<p>Wow, LACs do not fare so well in these rankings. Putting schools like Haverford on the same level as Brandeis and BC is pretty harsh. And pretty inaccurate, I'd say, especially if we're talking about undergrad education.</p>
<p>
[quote]
BEST OF THE BEST (13 schools): Caltech (1520), Harvard (1490), Princeton (1480), Yale (1475), MIT (1470), Duke (1465), Dartmouth (1450), Wash U (1450), Stanford (1440), Rice (1435), U Chicago (1425), Columbia (1420), U Penn (1420)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If going by SAT scores, then add Harvey Mudd (1480) and Pomona (1450). I just realized you said national universities, though.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Tier 5
All the LACs on US News from around 9-16
[/quote]
So does that mean Harvey Mudd and CMC are tier 5? Honestly..</p>
<p>Here are my updated rankings based on your input (including select LACS although I will admit that this is more focused on national rankings). I think the tiers are accurate in terms of the kind of student body you will get. Somebody earlier said 1-20's were pretty much the same, but obviously there is a notable difference between a USC student and a Yale student, for example. However the student body would be basically interchangable at Stanford and Duke (Best of the Best); Cornell and Northwestern (Excellent); USC and NYU (Very Good) </p>
<p>Feel free to suggest any more changes :) </p>
<ul>
<li>Best of the Best -</li>
</ul>
<p>California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Excellent -
Amherst College
Brown University
College of William and Mary
Cornell University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Rice University
University of California—Berkeley
Univ. of California—Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Washington University in St. Louis
Williams College</p></li>
<li><p>Very Good -</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Boston College
Brandeis University
Carnegie Mellon University
Tufts University
New York University
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
U. of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
Univ. of Southern California
Swarthmore College
Wake Forest University
Wellesley College</p>
<p>Slipper,
While I appreciate your comment and think I know where you are coming from on Vanderbilt, I think your evaluation may be a bit dated and a bit too reliant on Northeastern prestige. Furthermore, I think you underrate the other Sunbelt schools as these appear to be consistently marked down in your “rankings.” This may be due to your Dartmouth affiliation (and I’m not knocking Dartmouth as I think the students are great and the environment is truly unique) and Northeastern prestige-conscious perspective. Even in the Northeast, your prestige weighting is not reflective of reality as both Tufts and Boston College deserve higher consideration.<br>
But the fact is that several schools outside of the traditional/prestige powers have greatly benefited from the demographic swell and now boast truly outstanding student bodies. The public has just not caught on yet (as your comments reflect) and accepted these schools as peers, but the numbers support this evolutionary argument. </p>
<p>Rice is clearly one such school and I feel certain that if it were located anywhere in the Northeast, it would trump nearly all of the Ivies not named HYP. While Vanderbilt is not at that level, it has significantly improved its position since they got their President from Brown in the late 90s. Like Rice, it is also severely underknown and I would say underrated in the Northeast. W&M and Emory most definitely provide a stronger offering than you give them credit. USC is another school that has been on the move and which has greatly improved its student profile and yet you rate that school very lowly. </p>
<p>I encourage you to take another look at all of these schools as things do change and there is good news about American educational excellence in some heretofore unlikely places.</p>
<p>Courtesy of Darnshorty, I second the following list. LACs are definitely underrepresented/underranked in the above lists...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Below are non-biased groupings that combine US News Rankings, acceptance rates, average sat scores, percent valedictorians, etc to rank all colleges/unis in the nation and demonstrate how CA schools hold up against those in the rest of the country.</p>
<p>Group 1:</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT</p>
<p>Group 2:</p>
<p>Amherst, Williams, Brown, Pomona, Dartmouth, UPenn, Swarthmore, Columbia, Caltech (sorry, but MIT is harder to get into), Duke, Rice, Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>Group 3:</p>
<p>University of Chicago, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Claremont Mckenna, WUSTL, Georgetown, Cornell </p>
<p>Group 4:</p>
<p>Carleton, Northwestern, Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Vassar, Tufts, Wesleyan, Davidson, Haverford
[/quote]
</p>
<p>All right. I'm not liking any of these rankings either, so here goes my attempt to make sense of it all. I'm probably a bit biased towards schools in the Northeast and LACs, seeing as that's what I'm most familiar with. Feel free to critique to your heart's content :-). For the purpose of simplicity I'm not including schools that specialize in only a specific discipline such as engineering or business...</p>
<p>Group 1
California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
Yale University</p>
<p>Group 2
Amherst College
Brown University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Harvey Mudd College
Rice University
Swarthmore College
University of Pennsylvania
Washington University in St. Louis
Williams College</p>
<p>Group 3
Bowdoin College
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
Georgetown University
Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University
Middlebury College
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Reed College
Tufts University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Southern California
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University</p>
<p>Group 4
Bates College
Barnard College
Boston College
Brandeis University
Bryn Mawr College
Colby College
Colgate University
College of William & Mary
Davidson University
Emory University
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Kenyon College
Macalester College
McGill University
New York University
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Rochester
University of Virginia
Washington & Lee University</p>
<p>Group 5
Bard College
Bucknell University
College of the Holy Cross
Colorado College
Connecticut College
Denison University
George Washington University
Lafayette College
Mount Holyoke College
Occidental College
Pepperdine University
Pitzer College
Sarah Lawrence College
Scripps College
Trinity College (CT)
Tulane University
University of California, San Diego
Villanova University
Wake Forest University
Whitman College</p>
<p>I'd slightly alter the original list... I deleted some colleges too.
