Dartmouth because the closest McDonald's is 11 minutes away is laughable. I smell sour grapes.
No sour grapes here - just good-spirited and for fun! Everybody will have their own rankings and feelings, and that’s totally fine - this is how we chose to do it, and by nature there had to be a first and last place. Thanks for watching and engaging!
I also thought Harvard's campus was disappointing, especially for its reputation. No grand buildings and beautiful quads, and especially no cohesion. It just felt busy.
I attended the best public University in the America, Cal Berkeley. I also attended, and was a teaching assistant at Cornell University. Both are excellent schools, and both are rated a bit lower than they should be because of the number of students. In Cornell’s case, it’s not only bigger, in terms of enrollment, than all Ivy League schools, it also offers a larger and more diverse number of majors than all Ivy League schools. But the biggest difference I experienced between Cal and Cornell, was NOT the quality of students, or subject matter, but the fact that public institutions are more competitive than private schools, such as the Ivies. Competitiveness meaning thank in public schools, they basically grade on a bell curve, where approximately half of the students in a class get a C, or below. In the Ivies, grading is not on a bell curve…and students do not flunk out…those that leave, leave because they quit.
I also went to Berkeley as an undergraduate and then to Cornell as a graduate student. As a physics undergrad at Berkeley, I heard that a lot of Berkeley physics grad students were "weeded out" after failing their Qualifying Exam. At Cornell, however, it was virtually unheard of for a physics grad student to fail their Q-exam and be kicked out. Just another example of the sink-or-swim culture of UC Berkeley.
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and also spent a semester at Harvard. As an avid skier, were I to do it again, Dartmouth would be really tempting. All of these schools have great programs and deep resources. While the ranking is good for what it is, the viewer just needs to be aware that being closer to cities, closer to the beach, closer to warm weather, etc. all impact the ranking favorably, and those may not correspond with your desires concerning the college experience.
This is an interesting and enjoyable video, and I respect that you remained consistent in your algorithm, but I have a few comments. First, your algorithm -- which you acknowledge in the video -- focuses on non-academic amenities, especially proximity to points of recreation such as restaurants, beaches, and cities. College is not primarily for recreation. It's primarily for academic study, and nobody approaches that more seriously than students at the Ivies, who are notoriously both driven and competitive. Second, the southern or possibly Appalachian twang in your accents hints at why you place undue emphasis on the "climate" aspect of each school. As a Minnesotan, I assure you that no Ivy League campus, including Dartmouth and Cornell, has a "harsh" winter. Third, your comment at 9:03 contrasting universities in urban locations to "schools in suburban areas" is a malapropism in this context. No Ivy resides in a true suburb, for the simple fact that all Ivy campuses predate the advent and development of suburbs, an American phenomenon that occurred post-WWII. Penn and Yale in particular evidence a phenomenon seen in many urban campuses: the campus was constructed in what was a nice part of town when built, but that has decayed over time. Penn is surrounded by a true ghetto, pretty dangerous and abject one. Yale is in an awful, pathetic, poverty-infused backwater. Providence has been slowly bleeding out for decades. Each of these campuses is a fortress against the crime that menaces around its border. You don't mention crime at all, but I think you should. Most college students nowadays have a computer and a phone in their possession, and they are naive and, for the most part, privileged. They generally walk around with earbuds in their ears, listening to music, unaware of their surroundings. Sitting ducks for street criminals. As to architecture, though Harvard's campus seems "plain" in contrast to many campuses, the reason is its age. Harvard Yard was constructed before the trend of constructing campus buildings in a nouveau-Gothic style (mimicking the style of England's Oxford/Cambridge). This style of American collegiate architecture became ubiquitous in the US during the late 19th and early 20th Century, so much so that it is the default look and feel for so many college campuses, including virtually all of Yale, and places like UCLA and U Michigan. The buildings on the Harvard Yard are designed in the traditional New England style and, when understood in context, are actually lovely. Finally, having raised several kids through college and toured most every major university campus in the nation, from UCLA to Harvard -- with stops at places like Colorado School of Mines, Wash U, University of Chicago, Northwestern, U Wisc, U Mich, Purdue, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Syracuse, etc. -- it is my personal opinion that Cornell University's campus is, by a wide margin, the most beautiful campus I have seen. The way in which the university has taken advantage of the awe-inspiring vantage point of the bluffs above Cayuga Lake, it's breathtaking. Add to that the magic of Fall Creek carving its canyon through the center of the campus, with pedestrian bridges suspended above scenic waterfalls, mist rising around one's feet, it's like being in Rivendell. The Collegetown area provides enough of the usual undergrad-friendly eateries (pizza, beer, and cheap Asian food) for quotidian undergrad sustenance, and the nearby Ithaca Commons, home, among other things, to the famous Moosewood restaurant, provides enough pedestrian-friendly downtown for the occasional visit by the parents, including a parent-paid-for meal at a fancier sit-down restaurant. Admittedly, Ithaca is isolated and difficult to travel to/from. Most college students travel to/from campus four times per year: August (to), December (from), January (to), May (from). The local airport is just minutes from campus and, since it's tiny, there are almost never any delays getting through TSA. A tired student can wake up 45 minutes before his flight and still board. For students who find themselves with some rare free time and wish a bit of adventure, Cornell has a regular shuttle that runs between the Ithaca campus and its NYC campus. It's inexpensive, user-friendly, and has decent wifi. Cornell undergrads find it convenient to ride the shuttle to NYC, getting some homework done along the way, for an occasional adventure in the big city.
