<p>As I am new to this website, I'm coming across a lot of schools I've never heard of before. Just to get an idea, what do you think (in your opinion) are the top ten (hardest to get into, most challenging, etc) schools to get into? What would be your dream school to get into?</p>
<p>Use the search tool.</p>
<p>Ignoring LACs, the USNWR top 10 minus either UChicago or Dartmouth. -.-</p>
<p>My opinion of the order of the top 10 diverges greatly from USNWR, however.</p>
<p>You’ll find, as you spend more time on this forum, that ‘top 10’ is only relevant if you add ‘for x kind of person looking for y kind of experience with z kind of budget.’ The great thing about universities and colleges in the US is that there are so many great schools and the biggest issue is finding the one that’s right for you. </p>
<p>Have fun looking.</p>
<p>Check USNWR. Please avoid flame war…</p>
<p>Me personally</p>
<p>Harvard
Stanford
Yale, Princeton
MIT
Caltech
Columbia, UPenn, Duke, UChicago
Dartmouth, Brown</p>
<p>MIT,CalTech,Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, (Insert IVY of Choice)*2 </p>
<p>In no paticular order.</p>
<p>hardest to get into- H,Y,P,S, MIT
most challenging- CAL TECH or MIT,CHICAGO, H,Y,P,S</p>
<p>Harvard had a 7.5% accept rate. Cooper Union had a 7.3%. Hence it being on my list.</p>
<p>[Cooper</a> Union | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/cooper-union-2710]Cooper”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/cooper-union-2710)
[Harvard</a> University | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/harvard-university-2155]Harvard”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/harvard-university-2155)</p>
<p>Alexandre, I highly advise you to close this thread. Plenty of threads like this have been made and have ended very very badly.</p>
<p>
Oh, I don’t think that’s at all why it made the list. There are many colleges with such acceptance rates. You neglected to include an obvious option - Curtis with a 5.1% admit rate - but included Mudd with a 34.1% admit rate, for example.* Perhaps the Curtis Institute would have been included if it had an engineering program.</p>
<p>Of course, one would be quite right not to judge colleges based on admit rates. Who here would argue that Alice Lloyd is more prestigious than Princeton? The College of the Ozarks more prestigious than Dartmouth? Berea more prestigious than Cornell? The acceptance rates would say that such is indeed the case, however!</p>
<p>*This US News data seems outdated. IPEDS reports a 23% admit rate for Mudd.</p>
<p>
Though I feel Stanford is a very good school, it really isn’t that hard to get into. It’s median SAT is only 2185. CalTech, in contrast, has a median SAT of 2270.</p>
<p>Yes, Stanford has the lower admit rate of the two but its students have a much lower SAT as well.</p>
<p>If you believe the ivies are the top schools in the country, you’re just wrong. There is no absolute causation between an institution’s acceptance rate and its quality of education, albeit there is often a correlation. The grade inflation of the ivies alone is enough to show that it is nothing more than elitism rather than a true reflection of the quality of education.</p>
<p>Academic rigor? Caltech, MIT, Reed, Haverford, UChicago, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, etc.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>sentiment, huh?</p>
<p>out of about 4,000 colleges and universities in this country, very few people would argue that Stanford is among the toughest 10 schools to get into, if not the top 5 schools…it turns down plenty of 4.0 GPA’s and perfect 800 SAT score students…</p>
<p>“That” is in italics and I’m clearly speaking from the context of the quoted user’s comment that the most difficult universities to be admitted to in the nation are HYPSM. -.-</p>
<p>I’m comparing Stanford relative to other universities on the user’s list(s).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>SAT scores rarely tell the whole story. Stanford’s lower median SAT is not because they are hurting for high-scoring applicants. Rather it reflects that they don’t weight the scores as heavily in admissions decisions. For a woman with 2300 SAT CalTech would be much easier to get into than Stanford. Last year Stanford accepted 1 in 14 women; Caltech accepted 1 in 4 women.</p>
<p>Ivy League makes 8.
- MIT
- Stanford</p>
<p>Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Cal Tech, UPenn, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale, Princeton, Stanford
MIT, Caltech
Columbia, Duke, Upenn, Dartmouth</p>
<p>This is analogous to deciding what the 3 Best Cars in the World are . . .</p>
<p>Person #1: Here are the 3 Best Cars in the World<br>
- Ferrari California - affordable luxury
- Rolls Royce Phantom - classic luxury
- Dodge Viper - fastest car at 378mph</p>
<p>Person #2: “but wait, these may be on someone’s list of best cars, but I have a family and need to carry 2 kids, so they don’t work for me . . . how about the Subaru Forester, Land Rover and Honda Odyssey” "</p>
<p>Person #1: “too bad, you may some specific needs peculiar to your individual situation, but the question isn’t what the best car is for YOU, it’s what would people generally accept as a best car, and there is absolutely NO WAY that you can argue that the Forester is a better car than the Ferrari”</p>
<p>Person #2: “But it doesn’t matter if the Ferrari is a better car in general because NOBODY buys a car in general; they buy it for a specific use for a specific situation, and since the Ferrari doesn’t hold me and my family it’s of no use to me”</p>
<p>Person #1: “Look, the DATA in USN&WR’s Cars Edition show that the Ferrari a better car than the Forester; better handling, acceleration, even a better sound system”</p>
<p>Person #2: “But as Johnny Cochran would say: If the car don’t FIT it ain’t worth . . .”</p>
<p>So it is with colleges. Cal Tech is a “better school” than Cal Poly SLO . . . unless the latter fits MY needs better :-)</p>
<p>Now, back to the HYPed schools discussion of what schools in general are The Best . . .</p>