<p>Hello, I took data from the posts in the forum "Top 10 schools in your opinion" and added them all up to get the following list. If this list doesn't provide a good ranking of universities perhaps it will at least give everyone a good idea of the CC perception of American undergraduate schools. If you did NOT post in the previously mentioned forum, please feel free to add one to the number and repost the list so that we may retain a clear list of the top schools. This list takes into account about 30 relevant posts from the forum.</p>
<p>Harvard (26)
Princeton (26)
Stanford (25)
Yale (25)
MIT (21)
Columbia (20)
UPenn (18)
CalTech (16)
Duke (15)
Dartmouth (13)
UChicago (13)
Brown (9)
UC-Berkeley (8)
Williams (7)
Amherst (6)
Georgetown (6)
Northwestern (5)
Cornell (5)
UMich (4)<br>
Swarthmore (3)
Rice (3)
Johns Hopkins (3)</p>
<p>LAC's can not compete with Universities in terms of prestige, endowment, or social influence.</p>
<p>Might you get a more PERSONAL education at Williams vs. Ivy? Probably. Will you be able to chat it up with Nobel Laureates or world-class researchers at Williams? For the most part, No.</p>
<p>IMO, i think it's comparing the JV to the Varsity team. But of course, if the only consideration here is an intimate educational environment, Williams beats out just about every Ivy with the possible exception of PRinceton (but most likely Williams will still come out on top).</p>
<p>I didn't want to try to interpret or alter the data at all so to be as objective as possible. Several good points are brought up about the LACs, I would thus encourage people voting in the future to consider what THEY think most important about schools and list their best accordingly.</p>
<p>WashU should be there. It is considered so overrated on this site that it is underrated. Please, Georgetown/Cal/Mich on this list and not WashU? </p>
<p>Also there should be a distinction between UG focused schools and Graduate focused schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
LAC's can not compete with Universities in terms of prestige, endowment, or social influence.</p>
<p>Might you get a more PERSONAL education at Williams vs. Ivy? Probably. Will you be able to chat it up with Nobel Laureates or world-class researchers at Williams? For the most part, No.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is assuming that you'll be within chatting distance of Nobel laureates at most research universities...which is unlikely.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that you're wrong. You're mostly right. But I'm not sure that everyone should be on varsity when they still don't know how to play the game.</p>
<p>1) Williams is far richer than most of the Ivies with the exception of HYP and Dartmouth when it comes to per student endowment
2) Dartmouth is more undergrad focused than Princeton (spends the most by far on undergrads)
3) Williams does tremendously well at grad placement (better than half the Ivies) and recruiting (a number of top firms recruit on campus). So it seems to me that Williams prestige works where it counts.</p>