<p>The goal of this thread is to provide a compilation of some of the best schools out there that most people have never heard of. By no means can I provide them all as these are just the ones I have run into during my college search so please feel free to add on. These are not in any particular order at this time.</p>
<p>Bowdoin College
Rose Hulman Institute of Technology(Engineering)
Cornell College
Rochester Institute of Technology (Engineering)
Bryn Mawr College</p>
<p>Pomona College
Swarthmore College</p>
<p>Of the 75 most selective schools in the country, I’d guess that the average adult would recognize about 15-20 as somehow “special”. HYPS, MIT, Duke, Georgetown, Cornell, ND, maybe Berkeley and Hopkins, UCLA, Michigan, UVA, UNC, Navy. Not too many more. </p>
<p>Just run down the US News top 21-100 rankings for national universities, or almost the entire list of LACs. Most adults probably have never heard of most of them. Or if they have, they have no idea they are distinctive in any way.</p>
<p>I don’t much care for the US News methodology hence the thread.</p>
<p>Rollins college is a 1800 student LAC but it isn’t in the NE. It is in Winter Park, FL (a suburb of Orlando). It has a huge endowment, plays soccer and basketball not football which, for most people down here, makes it seriously weird but Rollins has always focused on rich, white northern kids who want to get out of the snow. </p>
<p>And they do it very well. </p>
<p>I grew up in WP FL. As I was growing up Rollins had a rep as a place where you coudl party your ass off, experiment with all sorts of drugs, and still get a degree as long as daddy kept writing checks. </p>
<p>Rollins has made itself into an excellent school that focuses resources into education. Small classes, preprofessional programs, study abroad, community service, and a great pool on a lake. The campus is beyond gorgeous. It looks like California transplanted to Central FL. </p>
<p>People have heard of it. It ranks well. It ought to. With all the money it has it is easy to see why it looks good on paper. I have met and worked with quite a few Rollins grads and it is a great school. It is selective. Not much diversity. Mostly white and rich despite what they tell you. So, it is great for what it is. It isn’t for most people. I doubt you could take a kid from Michigan who wasn’t white and rich and get him to do well at Rollins. </p>
<p>To me a great university is one that has access to anyone even if they aren’t white and rich and turns them into world leaders and/or professionals. That is greatness not taking the best of the richest and making them functional.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd
Reed College
Cooper Union
Olin College
Whitman
Colorado School of Mines</p>
<p>I second Reed, and would like to add Southwestern University in Texas. Great school that I unfortunately decided to turn down, but for reasons that had nothing to do with quality!</p>
<p>Also, for international students (and depending where you are in the US) Rice University. I’m living in France, and when I tell teachers where I’m going in the fall, they all smile politely. It’s hilarious, because I can just see them thinking “poor thing, she should stay in France rather than go to a crappy US school no one knows ” At least I didn’t have a prestige bias when I chose the best fit!:D</p>
<p>Pomona College has almost no name recognition even in Southern California where it is located. Most people who ask me where I went think I mean Cal Poly Pomona.</p>
<p>Carleton College. On senior night at track, my coach informed everyone that I would be attending “Carson…no, Clarkson…”</p>
<p>The majority of people I run into have never ever heard of it.</p>
<p>nobody has any clue in Boston where Clemson is. Somebody asked me if it was in California once. The problem is that it’s a state school but doesn’t have the state name in the school name haha</p>
<p>Pretty much every LAC</p>
<p>Colgate, Holy Cross, Davidson, Bucknell</p>
<p>Yeah basically a high rank LAC.</p>
<p>i agree with Rice and the LACs, and I would also add Washington University in St. Louis. It’s ranked number 12 for universities by US News and World Report, but people always ask me if i mean University of Washington-Seattle.
also, University of Chicago and UPenn sometimes have issues because people think they’re state schools. haha.
and then of course there’s the fact that so few people consider schools outside of the U.S. …</p>
<p>^Tippusultan: Funny, but I feel like Colorado School of Mines is pretty well known, at least in Arizona (especially for anyone looking out of state for engineering). Some that aren’t, though: Tufts, Pomona, and I agree with Rice. Macalaster as well.</p>
<p>The ultimate one is University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>“Oh, you go to Penn State?”</p>
<p>Kalamazoo .</p>
<p>Met a girl who goes to Colorado College that had never heard of Vanderbilt. I told her it was in Nashville and then she said that she was pretty sure she had visited Vandy when she was in Nashville a few years ago. She starts describing the campus and the students and I immediately realize that she’s not talking about Vandy, but rather Fisk University, an HBCU.</p>
<p>Based on the students I know who go to Rollins, I wouldn’t call it selective. It is pretty though.</p>