And yes, I'll ignore LAC's for this list...</p>
<p>GROUP 1</p>
<p>California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University</p>
<p>GROUP 2</p>
<p>Brown University
Cornell University
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Rice University
University of California—Berkeley
University of Chicago
University of Virginia
Washington University in St. Louis</p>
<p>GROUP 3</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon University
Emory University
New York University [Stern/Tisch are higher]
Tufts University
Univ. of California—Los Angeles
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
U. of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
Univ. of Southern California [Marshall/Film School are higher]
Vanderbilt University</p>
<p>All of you , most of you seem to be placing columbia in the top tier. I disagree, should be lower, no? How do you justify its top placement?</p>
<p>CalTech is not easier to get into than MIT. MIT's applicant pool is not as self-selective as MIT.
CalTech should be Tier 1.</p>
<p>Columbia's location is my reason for putting them at the top. They have great placement in business [Wall Street, banking, etc...]</p>
<p>Data about Hopkins is incorrect. Numbers for 2006: 1440 (Math and Verbal, excluding writing).</p>
<p>littleatheist: I would put Pomona in your Group 2 - in the middle of the pack by SATs or Acceptance Rate (USNWR data):</p>
<p>Ranked by SATs:</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd College 1380-1560
Amherst College 1350-1560
Pomona College 1380-1530
Duke University 1360-1540
Dartmouth College 1350-1550
Washington University in St. Louis 1360-1520
Swarthmore College 1350-1530
Brown University 1330-1540
Rice University 1330-1540
Williams College 1340-1530
University of Pennsylvania 1340-1520</p>
<p>Ranked by Acceptance Rate:</p>
<p>Brown University 15%
Dartmouth College 17%
**Pomona College 19%<a href="15.8%%20in%202007">/b</a>
Amherst College 19%
Williams College 19%
Washington University in St. Louis 19%
University of Pennsylvania 21%
Swarthmore College 22%
Duke University 24%
Rice University 25%
Cornell University 27%
Harvey Mudd College 36%</p>
<p>hahaha! I love how the University of Chicago is in a lot of posters' "Group 3." Going by peer assessment, the University of Chicago is in the top 3. I think only Princeton, Harvard, and Yale beat it out. This just shows you how biased the posts are (and how meaningless).</p>
<p>brandeis, duke, and UVirginia should not even be on these lists.</p>
<p>Dream Schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech </p>
<p>Top Schools : Columbia, U. Penn, </p>
<p>A++: Duke, Cornell, Dartmouth, U. Chicago, Northwestern, </p>
<p>A+: Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St.Louis</p>
<p>A: Emory, CMU, UCB, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, UCLA</p>
<p>A-: USC, Tufts, Rice, Noterdame, Michigan, Virginia</p>
<p>B+:William&Mary, Texas, UCSD, Georgia Tech, NYU</p>
<p>ParentOfIvyHope: How are your rankings different from USNEWS? Besides moving Tufts slightly down and completely leaving off UNC.</p>
<p>I didn't put them according to US News but according to students preference.
i.e more students prefer schools in that order if Tuition is taken out of context.</p>
<p>The authors of the study admitted that there's a lot of irregularities in their rankings due to specialization of schools. </p>
<p>Perhaps you shouldn't base too much on the preferences.</p>
<p>BrownPlease - I was defensive about my school b/c it was like putting Yale (ranked 3rd according to US News - as we know, HYP have been fighting over no. 1 for years) as tier 2. I don't know why I started commenting in this thread. It is the pinnacle of stupidity.</p>