<p>Is this list by prestige, competitiveness, or just which is best?</p>
<p>I'd move BC to right under Brandeis. It's becoming a very competitive school, and is pretty difficult to get into. I think I'd put BU above Northeastern, too. What do you think? I also love Olin, but since it's younger than my dog maybe it shouldn't be so high yet. lol</p>
<p>I was thinking mostly in terms of how impressive it looks to have a degree from that institution.</p>
<p>Olin's "youth" is one reason I rank Olin below Tufts, to be honest. (The other is that Tufts is an elite engineering and liberal arts school, whereas Olin only has engineering.) People turn down Harvard and MIT to go to Olin. People rarely do that for Tufts, and practically never do it for Brandeis. I'd have to say that Olin has more clout & prestige than Brandeis even though it's only a few years old. If you don't like that, though, we could shift it just below Brandeis.</p>
<p>Your other changes make sense, though. It ends up looking like:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Olin</li>
<li>Brandeis</li>
<li>Boston College</li>
<li>Boston University</li>
<li>Northeastern</li>
</ol>
<p>UMass Boston all the way!</p>
<p>That looks good to me. I didn't think about the 'which schools would you turn down' -aspect. I'm a huge Olin fan. :D</p>
<p>I wanted BC raised because I know a couple of great kids who were turned down from there. While tons of MA kids use BU as a safety, you can't really do that with BC, anymore.</p>
<p>Found a complete list here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston#Higher_education%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston#Higher_education</a></p>
<p>And you're absolutely right, BC is more selective than BU.</p>
<p>There's a Cambridge College?! Oh my, what a folly I had committed when I applied to Harvard, in my complete ignorance of the existence of Cambridge College! I shall never forgive myself.</p>
<p>If Olin is going to be on there, it should be 3rd, if only because of its IMMENSE prestige in the engineering community.</p>
<p>How can Wellesley not be on this list? And for music, NEC is up there with the best too.</p>
<p>cosar, absolutely correct. Wellesley never occured to me, possibly because it never came up in my college search (for obvious reasons). I apologize for that slip.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Olin</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
<li>Brandeis</li>
<li>Boston College</li>
<li>Boston University</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm not including conservatories because these schools and conservatories probably don't compete with each other for students, and even if they do, it'd be almost impossible to figure out where a conservatory ranks among other types of academic institutions.</p>
<p>Any other major schools I'm missing? Is Wellesley in the right place? Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Why is boston college so low on that list? I thought it was a good school and is only getting better.</p>
<p>It is, that's why it made my list of top 8 most prestigious colleges and universities in Greater Boston.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's a great school with rising prestige/popularity, but it's no MIT. ;)</p>