I’ve heard “T20” be used a lot on this forum but I was wondering which ones they were? I figured that John Hopkins, Duke, Swarthmore, Stanford, MIT, GTown, and the Ivies are probably some but what are the others?
There is no standard definition although some use USNWR rankings. It’s really just a catchall phrase for highly selective colleges.
“Top 20” may refer to publication rankings, particularly those of USN, and may be limited to a category, such as LACs, universities, or public universities. For a more general definition, selectivity might be used, as in https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/40090323.
My interpretation of Top 20 is the Top 25 National Universities as ranked by US News and the Top 25 LACs as ranked by US News.
“Top 20” means highly selective, prestigious college or university.
You can also list T20s by major.
It’s just short hard for “top schools”. If you asked everyone that used “T20” in a post to list their top 20, you’d probably get at least 40 different schools appearing on at least one list.
Though their value is often debated, the USNews rankings are certainly the most well-known.
“Top 20” is not a precise term. Some are obvious (most Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, probably Chicago and Northwestern and Duke). However, I think that if ten of us were to list our “top 20” either we would just go straight from the USNWR rankings, or we would not have quite the same list of schools.
As @momofsenior1 says, the “top 20” really should vary by major.
Liberal Arts Colleges and small schools in general are probably listed in the top 20 less often than they deserve to be for undergraduate education. Perhaps this is partly because top 20 lists often focus on graduate schools.
The term “top 20” might in many cases be used only because it is easier to type than the phrase “highly selective university in the US”.
Of course what might matter more is the “top 20” based on the criteria that matters to you.
There is no “probably” with respect to Duke, Northwestern, and the Univ. of Chicago being among the top 20 universities in the US overall.
As @RichInPitt said, there will be many different answers as to what constitutes T20, and for every college that doesn’t technically make the actual list of T20 according to USNWR, you’ll get a ton of people arguing that a college not in that list deserves to be. And they would probably be right too, because there are so many great colleges that don’t fall in that list of T20, which are not lesser than the colleges in the T20. Furthermore, there are many different rankings and what might be in the top 20 in one list may not appear in another list. Hope that clears it up for you.?
Forbes top 50. It includes small and larger schools. Any on this are my choices. Super selective. Highly academic and lots of variations on the experience to suit many personalities and goals.
There’s an Uber selective group within the already Uber selective group… It’s roughly the usnwr University top 15 and the usnwr top 5 liberal arts schools. These require a bit of luck, a bit of a hook, a bit of a family connection or a bit of money. Along with a near perfect academic profile, writing skills and clear understanding of the schools mission vis a vis your application presentation.
The two obvious exclusions are cal tech and mit. They have little concern for connections and hooks outside of some level setting for economic disadvantaged or historically underrepresented groups as an advantage in the process.