<p>Like others have said, tiers are what you make them to be. Whoever said Tier 1 is HYPSM is correct, as is anyone who says Tier 1 is top 100 or whatever schools in the nation. </p>
<p>If I were a top student, I’d want a tiered ranking that would have smaller tiers so I could differentiate between a bunch of good to great schools. If I were an average student, I may not care about distinctions between the top 20 schools, but I’d care about general, larger tiered distinctions between schools I’m looking at. </p>
<p>Also, when you are dealing with lower tiers, a difference of 10 spots (if one were to make smaller tiers for your general region) would probably be irrelevant. But, for top schools, a difference of 10 spots is a lot. That would be the difference between Harvard and, say, Northwestern.</p>
<p>In conclusion, I think Ron Paul’s tiered ranking is the best.</p>
<p>Tier 1 Universities are usually considered the top 50 schools listed in US News and World Reports. Tier 2 schools are those ranked 51 - 130. Tier 3 schools 131-188 and Tier 4 schools are those ranked through 260.
Others consider the Tier 1 schools be only those elite ones rated as “Most Selective” by admissions officers, which include approximately the top 35+ universities. HYPMS, Cal Tech, Penn, Columbia, Duke, U of Chicago, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Washington U; Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Rice, Emory, Notre Dame, Vanderbuilt, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, U.of Virginia, UCLA, Michigan-Ann Arbor, USC, Tufts, Wake Forest, UNC, Brandeis, William and Mary, NYU, Boston College, Lehigh, California-San Diego and U. of Rochester.</p>
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<p>Then there all the most selective LACs, too:
the New England NESCAC schools (Amherst, Williams etc.), the Philadelphia-area Quaker colleges, probably all/most of the ACM colleges (Carleton, Grinnell…), Whitman, Reed, the Claremonts, Davidson …</p>
<p>Get a current copy of Barron’s Guide to American Colleges and Universities. The Barron’s Guide is THE definitive source for all possible information about universities in the U.S., and I’ll bet you’ll find some detail about these places you’re considering that will help you make up your mind. It does a good job of tiering colleges by Most Competitive, Highly Competitive, Very Competitive, Competitive, etc. US News is hard to synthesize due to the array of categories.</p>
<p>Using competitiveness of undergraduate admissions is misleading at best. Take, for example, the University of Wisconsin. You will not find too many professors, educators, and college administrators who will agree that it is a second or third tier university just because its admission standards are not in the “most competitive” category. Its academics are first rate, and that’s what makes it top tier.</p>