<ol>
<li> Brown</li>
<li> Harvard/Yale </li>
<li> Middlebury</li>
<li> Williams</li>
<li> Stanford</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li> MIT</li>
<li> NYU/UChicago</li>
<li> Caltech</li>
<li> Amherst</li>
</ol>
<p>not based off of any numbers of facts, just opinion.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale </li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Bowdoin</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
</ol>
<p>Two words: Ivy League is #1-8. The rankings that put Stanford (sp?) ahead of fine institutions like Columbia, Penn, etc. are nonsense. Do yourself a favor and lob in an app to every ivy.</p>
<p>For actual value to undergrads IMO (Includes LACs):</p>
<p>1-5: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT
6-10: Caltech, Dartmouth, Columbia, Amherst, Williams</p>
<p>Other that arguably can lay claim to 6-10: Duke, Brown, Penn, Swarthmore</p>
<p>"Two words: Ivy League is #1-8. The rankings that put Stanford (sp?) ahead of fine institutions like Columbia, Penn, etc. are nonsense. Do yourself a favor and lob in an app to every ivy."</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? Stanford is better than Brown or Cornell at least......that's ridiculous, a school like Washington University In St. Louis is probably better than Brown</p>
<p>In no particular order, my top ten would be:</p>
<p>Caltech
Chicago
Columbia
Cornell
Harvard
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Princeton
Swarthmore</p>
<p>Amherst
Caltech
Harvard
MIT
Pomona
Princeton
Stanford
Swarthmore
Williams
Yale</p>
<p>
[quote]
Two words: Ivy League is #1-8. The rankings that put Stanford (sp?) ahead of fine institutions like Columbia, Penn, etc. are nonsense. Do yourself a favor and lob in an app to every ivy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I suspect this person is kidding to see how many people take him seriously.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For actual value to undergrads IMO (Includes LACs):</p>
<p>1-5: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT
6-10: Caltech, Dartmouth, Columbia, Amherst, Williams
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would completely agree with this except think that CalTech goes more with the top group.</p>
<p>No order:</p>
<p>Williams, Dartmouth, Amherst, Middlebury, Stanford, Duke, Brown, Princeton, MIT, Swarthmore</p>
<p>
[quote]
10. University of California, Berkeley (has gone sadly downhill)
[/quote]
In what way? Archaeology?</p>
<p>This is a list of universities that a survey of over 2,000 academics think offer the best quality undergraduate programs:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li><p>Stanford</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton</p></li>
<li><p>Yale</p></li>
<li><p>Berkeley</p></li>
<li><p>Caltech</p></li>
<li><p>U Chicago</p></li>
<li><p>Columbia</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell</p></li>
<li><p>Penn</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My Top 10, no order.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth</p>
<p>Doesn't Berkeley have a PA of 4.9?</p>
<p>I think the PA score for Berkeley was dropped this past year to 4.7. Still quite stellar.</p>
<p>For best undergraduate experience, my top 10:
Amherst, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Wellesley, UVA, Princeton, Bowdoin, Smith, Boston College</p>
<p>I disagree slightly with the above post since "best undergraduate experience" should be supported by a very high freshman retention rate. Top Freshman Retention Rates for National Universities:</p>
<p>Yale 99%</p>
<p>Princeton, MIT, Stanford, CalTech, Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown & N.D.=98%</p>
<p>Harvard, Northwestern, Duke, Chicago, WashU, JHU, Rice, Berkeley, Georgetown, Virginia & UCLA = 97%</p>
<p>LACs:
Pomona=100%
Bowdoin=98%
Amherst, Williams & Carleton=97%</p>
<p>Thus, Harvard, Wellesley, Smith (only a 90% fr. retention rate) & Boston College are not among the top 10 for freshman retention rate & therefore, logically, do not offer the best undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>You can also look at alumni giving rate as a rating of how satisfied graduates were with the college</p>
<p>Agree Pierre, which puts Princeton and Dartmouth on top, and I consider them the 2 best undergrad experiences having worked for thirty years among those who went to top schools.</p>
<p>What, no votes for Starfleet Academy? What's wrong with you people?</p>
<p>Dartmouth is in nowhere of the moutain, not everybody likes it, I would rather put Brown or Georgetown on top.</p>