<p>Let’s make our own collegeconfidential deivised college ranking. I’ll go first. Feel free to modify/add to this list:</p>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>U Chicago</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Upenn</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UChicago</li>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Darthmouth</li>
<li>John Hopkins </li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
</ol>
<p>Haha, anyone who spells Dartmouth "Darthmouth" and Johns Hopkins "John Hopkins" should not be allowed to rank them. I think thats a pretty scatterbrained ranking. </p>
<p>I think schools should be "clustered" like this. </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Princeton</li>
<li>Caltech, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown</li>
<li>Cornell, Northwestern, Chicago</li>
<li>Michigan, Berkeley, Hopkins</li>
<li>WUSTL, Emory, UVA</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> Williams</li>
<li> Amherst</li>
<li> Swarthmore</li>
<li> Yale</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li> MIT</li>
<li> CalTech</li>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Stanford</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>UChicago</li>
<li>Carleton</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
</ol>
<p>Honorable Mentions: Cornell, Brown, UPenn, Deep Springs College</p>
<p>I think educational value should be your top priority when choosing colleges, but I do give some weight to the "name" of the college (which is why Harvard is as high up as it is) and the experience you get at the college.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention Duke, its there with Columbia and Dartmouth. As for LACS, I put the big three in the same category as these also, right behing HYPSM</p>
<p>Like Slipper, I would cluster them:</p>
<p>I
Harvard
MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Yale</p>
<p>II
CalTech
Cal-Berkeley</p>
<p>III
Brown
Chicago
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Michigan-Ann Arbor
Northwestern
Penn</p>
<p>IV
Emory
Georgetown
Rice
UCLA
UNC
UVA
Vanderbilt
Washington U.
Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>LACs belong to another cluster altogether.</p>
<p>Alexandre, Are you only talking about undergrad here? I genreally see you as the authority on CC but have to question why you feel Yale and Princeton are better institutions, as a whole, than Berkeley and Chicago. When I say "as a whole," I mean research, undergrad, grad school, etc. I also question Brown, Dartmouth, and Penn's place in the 3rd cluster. I have other questions but I wont bring them up for now. Still, the best list out there so far.</p>
<p>These are undergrad rankings. Berkeley should not be placed that high.</p>
<p>If you go by peer review numbers on USNWR, Penn, Brown, and Dartmouth are all similar if not lower than Cornell. Alexandre seems to agree that these institutions are overranked because of their acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Shyboy, I believe we are all listing universities according to undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Ubermensch, we are rating the instution in its entirety, not just how much they focus on spoonfeeding those college students. I am pretty sure we are ranking universities, not boarding schools. Cal-Berkeley belongs up there with the best of them.</p>
<p>Alexandre, thanks for the clarification. It makes more sense now.</p>
<p>Once again this opens up that there are two schools of thought. I am ranking colleges and colleges only ('boarding schools'), and based on that places like Brown, Dartmouth, Duke rank much higher than UCB and Michigan. Brown and Dartmouth can barely be ranked as Universities as they are much more focused on the undergrad. I see this as an asset, just as Haon does.</p>
<p>As slipper points out in his last sentence, this thread is only about opinions. For him, Berkeley and Michigan will not rank as high as someone else may rank them. I would not personally rank a small school very highly. Then again, what do I know? What does slipper know? </p>
<p>The fact is that undergraduate education is very difficult to quantify and thus rank. It is largely based on individual fit. The learning environment that is good for me will undoubtedly differ from everyone elses. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this is one instance where the peer reviews on something like US News counts much more than even the sum of our opinions.</p>
<p>This is a good prestige ranking. Most people wouldn't change this list. </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
</ol>
<p>But in terms of undergraduate quality, I would move Dartmouth up more and remove Berkeley entirely.</p>
<p>Is this what Shyboy and Alexandre are talking about? Prestige (overall university) versus true educational quality for the undergraduate? So yeah, Berkeley is 13th in prestige, which is pretty good. But in terms of undergraduate quality it should be delisted.</p>
<p>Ubermensch,</p>
<p>Alexandre and I never discussed anything together! We are two separate people. Alexandre was talking about undergraduate education while I was talking about overall university (i.e. the true greatness of the university as a whole). If we were talking about overall university, I think your list is seriously flawed. If we are talking about prestige (not equal to overall university) then I would say your list is pretty good, but not great. </p>
<p>What I did say is that undergraduate education is difficult to quantify because what is good for me may not be good for you.</p>
<p>Another example is Northwestern, Michigan is often better at the grad and professional level, yet at the undergrad level the quality of student body and teaching is superior at Northwestern. I dont have the stats, but I am sure many more people choose NU over Michigan rather than the other way around when finances are not considered.</p>
<p>Undergraduate education is not hard to quantify. In fact, it's quite easy. When a school offers small classes vs large lecture halls and has reknowned professors that undergraduates have access to instead of profs who care more about research than teaching, then the undergraduate education at that school is good. A good undergraduate school doesn't have a "sink or swim" attitude towards students. A good undergraduate school nutures the student and helps people who stumble along the way.</p>
<p>ubermensch, every single thing you mentioned is only your opinion. Why is it hard for you to understand the difference between facts and opinions?</p>
<p>According to the link given by barrons,</p>
<p>"These rankings are subjective! No one can rank colleges with any degree of certainty."</p>