what's the qualification for so-called "Elite Universities"?

<p>people on this board ALWAYS talk about elite colleges. what universities are actually "elite colleges"? us news top 50? top 30? does the "elite college" pool include state universities?</p>

<p>Generally people refer to top-20ish caliber. As for state universities, it really depends what you're interested in. Michigan and plenty of the UCs come to mind first, but they might not necessarily be the most "elite" according to US News. Personally, I feel that US News causes a whole bunch of stress on top students to apply to the US News top-5 or whatever instead of just looking for a school they really like.</p>

<p>it depends. some argue HYPSM (harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, mit) are the only elite colleges. others say it's ivy league + stanford and mit. others say US news top 25, or US news top 50. </p>

<p>here's a telling sign though: in my education class where we discuss college access and the commercialization of colleges by US News, even our TA has to remind us that we go to an elite institution (UCLA, US News top 25) when everything else tells us that we're "second tier."</p>

<p>UCLA-second tier? are u serious?</p>

<p>Yeah, exactly. UCLA may be a lot larger and less selective than Princeton/Harvard/etc (although it is still selective, just not on that top-ivy extreme level) but there are still TONS of students there in excellent academic programs succeeding and developing new stuff daily. It would never be listed as a top-10 school in the country, but that doesn't mean it's not just as good of a school to attend.</p>

<p>If you define first-tier/elite indeed as being the US News Top 25, then UCLA/Georgetown would be elite institutions that border on being second-tier... but that's kind of a contradiction, because you're either part of the exclusive "elite club" or not - there's no gray area. I would save that term for just HYPSM.</p>

<p>i guess what i'm trying to say is that UCLA is a first-tier school, but we don't have an elitist attitude about it. but elite colleges is relative... compared to HYPSM, UCLA isn't elite, but compared to the thousands of colleges available in the united states, it's in the top 1%, and that certainly is elite. </p>

<p>my TA suggests first-tier as roughly US News top 50.... but the second tier is huge. the vast majority of americans attend COMPREHENSIVE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (i.e. cal state long beach, university of northern iowa, etc etc.). but we overlook that cuz ppl here on CC think the only colleges that exists are the top 25.</p>

<p>KFC4U, i dont exactly what you mean....I would destroy US NEWS if i could. </p>

<p>i think ucla is respected b/c of its cool name and location and reputation. i hate it when ppl on this board call my school (uva) an overrated southern school.</p>

<p>if HYPSM are considered elite, then what is columbia, caltech, duke, penn, dartmouth, cornell, etc etc etc etc considered as? just very good? is not being in the top .001% of all colleges considered not elite? so top 1% isn't elite? </p>

<p>maybe from the CC point of view, HYPSM are the only elite colleges out there. </p>

<p>but in reality, i would say that there are many more, especially when you look at the overall picture and all the colleges in america. </p>

<p>but hey, we don't care about the rest of america right? we only care about ourselves! yea yea and so the gap between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, continues to divide.</p>