<p>I think you left out THE South Harmon Institute of Technology. </p>
<p>They definitely belong in your top 5.</p>
<p>LOL man. I think it beats the Driving School</p>
<p>It's pretty much like this.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard
2-4. Yale, Princeton, Stanford (in no particular order)
5-6. Columbia, MIT (no particular order)
7-9. Dartmouth, UPenn, Caltech (no order)
10-11. Brown, Cornell (no order)
12-15. Highly debatable beyond this point, but includes Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Duke, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>IN GENERAL:
Harvard is most prestigious and that can't be argued with; for Y, P, and S, it depends on personal biases which one you think is better than other two; Columbia is practically HYP status and can't grouped with the remaining Ivies; MIT is a more prestigious than Caltech; Dartmouth and UPenn are lumped together, at least in terms of prestige; Brown and Cornell are lumped together, but after Dartmouth/UPenn; and then after that there are about 10-12 universities that consistently compete for the last four spots, but it's highly highly debatable and really depends on a lot of personal factors. </p>
<p>IN GENERAL, I do believe that's pretty much the consensus.</p>
<p>So Columbia's nowhere on there? John's Hopkins and Duke before Brown, Dartmouth and UPenn?
If you must include West Point and Naval Academy, it would at least be more like this. ROUGHLY.
1. Harvard
2. Princeton
3. Yale
4. Stanford
5. Columbia
6. MIT
6. Dartmouth
7. UPenn
8. West Point
9. Brown
10. Cornell
11. Naval Academy
12. Duke
13. Berkeley
14. Caltech
15. Chicago</p>
<p>Even then, no way should Duke be before Caltech. And Berkeley after the Naval Academy? Uhhmmm...</p>
<p>Wait I SWEAR there was a post by GoNavysomething before mine.</p>
<p>Top Tier: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, West Point, Annapolis</p>
<p>Next: Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Duke, Dartmouth, Amherst</p>
<p>Next: Berkeley, Penn, Williams, Air Force</p>
<p>There was, but I thought it sounded too biased. Obviously there are others who agree though..thanks LAXAttack</p>
<p>There is no material difference among Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Brown that one should be one tier above one and two above another; especially between Williams and Amherst. </p>
<p>It's really hard to compare West Point and Annapolis to any other traditional colleges since the admissions criteria are so distinctly different.</p>
<p>poupoupidou - you are vastly underrating UChicago. im not sure if you are doing undergrad only, or overall, but the fact remains for both. ive seen chicago ranked in the top tier for undergrad, and 4th in the US (7th in the world) this year by the THES ranking</p>
<p>I don't want to put a number ranking up, but since it's the name of the game, i'll bite:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>UC-Berkeley</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Michigan</li>
</ol>
<p>I may have ****ed off some JHU/UCLA/Brown people, my ranking is based on completeness of a University academically, and of course it's only my opinion.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There is no material difference among Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Brown that one should be one tier above one and two above another; especially between Williams and Amherst. </p>
<p>It's really hard to compare West Point and Annapolis to any other traditional colleges since the admissions criteria are so distinctly different.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My rankings aren't based on admissions criteria. If you're from the east coast (especially a blue blood type atmosphere) you'll know why I put amherst/dartmouth above williams.</p>
<p>Based on living in both North America and Europe.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Oxford</li>
<li>Cambridge</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>LSE</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
</ol>
<p>What a pointless thread.</p>
<p>"If you're from the east coast (especially a blue blood type atmosphere) you'll know why I put amherst/dartmouth above williams."</p>
<p>I am from the East coast and I have no idea. To me, those three are basically interchangable respect-wise and, if anything, have found Williams grads to be more similar to Dartmouth grads with Amherst grads having a little bit different bent to them.</p>
<p>Here's THE LIST :) (this is just on my personal experience of name recognition):
1. Harvard (Well, what'd you expect :S)
2. Oxbridge
3. MIT
4. Yale
4.5. Princeton
5. Stanford
6. Columbia
7. Brown
8. UC Berkeley
9. Cornell
10. UCLA</p>
<p>Just to shed some light on this already informative discussion, here's my list of most prestigious things:</p>
<p>1) House on stilts on Malibu Beach
1) Rolls Royce (light green only)
1.1) Aston Martin DB9 or Invitation to the Spring Costume Party at MOMA
1.1) BMW M series or 4 years at Harvard
2) Mercedes S Class or 3 years at Princeton
3) My fav. Ted Baker shirt
4) Lunch with the Pope
5) An Oscar for Best Director
6) An Oscar for Best Actor
7) Partying at Vanderbilt with drunk chicks wearing no panties
8) The letter "A"
9) Chilean sea bass
10) Belanciaga boots </p>
<p>And that settles that.</p>
<p>On cc this is an endless exercise, of ranking what people think are the top schools. It pops up every month or so it seems. In the end is it really relevant? Why not ask what are folks top 10 schools of preference to attend. A bit more meaningful and away from these ridiculous rankings of who is No. 1.</p>
<p>tk89 almost got it right. Clearly, Chilean sea bass is more prestigious than the letter "A."</p>
<p>^ Chilean sea bass = Patagonian toothfish
Mahi Mahi = Dolphinfish</p>
<p>Point - it's all in the marketing name...;)</p>
<p>i agree with NeoEpisteme, in Texas, Rice is considered to be a very top notch school. It all depends on region, I mean, in Tennessee, Vanderbilt is probably king, Georgia has Emory, and in North Carolina...well, let's just say that not all North Carolinians think Duke is such a "down-to-earth" school.</p>