@@minahwh3213It makes sense that JFK transferred to Harvard to be closer to home because of his Addison's disease. Never knew he went to Princeton, when we think Kennedy, Harvard comes to mind in a knee jerk way given Brookline is in Boston.
@@minahwh3213 He wrote a letter to Harvard expressing his admiration that it was "more than just another college," & that there was a special distinction to being called a "Harvard man." That would indicate that Harvard, not Princeton, was his "dream school," as u put it.
I would still rank Harvard above Columbia and Brown. But I don’t disagree that it is underwhelming. As far as campus is concerned, it does not come close to the grandeur of Princeton, Yale.
Yale will ALWAYS be my favorite of the Ivy League campuses: architecturally, academically and culturally. However, I HATED New Haven. 🤮 NYC (my hometown), is a two-hour drive from campus, perhaps 2.5 with heavy traffic (Metro North takes about 90 minutes from New Haven Union into Grand Central), and Yale's architecture just CAN'T be beat: it's the "Oxford of America." Columbia (my Dad's alma mater) has a great campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, with a nice campus, but it's just somewhat lacking in housing options. Uhhhh, Philly has JUST as cold winters 🥶❄as NYC and Boston............
I will have to disagree with you on all this (respectfully). But then again, it is highly subjective. You would have to rate these campuses on some type of weighted criteria- for instance, physical beauty of location, architecture, proximity to great cities, and overall quality of life. Having been to all these campuses over the years, they are all very nice. Princeton wins on architecture (cohesive), Yale a close second (old/impressive). Columbia and Harvard win on proximity to culture/cities and probably Penn as a close second. However, Columbia is in a fairly dumpy location as with Penn. Cornell wins on physical beauty of location hands down, with Dartmouth a close second. No opinion on Brown. The thing about the "Ivy League" is that other than HYP, most of these schools really do not have much in common with each other beyond the athletic conference and their challenging admissions. As an alum, no one really references the "Ivy League" as some type of institution other than athletics.
Princeton is the best Ivy League school for a variety of reasons but much of this is the town itself. Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Penn & Brown are all too urban/dumpy in terms of their general environment. Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth are the best situated. But of the well situated schools Princeton is the most prestigious. And I have been there as a TOURIST. I also went on a one week retreat at the Episcopalian monastery on the Charles River next to Kennedy School of Gov’t which sends it’s lay brothers to Harvard Divinity. Decided to pass on applying to enter the Cowley Fathers but they most definitely had postulants entering there mainly for the free Harvard M Div degree. These campus rankings are totally subjective and therefore pretty much meaningless. I knew people at Miami of Ohio who passed on or actually dropped out of Yale and Dartmouth to go to Miami largely because they didn’t want to borrow money to go to school. Robert Frost rated Miami of Ohio as the most beautiful campus in the country. US News and World Report recently ranked Oxford, Ohio as the best college town in the country. So it’s all subjective. But the smaller the school the more extraordinary the average building can be and the only Ivy League school which is as large as a state university is Cornell which is why it’s the least prestigious. The other Ivies are typically only half the size of a state university.
This list is made assuming we want an urban atmosphere. Based on just the campuses I would rank them the exact opposite you did, lol I would much rather be in hHanover New Hampshire or Ithaca than Philly or NYC. Dartmouth and Cornell have two of the most beautiful campuses in the county
I went to Yale for four years, and it did I impress the whole time, However, I do know that some people preferred Princeton, as it is less urban, and I was surprised Harvard is ranked here as low as it was. But okay, I'll accept the good rating if I have to. :)
The dumbest ranking in history, because it entirely depends on your preference. Hanover is gorgeous! So is Ithaca! And its lack of access to McDonald's is a plus in my and many a book. . . . As for Haavaad, it adopted the rather austere, Georgian style that was gifted them by its Puritan founders. The unstated architecture feels genuine, and inspiring, to achieve beyond vanity.
Really weird to say you're going to rank the campuses on beauty and architecture, but then rank them based on their proximity to cities. You guys do realize that some people actually want to go to college in a rural setting?
Yes but how many have a 4-Star Restaurant right on campus like Columbia does ?? The Terrace Restaurant is on 119th St. and Amsterdam Ave. and has a harpist playing on some nights. I guess (hope) it is still open since the last time I ate there was back in 2005, the year my youngest son graduated from Columbia.
Nah you bugging’ i have it 8. Dartmouth, 7. Cornell. 6. Harvard 5. Yale. 4. Princeton. 3. Brown. 2. Penn. and 1. Columbia. No question about it it’s architecture is definitely the best of all of them and they were ranked #1 college for food by the daily meal and in New York City you have EVERYTHING.
When you focus on the video's top 3 - Columbia, Brown, Yale - Columbia has to win. Even their tap water tastes like $5 bottled spring water cuz NYC water flows from Catskill mountains with very little sediments. Refreshing tap water combined with the campus dining that rivals the finest NYC restaurants, you have the making of a #1 university in the world.
