<p>It's ridiculous to try to say any 10 universities are better than all others.
Better at what?</p>
<p>Alexandre's list comes closest to a fair, and general, look; although, I could see some from his second group in the first group--or not.</p>
<p>If you mean most famous: what would be the value of that? We all know who makes the most famous hamburger in the world; the most famous retail outlet; the most famous automobile company; the most famous holiday destination (Disney); the most famous song; the most famous movie, etc.</p>
<p>If you have your heart set on Disneyworld, the grand canyon will be a let-down. </p>
<p>Perhaps the real question should be: </p>
<p>What college/university is going to nurture and produce the qualities of knowledge/wisdom/talent/civility in a general student body or in a particular person in the optimal fashion?</p>
<p>1) Not necessarily the school with the best department for a specific/over-specific field (though it should be a potential factor in any subjective decision) or
2) which school is best appreciated by recruiters (though it may be a factor if #1 applies). </p>
<p>if you do well in a good school and you have job-worthy personal qualities you will have a fine career and a potentially happy life with a spouse, 1 1/2 kids, a cozy home and 2 mid-sized cars in the driveway after 6:30 PM on weekdays. </p>
<p>If, on the other hand, you imagine that you need to be Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or Donald Trump to be happy, you need more help than any university can supply.</p>
<p>What is the philosophy behind the education you aspire to?
--Answer this question and find your school.</p>
<p>How about Rochester?
A previous post mentioned that the school should be well rounded...
Top ranked in the sciences, polisci, economics, business, teaching, music, medicine
also in top 10 of undergrad schools whose students go on to earn terminal degrees...
Also if it is not as good as many people say it is, then why did the gov't choose it over mit, harvard, stanford, princeton to house a fusion center?</p>
<p>"Also if it is not as good as many people say it is, then why did the gov't choose it over mit, harvard, stanford, princeton to house a fusion center?"</p>
<p>Maybe you can't fit a fusion center in the middle of Cambridge. This is a meaningless argument.</p>
<p>Why would anyone care about the exact rank anyways? I'm sure at least 3/4 of the US population would go to any of the top 20 schools in a heatbeat if they were accepted and could afford it. I mean, it's not like some big dick contest in the real world. "I graduated from Harvard and you went to Brown, which is statistically less selective. Oh no, that automatically makes me better than you." No one gives a *<strong><em>. You're either incredibly rich or incredibly smart to be going there in the first place, so it doesn't matter. The only situation I can think of is when two equally qualified Ph.d's apply for the same position as a professor at a prestigious school where all they care about is the name. But who's to say that someone who got a phd from a no-name school is less qualified than someone that got theirs from Harvard? A nobel prize winner can come from either school, and success depends largely upon what you do with your degree, not where you earned (or paid for) it. Say the guy from a no-name school wins the Nobel prize, it's a no-brainer to hire him over the Harvard guy. Anyways, there are more than enough great schools than you can shake a fist at and graduate from to be successful. So stop caring so much about this trivial *</em></strong>. I feel like I'm wasting my time, but I figure I'd say something because a lot of you are wasting your time with this and it's depressing.</p>
<p>I know they are great schools and everyone stresses about college, but honestly, you'd probably enjoy life more if you spent this time actually being productive, being the kind of person that an elite school would be proud to call one of its students. If you're a parent arguing with other parents about which school is better- well that's more understandable. But really, maybe this kind of stuff should be left to just one thread? These pop up every day and all look the same. Instead of trying to argue which schools are the best overall, which is impossible because people see it differently, how about focusing on which schools are best for you or your child? That would probably be more productive and make this less stressful in the long run. Not everything is a contest. A great school is a great school. Leave it at that.</p>
<p>LACs are junior universities...they start below UC Santa Cruz in rankings if you ask me (not that there's anything wrong with UCSC).</p>
<p>Are you *<strong><em>ing retarded? UCSC is a good school, don't get me wrong, but Williams, Amherst and the other top LAC's are just as good as any private school in the nation. Williams is #2 as a feeder school to buis. Law and Med schools. Junior colleges? *</em></strong> off.</p>
<p>this entire thread is pointless. I have my top tens, and you have yours. I will go to my top choice, and you will go to yours. I don't see why everyone has to conform to a single list of THE TOP TEN HONORABLE UNIVERSITIES in the country when each of us is a different person that would fit best into a setting that we prefer.</p>
<p>I bought the US News guide not because I wanted to see where the colleges are ranked within the top ten. And certainly, the majority of people who buy it are not considering applying to HYPSM or AWS.. they cant make a national publicaiton geared to such a small population of people. I bought it because I wanted a clear, easy to access on-hand source for information such as school phone numbers, SAT scores, number of applicants/number of admits, and so on. Also, I think the only redeeming quality it has for people considering at top 25 school is that it will certainly name a few schools for you that are great that you havent heard of. Back when I was just a wee junior, I had no idea that a place called Vanderbilt or Swarthmore or Sewanee or Rochester or whatever existed. Yet, with the USNWR guide, I could easily see new schools, and compare them to other schools which ive heard of. </p>
<p>If we all figure these guides have a margin of error of plus or minus 7. When looking at a school, look at the 14 schools around it on the ranking, if you have respect for them, than you probably will have respect for the new school. </p>
<p>Rankings serve absolutely no purpose when selecting a college from among the places you've been accepted to. As such, I haven't opened the book since March 24th.</p>
<p>"top 3 LACs (amherst, swarth, williams) equal in prestige to any ivy (at least as far as job recruiting and grad school admissions go), and are just as dificult to gain acceptance into. '</p>
<p>lolz...that's laughable !!!:) Obviously you're sensitive to the third rate status of LACs, so I won't push it. I'm only saying that people <em>think</em> LACS are dumping grounds for rejects, when in fact they are pretty decent schools. I'm sure that if you're extremely highly educated, and have great knowledge of LACS, that they start to look appealing.....but most people would rather go to community colleges because they don't think LACs are worth the money....in california, they'd much rather go to a community college and follow up with a UC degree.</p>
<p>I'm not dumping on LACS....just reiterating what the public opionion of them is.</p>
<p>This thread is a brilliant example of why experts think US future is going to the dumps. People like spending ridiculous amounts of work on arcane things that aren't at all useful.</p>
<p>Tell me whats the best Harvard and Yale? Princeton and Harvard? yale and Priceton? I tell you what. Go for the one you like and put your wasted lives on something that will be of benefit ;). </p>
<p>Agreed. I talked to a princeton student who said cornell had by far the largest workload. anyone heard the nickname cornhell? yeah. </p>
<p>IMHO</p>
<p>Top 10 Universities</p>
<p>Yale University
Princeton University
MIT
Stanford University
Harvard University
Cal Tech
University of Pennsylvania
U Chicago
Johns Hopkins University
Brown University</p>
<p>btw. there's more to college than academic quality. you must also consider quality of life. for instance, i'd say harvard and yale are almost the same in quality of academics, but I'd choose yale any day of the week.</p>
<p>Gollub: the people who matter, such as employers and grad adcoms think <em>very</em> highly of LAC's. Many LAC's send a greater percentage to grad and medical school than prestigious universities.</p>