<p>I want the top 10 schools that all of you guys think are the best instead of some survey saying that 'these' schools are the best. So what do you guys think are the top 10 best schools(whether they are private or public or even ivy league) In the U.S.</p>
<p>Ranking</a> of Top 10</p>
<p>The site uses complex algorithms to produce its ranking. The ranking is updated regularly to be as accurate as possible. :)</p>
<p>(The methodology can be found</a> here. For those who don't agree with the classic ranking, alternate rankings can be found</a> here.)</p>
<p>Since my interest lies in economic and maths, my top 10 are the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li><p>Berkeley</p></li>
<li><p>Columbia</p></li>
<li><p>UPenn</p></li>
<li><p>Harvey Mudd</p></li>
<li><p>Williams</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Honorable Mention: Chicago, Duke, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, Rice, Brown, NYU, CMU, UCLA</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Brown</li>
</ol>
<p>honorable mention: Cornell, Dartmouth, Chicago, Rice, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Notre dame</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, UChicago, Duke, and some others. Def not princeton though.</p>
<p>lol ilovebagels. I know you're a Penn grad. ;-)</p>
<p>Harvard
Stanford
MIT
Caltech
Yale
Princeton
Berkeley
Swarthmore
Amherst
Williams</p>
<p>Switch the order of Harvard and Stanford.</p>
<p>Add U Chicago.</p>
<p>There are too many "Top 10" American colleges & universities to limit the list to ten schools.</p>
<p>Tier One Schools: Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Swarthmore, Stanford, CalTech, Amherst, Williams, Northwestern, UCal-Berkeley, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, WashUStL, Penn, Cornell, Duke, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Wellesley, Bowdoin, USMA at West Point, USNA-Annapolis, USAFA, Claremont McKenna, Rice, Barnard, Oberlin, Grinnell.</p>
<p>I'll stop at thirty schools, but the next part of my list also contains 30 schools and is titled "Tier One Schools, Part Two". The US is loaded with outstanding "Top 10" colleges & universities.</p>
<p>Schools that think they're in the Top Ten, but aren't really:</p>
<p>Duke
Penn</p>
<p>My Top Ten:</p>
<p>Clemson (most rabidly loyal alumni)
Colorado (best scenery)
Georgia College & State University (friendliest college around)
Harvard (personal sense of obligation)
Macalester (top international campus culture)
Northwestern (I enjoyed our D's campus visit there)
Vanderbilt (most rapidly up-and-coming)
U.Va. (most private-like public)
William & Mary (best at embracing its legacy)
Williams (the epitome of college-ness)</p>
<p>Names don't mean JACK!</p>
<p>1Harvard
2Princeton
3Swarthmore
4Williams
4Amherst
6Yale
7Pomona
8UVA
9Brown
10Hamilton</p>
<p>I cannot think of any basis that would allow the deletion of Duke or Penn from any Top 10 National Universities list other than a bad personal experience with a particular school. Probably a better way to limit one's list to ten schools would be to simply list one's top ten choices of the top 50 USNews LACs & top 50 National Universities. For example, I can recall my son's top ten preferences of the top 100 colleges & universities as:</p>
<p>Northwestern
Harvard
Georgetown SFS</p>
<p>Columbia
Stanford
Dartmouth
Bowdoin
Yale
USMA-West point
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>And he completed applications to only two on this list.</p>
<p>I like gadad's list </p>
<p>"Clemson (most rabidly loyal alumni)
Colorado (best scenery)
Georgia College & State University (friendliest college around)
Harvard (personal sense of obligation)
Macalester (top international campus culture)
Northwestern (I enjoyed our D's campus visit there)
Vanderbilt (most rapidly up-and-coming)
U.Va. (most private-like public)
William & Mary (best at embracing its legacy)
Williams (the epitome of college-ness)"</p>
<p>This list says to me that what is Top 10 for one person is not necessarily Top 10 for another. The great news is that there are far, far, far more than ten Top 10 schools in America. It just depends on what you're looking for….</p>
<p>As for me, I have long posted about colleges that I believe provide the best combinations of great undergraduate academics, vibrant social life, and exciting and nationally competitive/relevant athletic life. For me, some potential Top 10 schools would be:</p>
<p>Privates: Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Georgetown</p>
<p>Honorable Mention: Wake Forest, Princeton, U Penn, Northwestern, Cornell, Rice, USC, Boston College, Tulane, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Davidson, US Naval Academy, US Military Academy, Colgate</p>
<p>Publics: U Virginia, U North Carolina, UC Berkeley, UCLA, U Michigan</p>
<p>Honorable Mention: W&M, U Wisconsin, U Illinois, U Washington, U Texas, Texas A&M, Penn State, U Florida, U Georgia, Georgia Tech</p>
<p>does this include LAC's??</p>
<p>Duke and Penn do not offer the type of Nobel Prize-winning faculty available at top research universities like Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley. Nor do they offer the intimate undergraduate experience available at the top LACs.</p>
<p>Their overrated US News ranking is at least a function of the inflation of the "financial resources" index, which takes into account cost of living. It is cheaper to live in Durham or Philadelphia than it is to live in Boston or the Bay Area. So basically, these two schools are being rewarded for lower quality of living insofar as quality of living is positively correlated to cost of living.</p>
<p>Their "selectivity" is dubious as well. Despite the fact that Duke bribes students with "merit" scholarships or locks them up via early decision, their yield rate is an abysmal 40-44%. Penn uses early decision even more egregiously, enrolling almost half their class by this means. This way they can brag that their yield is superior to Princeton's.</p>
<p>Great points, but the students at both schools tend to be hardworking & brilliant. Both universities have tremendous resources. Although I do understand & appreciate your perspective, I also have similiar feelings toward Brown & UCSD. But I also realize that Brown's philosophy of undergraduate education is encouraging students to explore beyond their comfort zones without fear of grade deflating retribution, and that UCSD offers a great bargain to in-state students even though classes are too large for such a prestigious school.</p>
<p>
Only 10 universities offer my area of interest, so that works out nicely. If I had to rank, it would be something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>University of California, Los Angeles</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University</li>
<li>New York University</li>
<li>Brown University</li>
<li>Yale University</li>
<li> University of Memphis</li>
<li>University of Michigan</li>
<li>University of California, Berkeley (has gone sadly downhill)</li>
</ol>
<p>Who cares about the faculty at schools where they barely teach? For brilliant profs and students undergrad:</p>
<p>Princeton
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
Swat
Pomona
Brown</p>
<p>That's about it.</p>
<p>I'd add Davidson, Bowdoin and Middlebury too that list</p>
<p>In my opinion, the best school in the country is Franklin W. Olin College Of Engineering (even though it's for engineers only)</p>