What are some colleges that are close to being similar to HYPSM?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Of course HYPSM is considered the best of the best here. But not everyone can settle for them.
But I'm sure there are other universities in America that are close to rivaling them. I would like to know some universities that are very selective, "wow" factor, prestigious, similar-in-vibe, and close to being as good at HYPSM each. What are some universities that come to mind?</p>

<p>For instance, Caltech is a very similar university to MIT although less in prestige, selectivity, etc. However, its still amazing and respectable!
Any universities like that for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford?</p>

2

<p>Caltech is not less selective than MIT.</p>

<p>Cal, Chicago and Columbia are closest to HYPS in terms of quality and reputation.</p>

<p>Beyond those three, you probably have another dozen or so schools that are not far behind, including the remaining 4 Ivies and the top three LACs.</p>

3

<p>Duke perhaps?</p>

4

<p>The ff schools can all make a strong argument that they’re the next best thing to HYPSMC (in no particular order):</p>

<p>Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Chicago, Michigan, Northwestern, JHU, Berkeley, UVa, WashingtonU and CMU. My list is probably incomplete, though.</p>

5

<p>Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Williams, Amherst, Chicago.</p>

6

<p>The problem with having Caltech together with HYPSM is that Caltech offers a smaller range of majors (options), and as such, is a much more focused school when you compare it to top universities in the country. Therefore, the best thing is to leave Caltech alone in such “comprehensive universities” comparisons, but when it comes to the sciences, math and engineering, place it in its rightful position.</p>

<p>The next few colleges to HYPSM would be Amherst, Williams, Chicago and Columbia.</p>

7

<p>I agree chuams, Caltech is purely an Engineering and Science school. It has a very strong Econ department too, but does not really offer any other Social Science or Humanities. MIT, on top of being #1 in Engineering and the Sciences, has top 5 programs in Business, Economics and Linguistics as well as top 10 departments in Philosophy, Political Science and Psychology. MIT is also working on developping its History department!</p>

8

<p>Duke: most prestigious school in its home region by a wide margin and top 10, name brand is recognizable by EVERY native American, perfect interest balance between pre-professional pursuits and academia among the student body, great institutional balance between LAC undergraduate focus and research prowess, highly versatile degree that can be applied equally well to everything (business, medicine, law, engineering, research, education, the arts, etc.), beautiful Gothic architecture, extremely diverse student body, strong fellowship advising as seen by Rhodes and Marshall results, leading producer of PhDs, high number of National Merit scholars, great pipeline into TFA and public service, etc. etc.</p>

<p>Duke is qualitatively and quantitatively the closest school to HYPSM and seems to be the only school that is well-positioned in the coming decades to at least get to the YPSM level.</p>

<p>I think Columbia is pretty close too but it lacks the strong sense of community and undergraduate focus that Duke and HYPSM provide. Chicago is another possible contender but it doesn’t have that “elite” feel and it doesn’t have the same pull with the top law/med/biz schools and Wall Street that Columbia and Duke have.</p>

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<p>I think Penn and Columbia are the next two that usually come after HYPSM. I’m surprised no one mentioned Penn yet in this thread.</p>

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<p>“Chicago is another possible contender but it doesn’t have that “elite” feel and it doesn’t have the same pull with the top law/med/biz schools and Wall Street that Columbia and Duke have.”</p>

<p>If you are asking for closeness to HYPSM based on the “elite” feel and pull with top law/med/biz and and Wall Street, Dartmouth is the one that comes right after, even better than MIT in this sense, followed closely by Columbia, Brown, Penn, and Duke. UChicago, Williams, and Amherst all seem to lack this. Dartmouth, on the other hand, lacks size and graduate programs. Dartmouth was considered to be the next right after HYP in the early 20th century when grad programs didn’t play a big role in society, but now it’s hard for it to compete with big research oriented universities.</p>

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<p>dartmouth, brown, penn, columbia, cornell (the rest of the ivies)</p>

12

<p>I’m pretty sure the point of MrPrince posting this thread is to prove to RML that Berkeley is not second tier right after those schools. </p>

<p>So far he’s been very successful. RML is the only person that’s put Berkeley in his list.</p>

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<p>I also included Cal on my list of three schools that most resemble HYPS in terms of quality and reputation (post #2 on this thread). Two out of nine posters listed Cal, which is a pretty solid showing.</p>

14

<p>Cal doesn’t meet the OP’s criteria for “very selective”, I’m guessing, but that would really depend on how one defines it.</p>

<p>I’d say Cal Tech/Duke/Chicago/Dartmouth/Penn/Columbia come pretty close to HYPSM.</p>

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<p>Oh I missed you Alexandre. Well, he’s been pretty successful then. I’m not making my personal opinion…only pointing out what the point of this thread is.</p>

16

<p>Did I just see berkeley??? Let me recheck</p>

17

<p>God everyone shamelessly repping their undergrad</p>

<p>Lol objective analysis is a dead skill</p>

<p>Where are these people living who claim cal has the same rep as HYPSM. Because real life experiences differ from these claims</p>

18

<p>In terms of selectivity and “eliteness”, Berkeley is still pretty far off from HYPSM. However, the quality of the programs at Cal is very top tier.</p>

19

<p>Penn-Wharton is equivalent to HYPSM in selectivity and in prestige in the business world.</p>

20

<p>Wharton is definitely on the HYPSM tier, that is true. But Penn as a school itself is slightly below HYPSM.</p>