Alright I'm doing this, but honestly they're all beautiful campuses. 8. Brown -- Still a really beautiful campus, but the least unique in my opinion and I don't love Providence as a city, even if the rest of the state can be lovely. 7. Harvard -- Arguably the greatest institution of higher learning in the world, but the campus isn't as spectacular as the remaining Ivy Leagues'. Pretty views over the Charles and some cool (and very old) buildings. Classic red brick architecture but not as captivating as some others. 6. UPenn -- Some very dramatic buildings here, and the quad is nice. In my opinion it suffers from being in a pretty unpleasant area, but some of the buildings are stunning. 5. Columbia -- New York location is great, with access to Central Park and views over the Hudson and Riverside Park. The main quad is iconic, but the rest of the campus doesn't hold up to some of the more beautiful campuses. 4. Cornell -- Probably the least beautiful campus in terms of architecture in my opinion, but I think it has the most beautiful location by far. Ithaca is gorgeous and the town is very quaint. Hard one to place considering those factors... 3. Dartmouth -- Similar to Cornell, the campus isn't as dramatic as some, but its location at the Vermont New Hampshire border is unbelievably pretty. That in addition to the quaint liberal arts feel that the campus architecture it has makes it one of my favorites. 2. Yale -- I think this campus has the most remarkable buildings of any campus in America. The gothic architecture is iconic, mixed in with some amazing contemporary buildings. The only reason it isn't #1 for me is that New Haven leaves something to be desired. 1. Princeton -- Similar to Yale in some ways, this campus feels fully representative of what "Ivy League" brings to mind. Gorgeous and classic gothic architecture inspired by Oxford in a pretty lovely town makes this my favorite.
I think Brown benefits from how much Providence has improved in past couples of decades. A few decades ago, Providence was a decaying New England industrial town. While the other Ivy cities haven't changed, and Philadelphia remains the Detroit of the East Coast, Providence has become a picturesque New England city.
Alright, we aren't Boston-ers, we are Bostonians (wtf). This comment is not intended to be rude, however as an Ivy grad (Brown and Harvard), and someone who lives in Providnce, RI now - I ask why you would do this video when you aren't experts on the area and culture? Stick to what you know, not what you visit on vacation.
8. Felt sorry for New Hampshire 7. Upper New York is quite well... 6. *faint* & bulldogs are laughing with glee 5. Name after a town in New Jersey, 😎 4. Such perfect of out on top three of honored mentioned 3. Thank you to the city that never sleeps who got the best Ivy in the city not suburb nor country. 2. Rhode Island is the best ever 1. The best ever...take that Massachusetts, Connecticut is the best Ivy college ever.
Of all the vids I've seen, this is one of them. I could hardly avoid notice that you mentioned movie stars as status ratings. The Bushes at Yale were the exception. Wanna guess a President who most recently attended Wharton School at Penn? Ever heard of Trump?
Placeologie- why do you really care about the subject? did you go to an Ivy League college? an Ivy League education or one earned from any of the of T-20, being in close proximity to a whole foods or a Chipotle isn't on the top of a priority list. you might want to upgrade that 7-11 education.
AN interesting take. Thanks. Small items: I don;t know anyone who would say Harvard is located in Boston, which is about 6 miles away. They would say it's in Cambridge. It would be like saying Berkeley was in San Francisco. There's enough to do in Cambridge that HArvard people hardy ever go to Boston. Also at 5:09 you're talking about Cape Cod and their's a mountin inthe picture.. That seems like a picture of a theme park.
John F Kennedy went to Princeton? That's news. Providence has improved in the last 20-30 years but its still not a magnet compared to others, and New Haven? Great pizza yes but thats it - crime levels in the surrounding area (and Columbia) which you didn't mention for any.
Useless. Criteria have no rational bearing on whether to attend. You even state as much in your intro - "... how they might be viewed by the average tourist."
These are more of wealthiest hedge fund managers first. Network effect and narrative control second. Producing Academic byproducts is only a business that comes next.
Why must everything in this country be ranked? This list is utterly arbitrary, based on what these two consider important and their personal taste. Each Ivy is beautiful. Depends on what you want. Columbia is the least atractive campus, but offers the unique experience of being in NYC, Yes, you have to drive 11 miles to get to McDonald's at Dartmouth, but some don't mind making this sacrifice to be in an a classic idyllic rural setting. All have positives. Depends on what you want.
I have two ivy leave degrees and this is the most biased nonsense based on alcohol-pizza-centric criteria ... One does not go to a college just for eating and drinking ...
The Ivy League is nothing but an athletic conference. Being an alum of two of these schools and having been to all of them, they literally have nothing in common- with the exception of the grouping of Harvard/Yale/Princeton. No one talks about an "Ivy League" other than ambitious applicants and folks referring to the athletic conference. It's just like the PAC10 or the "seven sisters" colleges- just a construct. There are SO many other top schools in the US- any one of the general Top20 schools.
@@rocket2579 But look at President Biden, he has been accused and suspended in law school for plagiarism, yet people just do not like to mention it and the main media just keep the report in low profile. Either one likes it or not, Trump has been elected as President, and this is a fact that no one can deny it. Just like Elon Musk, he is a graduate from UPenn, whether his pro-China attitude is welcome or not.
He was elected president, impeached twice, kicked out of office after only one term, and has now been criminally indicted four times with a total of 91 felony counts against him. More to come.....
I think you all missed the point with Dartmouth. The location of campus is beautiful, and allows students to go rock climbing, hike the Appalachian trail, or swim in the river on any day of the week. The restaurants in town are delicious. There are cozy little diners, cultural food from Nepal and Thailand, and steakhouses too. Although the winters are cold, Dartmouth is the only school in the nation with its own skiway! Buses can take students there whenever they want. Also, the annual school wide snowball fight, and winter carnival are ways that we celebrate the snow and have fun with it! Not to mention you get to see some of the most stunning changing leaves in the world. Although I agree that Princeton has buildings that are more architecturally marvelous, baker library and Dartmouth hall are both beautiful, and the situation of the school within a small New England college town allows for a stronger base in tradition and community.
