<p>I think BodePlot came the closest to the spirit of the original question and gave an excellent list. And it makes the point that reputation of a school depends on the specific area or department. Obviously, Georgia Tech for Engineering. You must look deeper. If you do not yet have a passion for a major, then you’re looking at overall reputation (which many times comes from the publicity of sports team: face it, who would have ever heard of Gonzaga without the Zags?).</p>
<p>But if you do have a particular major in mind, the lists could be drastically different. For example, in Journalism, the top schools may not be that well-known.</p>
<p>You also have to remember that selectivity is also based on the department. HSS at CMU is much easier to get into than Computer Science.</p>
<p>^ CMU is an exception that way. At most liberal arts colleges and universities, there are no distinct undergraduate schools. Acceptance is to the college not to a department. Though, if you’re an obvious, well-qualified science major and the school is trying to boost its strength in that area, that might give you some advantage.</p>
<p>The vast majority of state flagships fit this bill. My list will only be of ones off the top of my head, so I apologize for them all being from the same region.
University of Alabama
University of Arkansas
University of Missouri
University of Oklahoma
University of Kentucky
University of Tennessee
University of Kansas
Louisiana State University
University of Iowa</p>
<p>Due to the size of their applicant pools and respective state populations, I’m assuming these are considered too selective, but I’m throwing them in there.
University of Texas
Ohio State University
University of Florida
Texas A&M</p>
<p>-Even some major, but not flagship state schools-
Oklahoma State University
Florida State University
Auburn University
Iowa State University</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo has about a 40% acceptance rate, and high SAT/ACT scores for a public school, but it has a very good reputation, at least from what I know from living in NY. I’ve heard it called a private school educational institution at a public school price.</p>