<p>I disagree with post #59. There may be less competition for leadership positions at LACs, however. Much in the realm of student activities & ECs is related to endowment & funding priorities. Many LACs resort to the fraternities & sororities to provide the entertainment & activities.</p>
<p>This is my personal ranking of schools that are UNIVERSITIES (so liberal arts colleges would not be on here).</p>
<p>I tend to try to look at the breadth of programs, strength of graduate and professional programs and resources available to undergraduate students (as quality of undergraduate programs is pretty much even at high-level schools, with only focus on undergrads being able to differentiate between them). </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford </li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Berkeley </li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Duke </li>
</ol>
<p>Honorable Mentions: Northwestern, Rice, Johns Hopkins, Michigan</p>
<p>If you drop the breadth/professional schools requirement, then list:
- Duke, UCLA
+ Princeton, MIT</p>
<p>Schools like Brown and Dartmouth are really more comparable to Liberal Arts Colleges.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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
[/quote]
But isn't that the whole point of CC? ;)</p>
<p>Penn is certainly a top 10 school. It may not be the best school on earth (though it was for me), but it certainly deserves to run with the big boys--at least in the 21st century, anyway</p>
<p>Top 15 in the United States </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Stanford </li>
<li>Berkeley </li>
<li>Princeton </li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Columbia </li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Pennsylvania</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>UVA</li>
</ol>
<p>Again, I repeat, where is WUSTL on any of these lists? lol</p>
<p>The top 10 schools THAT INTEREST ME are:</p>
<p>Carleton
Chicago
Rice
Williams
MIT
Davidson
Swarthmore
Reed
Bowdoin
Dartmouth</p>
<p>As I said, this is just a list of the top colleges which interest me.</p>
<p>firefly,</p>
<p>I'm just curious why Amherst isn't on your list. You seem to like LACs and don't have an aversion to the northeast. I'm not calling you out, I'm truly curious what about Amherst isn't as appealing to you as some of the other schools you listed. Amherst is a school that interests me, so I'm always interested in hearing different opinions on it.</p>
<p>Isn't it funny how remarkably biased a bunch of students making arbitrary rankings can be?</p>
<p>Funny hmom. I was JUST talking about that with a bunch of my Dartmouth alum friends. We've all gone on to do very well in business (one is a Stanford MBA working at a top VC firm, another works at a hedge fund, another is the youngest VP at a major media company) and we were all talking about how glad we were that we never were aware of Wharton when we applied to colleges. We would have had much less fun, had a worse college experience, and would have gotten the same jobs anyway!</p>
<h1>1. Johns Hopkins (indisputable!)</h1>
<h1>2. Johns Hopkins</h1>
<h1>3. Harvard</h1>
<h1>4. Yale</h1>
<h1>5. Princeton</h1>
<h1>6. Ivy league</h1>
<ul>
<li>MIT, UChicago, Stanford</li>
</ul>
<p>Honorable mentions: Northwestern.</p>
<p>Harvard/Stanford/Yale/Princeton
MIT/Caltech
The rest...</p>
<p>Sorry</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
</ol>
<p>kdm88 - nothing against Amherst, I just haven't ever researched it. Plus I already had Williams on the list (which I have toured), and I wanted a bit more variety.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Duke</li>
</ol>
<p>If no LACs, then:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>WUSTL</li>
</ol>
<p>Funny...I was reading these posts...and something struck me as a bit odd about this list....and then I saw the poster's name:</p>
<p>Top 15 in the United States </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Stanford </li>
<li>Berkeley </li>
<li>Princeton </li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Columbia </li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Pennsylvania</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>UVA</li>
</ol>
<p>UCLA????? Sorry Bruin 4 ever.....</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
MIT
USNA
USMA
USAFA
Penn
USMMA
Princeton
USCGA</p>
<p>LFWB,
Thank you for including the service academies in your ranking. These schools get ignored far too often on CC. </p>
<p>While seen by many in elite media and elite academia as tools of the Evil Empire that must be smeared at every turn, the service academies consistently turn out some of the finest graduates in the USA. The business world knows their value/quality and greatly respects the young men and women associated with these fine universities.</p>
<ol>
<li>tulane</li>
<li>brown</li>
<li>nyu</li>
<li>uw madison</li>
<li>reed</li>
<li>umich</li>
<li>uc berkeley</li>
<li>uchicago</li>
<li>stanford</li>
<li>gwu</li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you, kwu and IBClass06, for your insightful and encouraging words on LAC's. It is a well published fact that although the "Harvard" name may get you the higher paid job at first, in the long run, LAC's are the most valued for top CEO, etc. positions. (Look for the Sara Lee CEO comments on her experience at Augustana College of all places). Interesting that Warren Buffet has Grinnell as one of his three college endowments. I'm a New England snob, yet my D is graduating from Whitman this spring. She has been invited to speak at two professional conferences this spring based on her senior thesis (the graduates from the few LAC's which require senior thesis are more than prepared for grad schools). She leaves the college with strong connections with not only the faculty, but the deans and president as well. Her younger sister is at Middlebury. Same excellent opportunities - academically, leadership, socially, and networking. Both have way too many courses they would like to take, but regret not having the time to . More choices at a large Ivy university? Who has time to take advantage of all there is to offer? So, I know, one should not put a lot on published yearly reviews, but Whitman continues to have the most "top 10" on Princeton Review than any other: runs like butter, happy student body, great library, profs receive high marks, etc, etc. One more point - take a look at the town gown relations for a bit of a peak at the student life: The town of Hanover is not too impressed (happy) with the Dartmouth students. And finally, what is your specific intended major department like? How happy are the students with their profs? Can they get the courses they want? At Whitman and Middlebury, you attend the 'full' class and knock on the prof's door and chances are good he/she lets you in the class. So many, many excellent LAC's. An excellent LAC can lead to an excellent grad school. Carleton, Grinnell, Middlebury, Whitman, Haverford, Bowdoin, Kenyon, Pomona, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Scripps, Colorado College.</p>