Dartmouth is so underrated
They aren't even from New England or the 'North East'. What would they really know? Lol
can i use this for my why dartmouth essay LOL
As a student there, yes its kinda boring bc it's like literally in the middle of nowhere but you can make it fun if you want to
Dartmouth campus is beautiful and the town revolves around the school. I think you missed the whole point
campus wise Cornell is ranked no1… so pretty so big so much nature so much sceneries!
@@kenichi407 Wow, vicious...
I feel like Princeton and Yale arquitecture are very similar ( both beautiful) Also NYC isn’t an hour away, more like 1.5 driving without traffic or 2 hrs if you take the train bc of all the many stops. Boston is probably 2 hrs away by car depending on traffic as well.
The great appeal of a place like Cornell is you have a contained college experience in a "gorges" setting & quirky town. We have our whole drinking age life to live in cities
Yeah uh why is Cornell at the bottom of the list? Ithaca is a quaint college town with some of the most and best restaurants of any town in the USA? Beautiful fingerlake region surrounding and within the campus? Some newer and older architecture to appeal to everyone? Direct bus rides on university buses to NYC? The standards used to rank were a bit off as well. A lot of it is subjective
Seriously. Cornell is beautiful
Yah, I vote Cornell as the most beautiful as well. Breath taking really- very few campuses really compare. I still get chills when I visit anytime between May and October (like once a decade). However, it is huge, it is in the middle of nowhere and the weather is really very challenging for about 3/4 of the school year. But that is part of the charm I guess.
The emphasis on seaside while completely ignoring gorges, waterfalls, lakes and mountains perplexed me. Seriously, I used to have a 30-min hike workout along a waterfall trail before dinner on a daily basis because the trail was literally behind my building. That to me is something to die for.
I've lived in three countries over a 15 years period and that experience was one of the things I miss the most from my overseas memories.
There're not many cities on earth where you can say "who needs a gym membership when you have an actual waterfall at your doorsteps!"
On top of that, each time I went to NYC, I felt so relieved once I got back to Ithaca. I'm from Asia and I was so surprised how dirty NYC is. On the first visit someone was arguing in a subway station and their spit accidentally came flying right into my eye. On the second visit, a garbage truck ran over a roadside garbage bag and the bag exploded, sending smelly liquid all over my left arm. I know there're plus sides of living in a big city but this clip completely ignores the plus side of small cities. Maybe I'm also biased because when I think of big cities to live, I think of the clean and modern Singapore with amazing urban planning and well maintained infrastructure. NYC is the best destination for tourists, it's one of the most exciting cities to visit worldwide. But to live there, no. If I were to choose a big city in this list, Boston seems much better than NYC and Philly, so Harvard should be ranked higher than Columbia and Penn. As for the nature, US coast is nothing compared with southeast Asian beaches. However, Ithaca gorges especially in the falls is world-class. Maybe my opinion is biased due of the comparison to other countries where I've lived.
@@mottopanukeiku7406wow 3/4 of the year is bad weather? I thought it would just be Feb. & March which are challenging😢 what are the other months. Don't all kids go home in January?
@@chang958 November gets cold and grey quickly. It’s like Fall only seems to last a few glorious weeks and suddenly it gets grey and bleak. Until April it does not really let up either. So 6 months at least. I think I am remembering it as being longer 😀. That being said, if one ends up going there, you just have to embrace the crazy weather and do happy things when it is grey and freezing out. Spring and summer are glorious though.
I went to Yale. The architecture is to die for. But Princeton is in a much better setting. The town is cutesy cute. New Haven is not. I vote Princeton.
I went to Brown and feel the same way about both Yale and Princeton. Lol
If you don't mind could I ask you questions about your admissions process and your experience at the school? I really would like to study there
Yale is located in New Haven with some tough surrounding neighborhoods ; be careful walking at night outside the campus at night.
Ithaca is ranked one of the best college towns in the country, not sure how we're second to last
Thank you Yale university you have been generous in giving free class lectures in UA-cam unlike any other universities in the world!
All Ivy League schools are great in terms of campus and academic!!!👍👍👍
They are the best!❤️❤️❤️
They should be, the cost is unreal and is a career promising??
I went to Harvard. Putting my bias aside.....I really like the Princeton campus and town. You put a little too much emphasis on having a big city nearby. Students are poor and time constrained and tend to stay closer to campus. I went into Boston maybe a dozen times tops. And you think New Haven is a great town? Better than Cambridge? Really?
When Ezra Cornell said that he would found an institution "where any 'man' could find instruction in any study, his response to how he would control demand, he said, "Wait until you see where I'm going to put it."
Dartmouth is about family & education. Not McDonald’s & shopping
I dated a guy that went to Yale. It is a nice campus and I enjoyed him showing me different places.
Just admit that your major criterion is "closest to places we'd like to be other than a college campus."
So true
Nailed it.
Shocked and appalled Cornell is #7. You’re ranking CAMPUSES not proximity to cities. My day is ruined.
All biases aside,yes....Yale is the most beautiful of all the Ivies....hands down.When on campus you are surrounded by beautiful gothic and Romanesque style buildings and feel like you are inside a Renaissance town somewhere in Europe.Many gates are finely carved and guilded, and you can find carved gargoyles on many buildings.In the fall,the beautiful elms blossom in spectacular multicolored foliage all over campus.And in the summer you can cruise the beautiful Connecticut shoreline for beautiful beaches, seafood restaurants and scenic harbors of your choice.Connecticut itself is an extremely beautiful state worth exploring which I did my Senior year,living off campus!!And then with NYC just an hour and a half away,you can have the best of two worlds!! Yep....I agree....Yale...first place for collegiate campus feel and beauty!!!However....when and if I ever have kids, I shall never be able to afford to send them there:)!!!
