<p>What exactly are they? My counselor kept referring to them in his "Senior Speech"
Is it the top 20 colleges on the US News?</p>
<p>I’m not really sure. i have heard of colleges described as ‘elite’ but i don’t know of any exact list of these elite schools</p>
<p>It’s a vague term, but it is sort of understood. Think of it as selective universities and liberal arts colleges. While there are disputes about the specific order of colleges in the US News World Report list, most will agree that they are essentially correct +/- five places one way or the other. So take the top 10-20 in the national universities list, and the top 10-20 in Liberal arts list and you have your “selective colleges”. And indeed if you look at the acceptance rate/SAT scores of admitted students – they are indeed selective.</p>
<p>depends how ‘elite’ but the common ones are generally ivies + stanford, mit, caltech, uchicago, duke, some will be higher than others and it varies by academic discipline as well.</p>
<p>HYPSM are the most elite. Followed by about 20 or so schools after that.</p>
<p>the COFHE membership list is probably as good a place to start as any:
Amherst College
Barnard College
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
Carleton College
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
MIT
Mount Holyoke College
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Princeton University
Rice University
Smith College
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Trinity College
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
University of Rochester
Washington Univ. in St.Louis
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University</p>
<p>each year, they probably comprise the largest transfer of private wealth, in the form of need-based financial aid, of any group of institutions in the United States.</p>