<p>couldn't find a good one so i decided to make my own... pretty self explanatory, only rule is don't use US rankings... personal judgment is preferred... and give a reason for your number 1</p>
<p>Mine are
1)Amherst (5 college consortium excellent place to network)
2)Williams
3)Swarthmore
4)Middlebury
5)Carleton
5)Pomona
6)Claremont Mckenna
7)Harvey-Mudd
8)Grinnell
9)Reed
10)Occidental ( yes i said it, what i like the diversity! lol)</p>
<p>Davidson, W&L, Williams, Amherst, Sewanee</p>
<p>1) Pomona (academics and selectivity is just as good as the two schools below, but this comes along with SoCal weather!- also im going there so bias)
2-3) tie between Amherst and Swarthmore
4) Williams (USNWR overrated, i feel)
5)Middlebury
6)Harvey Mudd
7)Carleton
8)Claremont Mckenna
9)Bowdoin
10)Davidson</p>
<p>1.) Middlebury (this place is getting intensely selective, with an 18% admission rate this year. Strong programs in popular majors such as international affairs and environmental sciences. These majors are important in today's modern global society.)</p>
<p>2.)Amherst
3.) Williams
4.) Pomona
5.) Swarthmore
6.) Carleton
7.) Grinnell
8.) Vassar
9.) CMC
10.) Wesleyan</p>
<ol>
<li>Amherst (open curriculum!)</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna (represent)</li>
<li>Bowdoin</li>
<li>Carleton</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>Davidson</li>
</ol>
<p>One of the schools people havent listed in top 10 is reed, except the original poster.</p>
<p>Why isn't Reed considered a top 10, or better yet why does it rank so low on US News?</p>
<p>i wont rank them but my top 8 would include(in no particular order, except Amherst being #1)
1. Amherst
Swarthmore Williams
Pomona Claremont McKenna
Vassar Wesleyan
Reed</p>
<p>For several years, Reed has refused to cooperate with the US News rankings, so they are artificially lower than they should be. I'd say it's more top 20 than top 10, though.</p>
<p>I pretty much agree with the US News top 10 (in no particular order), but my preference would be for Carleton at number one.</p>
<p>Amherst if you prefer the consortium and a livelier town. Williams if you prefer the mountains, tutorials. (and beating Amherst in sports). The rest are interchangeable.</p>
<p>Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Carleton College
Claremont McKenna College
Davidson College
Grinnell College
Harvey Mudd College
Haverford College
Middlebury College
Pomona College
Swarthmore College
Wesleyan University
Williams College</p>
<p>Williams
Amherst
Swarthmore
Pomona
Carleton
Middlebury
Wesleyan
Haverford
Claremont Mckenna
Bowdoin.</p>
<p>"1)Amherst (5 college consortium excellent place to network)"</p>
<p>I seriously doubt many are going to Amherst for that reason. They would more be going to meet people at Amherst.</p>
<p>Mine would be:
Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Colgate, Middlebury, W&L, Wesleyan, Colby, Hamilton, Bucknell.</p>
<p>Reed? If we're talking academics, I'm scratching my head just trying to think of 4-5 to put ahead of Reed. I'll suspend disbelief that AWS + Pomona are better, but after this I have to start covering my eyes and hand waving...Carleton, Haverford, Bowdoin, Wellesley?</p>
<p>What schools match or exceed it in terms of rigor, lack of grade inflation, ph.d productivity, awards won by alumni (e.g. Rhodes. I know Williams has more), and strength of faculty?</p>
<p>I kind of equate Reed to being like St. Johns...both are great schools, but in reality they can't compete in terms of selectivity, wealth, and academic resources with Claremont McKenna, Haverford, Bowdoin etc.</p>
<p>It's lack of mainstream appeal makes it difficult to compete with the others, I'm sure reedies get an excellent education. I live in Portland and never considered Reed because of the drug use (a freshman died this year from a heroine overdose...reed has a problem).</p>
<p>Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CM, W&L, Carleton.</p>
<p>I agree that Reed is unfairly ranked by USN&WR.
But Reed has some real deficits. The lowest graduation rate among the USN&WR top ten is 91%. Reed's is 75%. Only Scripps (73%) and Bard (74%) are lower among the top 50. Only Richmond among the top 50 is less supported by alumni. Other than Grinnell and the women's schools you have to get down to #34 Trinity to find an LAC school with a higher admissions rate. Only Hamilton among the top 20 has a lower peer assessment score.
I would rate Reed at about #20, where Oberlin is.</p>
<p>I'm not much of a fan of USNWR... When we ran into the president of one of the HYPS schools (no name to protect this party) and asked for a recommendation for a college for a top (valedictorian, top hs) female science student, we were told categorically not to attend an ivy, but to go a school where mentorship in the sciences was prevalent. The suggested schools? Haverford, Carleton, Reed. I'm not debating anyone else's stand on this... just reporting an exchange.</p>
<p>I wouldn't put to much stock in peer assessment or USNWR rankings, but Reed does seem to have an atmosphere that is unappealing to the vast majority of even intelligent, studious applicants. Acceptance rate would be especially untelling since the school is SO self-selecting. If the school attracts 4,000 more applicants with 1000 SAT average, the result would be an acceptance rate that is half of what it previous was, but it doesn't make it any better of a school. I would always take a median SAT (of a school that requires the SAT to not get a cherrypicking effect of its best test-takers, [i.e. Bowdoin, Middlebury, Bates, Hamilton, Holy Cross]) over the acceptance rate in evaluating the academic quality of the student body.</p>
<p>Reed is not that underrated in USNEWS, they are not very selective, because only a small fraction of people have any aspiration of attending. The low grduation rate speaks volumes, and I do not think you can solely attribute that to the rigor of the ducation, but instead the extrememe hard drug use and otehr factors. Reed would not be in my top 20 LACs, that being said:</p>
<ol>
<li>Amherst (same as Williams but with 2 all girl schools and a better location)</li>
<li>Williams
(drop)</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Carleton</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Pomona
(drop)</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
<li>Bowdoin</li>
<li>Davidson</li>
<li>Haverford</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Harvey Mudd (if we take out the non-traditional-LAC bias)</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Carleton</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
<li>Reed</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
</ol>
<p>What is all of this nonsense about Reed being "unappealing" due to its less extreme selectivity? </p>
<p>Just because it's not in New England, a huge attractor of New England prep school kids, and admissions rate less than 30% (though it just this year hit 31.9%) and it has kids who smoke pot (like any college doesn't?), that makes it a school that can't be considered a top 10 school?</p>
<p>Look at this for a second:
Reed</a> College | Reed College Class of 2012 Competitively Selected, Diverse Group</p>
<p>Median ACT of 31? SAT of 1409? GPA of 4.0?</p>
<p>Reed is, to me, a highly competitive and thriving institution that is notorious for its intense academic standards. It's not too surprising that some students smoke to get away from all that stress, and frankly, you'll find that at any top liberal arts college. Notice, also, that Reed is listed in CCs top liberal arts forum, though it's ranked 53 by USNWR. The reason Reed's 4 year graduation rate is so low is because students are either too involved in their studies to graduate in that time or they just can't handle the work in the first place.</p>
<p>Reed is a very good, very difficult, and very selective top liberal arts college.</p>