JFK was only at Princeton for a couple of months. He graduated from Harvard.
PRINCETON WAS THE DREAM SCHOOL OF JFK.
IN HIS APPLICATION ESSAY, HE WROTE PRINCETON WAS THE BEST, NOT HARVARD.
Being 2 hours from a Chipotle is a feature not a bug.
Sorry but Yale is not an 'hour' from NYC and New Haven is not the quaint mid-sized city you suggest it is. The New Haven waterfront is industrial and not really a place for R&R. Brown is lovely but largely in the middle of nowhere. Harvard and Princeton are hands down the best mix. Boston is a great college town and Princeton has easy access to TWO cities - NY and Philly. Plus the Princeton campus is by far the most idyllic setting,
brown is literally in the capital of rhode island…
I agree. Yale has great architecture though.
@@kyle.4215I think Dartmouth was meant.
This helped, as I wanted to go to Yale, but this is just confirming it! Thanks
Shouldn't safety be a part of this formula? Urban campuses Yale, Penn, Columbia and Harvard definitely have a different level of student and campus safety than schools like Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth.
Cornell should be higher.
Nice video. Well done. Interesting. In terms of sports, I’m a Princeton fan. Otherwise, Dartmouth.
Congrats on figuring out there’s actually more to New York State than New York City🙄
You got Harvard spot-on; visiting as a tourist from the UK, it is hard to tell whether it is a university at all, because it looks like a mundane (albeit well-maintained) assemblage of neo-Georgian and mock-Georgian buildings. It's about as impressive as the average street in Kensington or Mayfair. The Yard must be the most underwhelming central space of any university I've seen, and unlike the immaculately sculpted lawns and medieval quads of Oxford and Cambridge, is crisscrossed with muddy trails and scattered trees, like an overgrown back lot. Even the much-vaunted Annenberg Hall is little more than a Victorian parish church. For a university of Harvard's age, reputation, and endowment, its built environment is an embarrassment.
I lived at Yale for graduate school (at HGS). We were still allowed to use our fireplaces then! (93-95). Excellent experience.
This video is a little suspect and seems to target certain Ivy League schools. I've never heard of Harvard's campus described as "underwhelming." Likewise, criticizing Dartmouth because the closest McDonald's is 11 minutes away is laughable. I smell sour grapes.
No sour grapes here - just good-spirited and for fun! Everybody will have their own rankings and feelings, and that’s totally fine - this is how we chose to do it, and by nature there had to be a first and last place. Thanks for watching and engaging!
I also thought Harvard's campus was disappointing, especially for its reputation. No grand buildings and beautiful quads, and especially no cohesion. It just felt busy.
I attended the best public University in the America, Cal Berkeley. I also attended, and was a teaching assistant at Cornell University. Both are excellent schools, and both are rated a bit lower than they should be because of the number of students. In Cornell’s case, it’s not only bigger, in terms of enrollment, than all Ivy League schools, it also offers a larger and more diverse number of majors than all Ivy League schools. But the biggest difference I experienced between Cal and Cornell, was NOT the quality of students, or subject matter, but the fact that public institutions are more competitive than private schools, such as the Ivies. Competitiveness meaning thank in public schools, they basically grade on a bell curve, where approximately half of the students in a class get a C, or below. In the Ivies, grading is not on a bell curve…and students do not flunk out…those that leave, leave because they quit.
I also went to Berkeley as an undergraduate and then to Cornell as a graduate student. As a physics undergrad at Berkeley, I heard that a lot of Berkeley physics grad students were "weeded out" after failing their Qualifying Exam. At Cornell, however, it was virtually unheard of for a physics grad student to fail their Q-exam and be kicked out. Just another example of the sink-or-swim culture of UC Berkeley.
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and also spent a semester at Harvard. As an avid skier, were I to do it again, Dartmouth would be really tempting.
All of these schools have great programs and deep resources. While the ranking is good for what it is, the viewer just needs to be aware that being closer to cities, closer to the beach, closer to warm weather, etc. all impact the ranking favorably, and those may not correspond with your desires concerning the college experience.
This is an interesting and enjoyable video, and I respect that you remained consistent in your algorithm, but I have a few comments. First, your algorithm -- which you acknowledge in the video -- focuses on non-academic amenities, especially proximity to points of recreation such as restaurants, beaches, and cities. College is not primarily for recreation. It's primarily for academic study, and nobody approaches that more seriously than students at the Ivies, who are notoriously both driven and competitive.
Second, the southern or possibly Appalachian twang in your accents hints at why you place undue emphasis on the "climate" aspect of each school. As a Minnesotan, I assure you that no Ivy League campus, including Dartmouth and Cornell, has a "harsh" winter.
Third, your comment at 9:03 contrasting universities in urban locations to "schools in suburban areas" is a malapropism in this context. No Ivy resides in a true suburb, for the simple fact that all Ivy campuses predate the advent and development of suburbs, an American phenomenon that occurred post-WWII. Penn and Yale in particular evidence a phenomenon seen in many urban campuses: the campus was constructed in what was a nice part of town when built, but that has decayed over time. Penn is surrounded by a true ghetto, pretty dangerous and abject one. Yale is in an awful, pathetic, poverty-infused backwater. Providence has been slowly bleeding out for decades. Each of these campuses is a fortress against the crime that menaces around its border. You don't mention crime at all, but I think you should. Most college students nowadays have a computer and a phone in their possession, and they are naive and, for the most part, privileged. They generally walk around with earbuds in their ears, listening to music, unaware of their surroundings. Sitting ducks for street criminals.
