美國著名大學探尋筆記
常青藤八所大學有七所建立於美國獨立之前。另一所Cornell University 是1865年建立的。九所殖民地時期的大學中另兩所是公立大學College of William and Mary, 和Rutgers University。這兩所大學也是非常優秀的大學。僅僅靠曆史的積澱,這些常青藤大學也可稱得上傑出了。
還有幾所大學,僅僅是因為她們取得的成就(培養出來的人才,和獲得的科研,學術成果),不容質疑的成為頂尖大學。其中MIT(還有Johns Hopkins University)就因為地理位置的緣故,常常被誤認成常青藤大學。小小的加州理工更是以其科研成就和培養出的人才與東部的MIT齊名。中西部的芝加哥大學,東南部的杜克大學,南部的萊斯大學也是頂尖的,更何況她們都是區域的領袖。西部的斯坦福和伯克利不光是學界的領袖,更是企業創新發展的主動力,推動整個區域,乃至全球的經濟。
美國中南部的帶著濃厚的鄉土風情,鄉村音樂之都田納西納什維爾有個著名大學Vanderbilt University,密西西比河岸上的聖路易斯是美國密西西比文化的中心,著名的Washington University就坐落在這裏。印第安納州的University of Notre Dame是美國著名的天主教大學。
還有一些著名大學是以她的某個頂級學科出名,例如以計算機科學出名Pittsburgh的Carnegie Melon University,和以政治學和公共政策等社會科學出名的首都哥倫比亞特區的Georgetown University。
美國大學往往都有不少的競爭者或合作者。而頂尖大學的這些對象大都是實力不相上下的著名大學。例如,芝加哥大學的鄰居西北大學,杜克大學南部梯隊有Emory University和Wake Forest University,緊隨哈佛和MIT的波斯頓地區的大學Tufts University。New York University 挑戰哥倫比亞,共享著百老匯,和華爾街,還有洛杉磯的University of Southern California與UCLA相爭,尋找好萊塢的機會,她們都擁有得天獨厚的大都市的文化環境。
美國還有象伯克利一樣眾多的著名公立大學,盡管她們在美國國內排名往往被私立大學所壓製,但是她們的實力卻是公認的,在國外更是聲名遠播。與伯克利同在加大係統的就有UCLA,UC San Diego,UC Santa Barbara等。其他傳統名校有University of Washington (Seattle),University of Colorado (Boulder),University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, University of Illinois(Urbana Champaign),University of Wisconsin(Madison), Purdue University,University of Virginia,University of Maryland(College Park),University of North Carolina(Chapel Hill),Georgia Institute of Technology,University of Texas(Austin)等等, 數目眾多。
另一方麵,美國國內的排名更重視本科教育,所以小型的文理學院往往壓過公立大學。小型文理學院的成就更多是表現在她培養出的優秀學生上。如Williams College,就培養了眾多學者名人,有諾貝爾獎,菲爾茲獎,普裏茲獎獲得者,有總統,部長,國會議員,州長,還有五百強公司的主管,和眾多的億萬富翁。排在前十位的文理學院的實力大多體現在人才的養成上。有的學生不太喜歡這些小學校,擔心資源不象大學校那麽豐富,選課範圍太窄。其實,這些學院大多與臨近的大學結成盟校,可以交叉選課。Amherst college,Smith College就和同城的其他三校結成五校聯盟(Five College Consortium)。著名女校Wellesley College 也與MIT,哈佛合作,並聯合為學生提供MIT的科學和Wellesley 的藝術雙學位。南加州的Claremont Colleges有五個著名的文理學院組成:Pomona,Harvey Mudd等,個個都享有盛名。五校校園連成一片,共享課程和設施,模仿牛津式的學院型大學體係。
在美國升大學,各種機會都很多。隻要不是隻鎖定某個單一目標,這麽多頂尖學校中任何一個適合自己的都會讓自己和家人自豪。
注:從了解學校的發展曆史到探尋她們的特色,或深或淺,斷斷續續地嚐試著筆記下一些對美國的一些大學的感覺和印象。這些大學中許多是在孩子申請大學時參觀過的或探討過的,還有一些是與自己或朋友有著各種各樣的關聯的。雜七雜八寫了十六個學校。還有一些沒有寫,先在此寫下一個雜記,以待將來補筆。
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_colleges
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankings_of_universities_in_the_United_States
[3]https://www.niche.com/blog/the-25-oldest-colleges-in-america/
[4]https://www.4icu.org/us/oldest/
[5]https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/features/historically-notable-colleges/
[6]https://www.ranker.com/list/infoplease_s-oldest-us-universities/web-infoguy
[7]https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/top-public-universities/
[8]https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public
[10]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri
[11]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis
[12]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville,_Tennessee
[13]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee
[14]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Notre_Dame
[15]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Forest_University
[16]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_University
[17]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_University_in_St._Louis
[18]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_University
[19]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University
[20]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California
[21]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufts_University
[22]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Mellon_University
[23]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University
[24]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Santa_Barbara
[25]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_San_Diego
[26]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles
[27]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Michigan
[28]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana–Champaign
[29]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin–Madison
[30]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Minnesota
[31]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdue_University
[32]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_College
[33]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amherst_College
[34]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellesley_College
[35]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_Colleges
[36]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment
[38]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_by_number_of_billionaire_alumni
[39]https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/18/the-universities-that-produce-the-most-billionaires.html
What type of students does each Ivy League look for?
This may be more funny that accurate, but there’s some truth to it.
Harvard — The kids with the richest parents.
MIT — The smartest kids in the room.
Stanford — Creative kids who are going to be rich.
Brown — The most liberal kids in the room.
Columbia — Kids who are smart, but want to go out in New York.
University of Pennsylvania — Kids who want to be the next partners at McKinsey.
Yale — Kids who are going to sue you in the future.
Princeton — The smartest kids (besides MIT).
Dartmouth — The outdoor-sy kids.
Cornell — Kids who were rejected everywhere else.
The summarized list of universities according to the number of Nobel Prize winners (undergraduate degree only):
Harvard University: 21
Columbia University: 16
University of Chicago: 13
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 11
University of California-Berkeley: 11
Yale University: 11
California Institute of Technology: 8
Cornell University: 5
Swarthmore College: 5
University of California-Los Angeles: 5
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign: 5
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: 5
Amherst College: 4
Carnegie Mellon University: 3
Case Western Reserve University: 3
Dartmouth College: 3
Princeton University: 3
University of Pennsylvania: 3
University of Rochester: 3
University of Washington: 3
University of Wisconsin-Madison 3
Brandeis University: 2
Haverford College: 2
Johns Hopkins University: 2
Oberlin College: 2
Purdue University-West Lafayette: 2
Rice University: 2
Rutgers University: 2
Stanford University: 2
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities: 2
Williams College: 2
Brown University: 1
College of the Holy Cross: 1
Georgia Institute of Technology: 1
Grinnell College: 1
Hamilton College: 1
Michigan state University: 1
New York University: 1
Northwestern University: 1
Ohio State University: 1
United States Naval Academy: 1
University of California-Riverside: 1
University of California-San Diego: 1
University of California-Santa Barbara: 1
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: 1
University of Texas-Austin: 1
Vanderbilt University: 1
From https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1244088-where-did-nobel-prize-winners-complete-their-undergraduate-education-compiled-list.html