Rankings of Undergraduate Universities by Prestige

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I was just wondering how you would rank undergraduate universities by reputation and prestige. I was thinking more along the lines of tiers to sort out schools because it is a little difficult when you just straight up rank. From what I understand and have read in other forums, it looks like this:</p>

<p>TIER 1
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT</p>

<p>TIER 2
Columbia, Duke, CalTec, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore</p>

<p>TIER 3
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Georgetown, Berkley</p>

<p>TIER 4
Northwestern, WashU, Rice</p>

<p>Can anyone tell me if they feel this is accurate? Prestige and rankings are open to opinion, but would this be along the right lines?</p>

2

<p>well you cant really group williams amherst and swarthmore in the same list in my opinon being that their LAC’s. Also i think northwestern should be in Tier 3 atleast.</p>

3

<p>Among whom? Academics? The layman? For the latter, WAS should not even be on the list at all. Not so for the former.</p>

4

<p>Even though I lived in MA my entire life… under the shadows of Harvard/MIT… I really never heard of Williams, Amherst, or Swarthmore. I mean, I never really gave them a look except when I heard my high school Chemistry teacher was an Amherst grad and that they were apparently top schools. :-(</p>

<p>I personally believe Georgetown is really prestigious. I have a Northeast bias btw.</p>

5

<p>ok so Northwestern up, LACs out</p>

<p>TIER 1
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT</p>

<p>TIER 2
Columbia, Duke, CalTec, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn </p>

<p>TIER 3
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Georgetown, Berkley, Northwestern</p>

<p>TIER 4
WashU, Rice</p>

6

<p>really? georgetown and duke top tier? </p>

<p>TIER 1
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Duke, Georgetown</p>

<p>TIER 2
Columbia, CalTec, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn</p>

<p>TIER 3
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Berkley, Northwestern</p>

<p>TIER 4
WashU, Rice</p>

7

<p>Goergetown and Duke should not be grouped in tier 1. You can say that both should perhaps be in your tier 2 group-- that would make a lot of sense.</p>

<p>The Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT grouping really stands above the rest</p>

8

<p>By the prestige among the academics, I’d say the list seems just totally off. No way, I mean ABSOLUTELY NO WAY, Gtown and Duke belong in the Top tear with HYPSM. There are millions of threads on this. Just do a quick search… </p>

<p>And Chicago belongs in Tier 2.</p>

9

<p>TIER 1
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Caltech</p>

<p>TIER 2
Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, Penn, Chicago</p>

<p>TIER 3
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Michigan</p>

<p>TIER 4
Dartmouth, Brown, Rice, WashU</p>

<p>TIER 5
Emory, Vandy, UCLA, UNC-CH, UVA</p>

10

<p>How do you rank schools by prestige? Hmmm…</p>

11

<p>Tier 1:</p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT</p>

<p>Tier 2:</p>

<p>Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Caltech, Chicago, Duke, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore </p>

<p>Tier 3:</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, Emory, Georgetown, CMU, Vanderbilt, UVA, UCB, UCLA</p>

<p>Tier 4:</p>

<p>WashU, Tufts, Notre Dame, Michigan</p>

12

<p>yah i agree with Northface. Cornell is definately tier two not tier three.</p>

13

<p>Tier 1:</p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT</p>

<p>Tier 2:</p>

<p>Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Caltech, </p>

<p>Tier 2.5: (There’s really VERY VERY little difference between these two tiers, especially since different fields from tier 2.5 might trump those from 2 and beyond)
Chicago, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Georgetown</p>

<p>Tier 3:</p>

<p>Rice, Emory, CMU, WashU Vanderbilt, UVA, UCB, UCLA</p>

<p>Tier 4:</p>

<p>Notre Dame, Michigan, UNC, NYU</p>

14

<p>Hope2getrice’s list looks the best to me.</p>

15

<p>Flip Dartmouth and NW in the 2 - 2.5 list and i say its perfect.</p>

16

<p>Michigan should not be below UVA or UCLA. Certainly above UNC as well. Middsmith has it right.</p>

17

<p>Why not just use the Peer Ranking? I assume when you write ‘prestige’ that you mean academic prestige among academics? Note that this method’s ranking spot is primarily driven by the quality of research publications by the faculties of each school.</p>

18

<p>Exactly DunninLA. That is why schools like UCB, UCLA, and Michigan are the three best publics in the country.</p>

19

<p>U seriously would put Cornell ahead of Duke? I know that isnt right ik at least 3 kids who are choosing Duke over Cornell, and Cornell just sounds like the pits of the Ivy. Even I know that. Cornell and Duke should switch. The others I still dont know, but i think Tier 1 is definately set and Columbia, Dartmouth, Caltech, and Penn should be set in Tier 2 definately, maybe even Brown and Duke for sure.</p>

<p>Tier 1:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT</p>

<p>Tier 2:
Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, DUKE, Caltech, </p>

<p>Tier 2.5:
Chicago, CORNELL, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Georgetown</p>

<p>Tier 3:
Rice, Emory, CMU, WashU Vanderbilt, UVA, UCB, UCLA</p>

<p>Tier 4:
Notre Dame, Michigan, UNC, NYU</p>

20

<p>To each his/her own.</p>

<p>It really depends on where you’re coming from (figuratively and literally). Different ppl will have different perspectives. For example, lots of ppl in CA don’t know much about LACs. It’s common to choose USC over Georgetown, etc. </p>

<p>I told a few of my friends to list universities they knew.
They listed Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford. And UNC and Duke (because of basketball).</p>

<p>Personally, if I were to choose someone to agree to, it’d be middsmith.</p>