As to architecture, though Harvard's campus seems "plain" in contrast to many campuses, the reason is its age. Harvard Yard was constructed before the trend of constructing campus buildings in a nouveau-Gothic style (mimicking the style of England's Oxford/Cambridge). This style of American collegiate architecture became ubiquitous in the US during the late 19th and early 20th Century, so much so that it is the default look and feel for so many college campuses, including virtually all of Yale, and places like UCLA and U Michigan. The buildings on the Harvard Yard are designed in the traditional New England style and, when understood in context, are actually lovely.
Finally, having raised several kids through college and toured most every major university campus in the nation, from UCLA to Harvard -- with stops at places like Colorado School of Mines, Wash U, University of Chicago, Northwestern, U Wisc, U Mich, Purdue, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Syracuse, etc. -- it is my personal opinion that Cornell University's campus is, by a wide margin, the most beautiful campus I have seen. The way in which the university has taken advantage of the awe-inspiring vantage point of the bluffs above Cayuga Lake, it's breathtaking. Add to that the magic of Fall Creek carving its canyon through the center of the campus, with pedestrian bridges suspended above scenic waterfalls, mist rising around one's feet, it's like being in Rivendell. The Collegetown area provides enough of the usual undergrad-friendly eateries (pizza, beer, and cheap Asian food) for quotidian undergrad sustenance, and the nearby Ithaca Commons, home, among other things, to the famous Moosewood restaurant, provides enough pedestrian-friendly downtown for the occasional visit by the parents, including a parent-paid-for meal at a fancier sit-down restaurant. Admittedly, Ithaca is isolated and difficult to travel to/from. Most college students travel to/from campus four times per year: August (to), December (from), January (to), May (from). The local airport is just minutes from campus and, since it's tiny, there are almost never any delays getting through TSA. A tired student can wake up 45 minutes before his flight and still board. For students who find themselves with some rare free time and wish a bit of adventure, Cornell has a regular shuttle that runs between the Ithaca campus and its NYC campus. It's inexpensive, user-friendly, and has decent wifi. Cornell undergrads find it convenient to ride the shuttle to NYC, getting some homework done along the way, for an occasional adventure in the big city.
bro just wrote a whole essay for a youtube comment.
spot on!
You should have just made your own video my guy
Did they say that Harvard is in Boston?
A successful rating is based on distance to McDonalds?
idk what is with the focus on cities. i h8 being close to cities (especially newyork and boston)for too long
this is terrible. it feels like you guys care how close a wal mart is
justice for dartmouth 🧍🏽♀️💔
JFK went to Harvard, not Princeton. He also attended the London School of Economics for a short time.
JFK GOT INTO PRINCETON,HIS DREAM SCHOOL.
HE TRANSFERRED TO HARVARD NEAR HIS HOME BECAUSE OF HIS DESEASE.
@@minahwh3213It makes sense that JFK transferred to Harvard to be closer to home because of his Addison's disease. Never knew he went to Princeton, when we think Kennedy, Harvard comes to mind in a knee jerk way given Brookline is in Boston.
@@minahwh3213 He wrote a letter to Harvard expressing his admiration that it was "more than just another college," & that there was a special distinction to being called a "Harvard man." That would indicate that Harvard, not Princeton, was his "dream school," as u put it.
I'm confused aren't we supposed to be rating the campus, I think for most students being near a major city is not what they are valuing the most.
I would still rank Harvard above Columbia and Brown. But I don’t disagree that it is underwhelming. As far as campus is concerned, it does not come close to the grandeur of Princeton, Yale.
Yale will ALWAYS be my favorite of the Ivy League campuses: architecturally, academically and culturally. However, I HATED New Haven. 🤮 NYC (my hometown), is a two-hour drive from campus, perhaps 2.5 with heavy traffic (Metro North takes about 90 minutes from New Haven Union into Grand Central), and Yale's architecture just CAN'T be beat: it's the "Oxford of America." Columbia (my Dad's alma mater) has a great campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, with a nice campus, but it's just somewhat lacking in housing options. Uhhhh, Philly has JUST as cold winters 🥶❄as NYC and Boston............
I wouldn't have used accessibility to McDonald's in my rankings.
Thankyou! Needed this
As soon as she said that the problem with Dartmouth's campus is its distance to the nearest McDonalds, is the moment I stopped watching this video.
Only a non Ivy League would try to rank these school. Kind of like the story about the wolf & the grapes. Go Ivy League, Go Dartmouth
I will have to disagree with you on all this (respectfully). But then again, it is highly subjective. You would have to rate these campuses on some type of weighted criteria- for instance, physical beauty of location, architecture, proximity to great cities, and overall quality of life. Having been to all these campuses over the years, they are all very nice.
Princeton wins on architecture (cohesive), Yale a close second (old/impressive). Columbia and Harvard win on proximity to culture/cities and probably Penn as a close second. However, Columbia is in a fairly dumpy location as with Penn. Cornell wins on physical beauty of location hands down, with Dartmouth a close second. No opinion on Brown.
The thing about the "Ivy League" is that other than HYP, most of these schools really do not have much in common with each other beyond the athletic conference and their challenging admissions. As an alum, no one really references the "Ivy League" as some type of institution other than athletics.
You people have been smoking some sensimilla. I spent a summer at Yale and New Haven is a dump.
Princeton is the best Ivy League school for a variety of reasons but much of this is the town itself. Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Penn & Brown are all too urban/dumpy in terms of their general environment. Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth are the best situated. But of the well situated schools Princeton is the most prestigious. And I have been there as a TOURIST. I also went on a one week retreat at the Episcopalian monastery on the Charles River next to Kennedy School of Gov’t which sends it’s lay brothers to Harvard Divinity. Decided to pass on applying to enter the Cowley Fathers but they most definitely had postulants entering there mainly for the free Harvard M Div degree. These campus rankings are totally subjective and therefore pretty much meaningless. I knew people at Miami of Ohio who passed on or actually dropped out of Yale and Dartmouth to go to Miami largely because they didn’t want to borrow money to go to school. Robert Frost rated Miami of Ohio as the most beautiful campus in the country. US News and World Report recently ranked Oxford, Ohio as the best college town in the country. So it’s all subjective. But the smaller the school the more extraordinary the average building can be and the only Ivy League school which is as large as a state university is Cornell which is why it’s the least prestigious. The other Ivies are typically only half the size of a state university.
This list is made assuming we want an urban atmosphere. Based on just the campuses I would rank them the exact opposite you did, lol I would much rather be in hHanover New Hampshire or Ithaca than Philly or NYC. Dartmouth and Cornell have two of the most beautiful campuses in the county
I went to Yale for four years, and it did I impress the whole time, However, I do know that some people preferred Princeton, as it is less urban, and I was surprised Harvard is ranked here as low as it was. But okay, I'll accept the good rating if I have to. :)
Rating Ivy schools based on how close you are to taco bell?
The dumbest ranking in history, because it entirely depends on your preference. Hanover is gorgeous! So is Ithaca! And its lack of access to McDonald's is a plus in my and many a book. . . . As for Haavaad, it adopted the rather austere, Georgian style that was gifted them by its Puritan founders. The unstated architecture feels genuine, and inspiring, to achieve beyond vanity.
I know all these schools and frankly, this is silly. And JFK went to Harvard, not Princeton
John Kennedy and all his brothers graduated from Harvard.
Really weird to say you're going to rank the campuses on beauty and architecture, but then rank them based on their proximity to cities. You guys do realize that some people actually want to go to college in a rural setting?
Yes but how many have a 4-Star Restaurant right on campus like Columbia does ?? The Terrace Restaurant is on 119th St. and Amsterdam Ave. and has a harpist playing on some nights. I guess (hope) it is still open since the last time I ate there was back in 2005, the year my youngest son graduated from Columbia.
Nah you bugging’ i have it 8. Dartmouth, 7. Cornell. 6. Harvard 5. Yale. 4. Princeton. 3. Brown. 2. Penn. and 1. Columbia. No question about it it’s architecture is definitely the best of all of them and they were ranked #1 college for food by the daily meal and in New York City you have EVERYTHING.
When you focus on the video's top 3 - Columbia, Brown, Yale - Columbia has to win. Even their tap water tastes like $5 bottled spring water cuz NYC water flows from Catskill mountains with very little sediments. Refreshing tap water combined with the campus dining that rivals the finest NYC restaurants, you have the making of a #1 university in the world.
@@jsk6174 Yes🥲!!!
You use the picture from the theme park Tokyo, DisneySEA for Cape Cod! 😂
5:09 talks about Cape Cod, shows picture of Japan (O___O)
Wait you had issues walking 8 blocks to Columbia's main campus 😅😅
I love this, but you forgot to review Miskatonic.
Are you correct in your inclusion of President Kennedy among the Princeton Alumni ?.
Penn in the heart of the city of brotherly ♥️ Go Quakers!
What they said about Harvard is so true 💀
Alright I'm doing this, but honestly they're all beautiful campuses.
8. Brown -- Still a really beautiful campus, but the least unique in my opinion and I don't love Providence as a city, even if the rest of the state can be lovely.
7. Harvard -- Arguably the greatest institution of higher learning in the world, but the campus isn't as spectacular as the remaining Ivy Leagues'. Pretty views over the Charles and some cool (and very old) buildings. Classic red brick architecture but not as captivating as some others.
6. UPenn -- Some very dramatic buildings here, and the quad is nice. In my opinion it suffers from being in a pretty unpleasant area, but some of the buildings are stunning.
5. Columbia -- New York location is great, with access to Central Park and views over the Hudson and Riverside Park. The main quad is iconic, but the rest of the campus doesn't hold up to some of the more beautiful campuses.
4. Cornell -- Probably the least beautiful campus in terms of architecture in my opinion, but I think it has the most beautiful location by far. Ithaca is gorgeous and the town is very quaint. Hard one to place considering those factors...
3. Dartmouth -- Similar to Cornell, the campus isn't as dramatic as some, but its location at the Vermont New Hampshire border is unbelievably pretty. That in addition to the quaint liberal arts feel that the campus architecture it has makes it one of my favorites.
2. Yale -- I think this campus has the most remarkable buildings of any campus in America. The gothic architecture is iconic, mixed in with some amazing contemporary buildings. The only reason it isn't #1 for me is that New Haven leaves something to be desired.
1. Princeton -- Similar to Yale in some ways, this campus feels fully representative of what "Ivy League" brings to mind. Gorgeous and classic gothic architecture inspired by Oxford in a pretty lovely town makes this my favorite.
You should not be ranking Ivy League campuses wtf
I think you both must be Yale Alumni. What about the locked gates around each college needed for safety?
I think Brown benefits from how much Providence has improved in past couples of decades. A few decades ago, Providence was a decaying New England industrial town. While the other Ivy cities haven't changed, and Philadelphia remains the Detroit of the East Coast, Providence has become a picturesque New England city.
Boooooo! I would put Dartmouth #1. You either get or you don't.
Alright, we aren't Boston-ers, we are Bostonians (wtf). This comment is not intended to be rude, however as an Ivy grad (Brown and Harvard), and someone who lives in Providnce, RI now - I ask why you would do this video when you aren't experts on the area and culture? Stick to what you know, not what you visit on vacation.
8. Felt sorry for New Hampshire
7. Upper New York is quite well...
6. *faint* & bulldogs are laughing with glee
5. Name after a town in New Jersey, 😎
4. Such perfect of out on top three of honored mentioned
3. Thank you to the city that never sleeps who got the best Ivy in the city not suburb nor country.
2. Rhode Island is the best ever
1. The best ever...take that Massachusetts, Connecticut is the best Ivy college ever.
I think the most beautiful campus is Cornell.
JFK went to Harvard College, not Princeton.
Nice how they neglected to discuss the crime that surrounds schools like Yale, Brown, and Columbia
Of all the vids I've seen, this is one of them. I could hardly avoid notice that you mentioned movie stars as status ratings. The Bushes at Yale were the exception. Wanna guess a President who most recently attended Wharton School at Penn? Ever heard of Trump?
Placeologie- why do you really care about the subject? did you go to an Ivy League college? an Ivy League education or one earned from any of the of T-20, being in close proximity to a whole foods or a Chipotle isn't on the top of a priority list. you might want to upgrade that 7-11 education.
AN interesting take. Thanks. Small items: I don;t know anyone who would say Harvard is located in Boston, which is about 6 miles away. They would say it's in Cambridge. It would be like saying Berkeley was in San Francisco. There's enough to do in Cambridge that HArvard people hardy ever go to Boston. Also at 5:09 you're talking about Cape Cod and their's a mountin inthe picture.. That seems like a picture of a theme park.
Ranking is not always correct
John F Kennedy went to Princeton? That's news. Providence has improved in the last 20-30 years but its still not a magnet compared to others, and New Haven? Great pizza yes but thats it - crime levels in the surrounding area (and Columbia) which you didn't mention for any.
Useless. Criteria have no rational bearing on whether to attend. You even state as much in your intro - "... how they might be viewed by the average tourist."
These are more of wealthiest hedge fund managers first. Network effect and narrative control second.
Producing Academic byproducts is only a business that comes next.
JFK when to Harvard and not Princeton.
These two must be city dwellers !
Harvad x boston > stanford x sf > columbia x NYC > NYU x NYC >...etc. king city of New york city vs Queen city of LA ,top 2 City.
11 Minutes to McDonalds. LMAO Is this list a joke?
If you are lazy, and don’t like walking up hills, stay away from Cornell.
You mention Michelle Obama for Princeton but not her husband for Columbia? .... This video is youthful amateur hour
i thought he went to harvard
@@sexybutt999 Undergrad he attended Occidental and Columbia.
@@sexybutt999 Former President Obama received his undergraduate degree from Columbia and his law degree from Harvard.
Upenn is the best, & where free of speach is important.
Cornell 2:44
Why must everything in this country be ranked? This list is utterly arbitrary, based on what these two consider important and their personal taste. Each Ivy is beautiful. Depends on what you want. Columbia is the least atractive campus, but offers the unique experience of being in NYC, Yes, you have to drive 11 miles to get to McDonald's at Dartmouth, but some don't mind making this sacrifice to be in an a classic idyllic rural setting. All have positives. Depends on what you want.
These people did not even graduate a College 😂. Closeness to McDonald’s tops the list.
What a stupid list. I've visited all of these campuses except cornell. Penn and brown are awful compared to Princeton and even Yale.
Maine and Vermont were left out of the Ivy League.
The Taylor swift reference made the whole video!!!
I have two ivy leave degrees and this is the most biased nonsense based on alcohol-pizza-centric criteria ... One does not go to a college just for eating and drinking ...
I don't know about Brown at #2.
Hi
PENN POWER!
What
I wonder if the Ivy League would ever expand.
Would MIT or Georgetown be a good fit?
The Ivy League is nothing but an athletic conference. Being an alum of two of these schools and having been to all of them, they literally have nothing in common- with the exception of the grouping of Harvard/Yale/Princeton. No one talks about an "Ivy League" other than ambitious applicants and folks referring to the athletic conference. It's just like the PAC10 or the "seven sisters" colleges- just a construct. There are SO many other top schools in the US- any one of the general Top20 schools.
@@mottopanukeiku7406 do you guys consider Vanderbilt and rice as T20s?
That photo of Ithaca brings to mind the term “urban decay.”
Agree
Why didn’t you mention Trump is an alumni of UPenn?
You like it or not, Trump was the elected President of USA.
I think the idea is to mention alums who make the school proud. Trump is a buffoon.
UPenn has gone to great lengths to distant itself from Trump. One of his professors there said he was the dumbest student he'd ever had.
@@rocket2579
But look at President Biden, he has been accused and suspended in law school for plagiarism, yet people just do not like to mention it and the main media just keep the report in low profile.
Either one likes it or not, Trump has been elected as President, and this is a fact that no one can deny it.
Just like Elon Musk, he is a graduate from UPenn, whether his pro-China attitude is welcome or not.
He was elected president, impeached twice, kicked out of office after only one term, and has now been criminally indicted four times with a total of 91 felony counts against him. More to come.....