My shortlist of elite non-LAC privates (the ones people usually assume when you say elite):
Ivies
Stanford
MIT
Caltech
U Chicago
Duke
Rice
Northwestern
JHU
Georgetown
Elite publics (Not usually considered elite in general, only in the context of public schools):
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UVa
William and Mary
UNC Chapel Hill
U Mich
UT Austin
NYU
UIUC CS and Econ
Can’t talk about LACs. No knowledge of them.
FYI: NYU is a private university, not public. Also, with the exception of Stern and Tisch, NYU undergrad wouldn’t be considered elite by many folks I know…especially those who grew up in the NYC/tri-state area.
This definition provides a simple, objective, operational basis for deciding if a specific school is/isn’t “elite”. However, it excludes some schools that many people would consider “elite”, such as the service academies. It excludes highly selective free/subsidized colleges such as Deep Springs, Olin, and Cooper Union. It excludes so-called “public Ivies” (Berkeley, Michigan, etc.) It excludes at least 3 Ivies (Yale, UPenn, Cornell), where more than 50% of students receive institutional financial aid. It also includes a few colleges (like Skidmore) that are selective, but not nearly as selective as the excluded Ivies.
The “need-blind, full need” test, which includes about 50 colleges, provides another simple, objective, operational basis. But again, it seems to exclude a few colleges (like WUSTL) that many people would consider even more “elite” than some of the ones it includes (like Holy Cross, Occidental, or Thomas Aquinas College).
Admission selectivity seems to be an important indicator of elite-ness.
However, it’s a little tricky to define exactly how to measure it. Also, there’s no non-arbitrary cut-off separating elite from non-elite levels of selectivity.
So “elite” is hard to pin down. Terms like “full need schools” or “the 8 Ivies” or “the US News top 20” are more precise, and may be more appropriate for some threads (e.g. discussions about financial aid or admission chances).
Much of this is regional. My D attends school in NC and parents have often asked me why she didn’t go to Syracuse. They view Syracuse as a “top public university” similar to Michigan, and are shocked when I tell them otherwise.
Most people don’t really think much about this stuff…
I agree with @thumper1
@thumper1 I’m the OP and you’re right, it doesn’t matter…at all. I assumed, and was pretty spot on, that many people view “elite” differently. College selectivity wasn’t in my D’s top considerations when choosing, although it was somewhat a factor I’ll admit, but I was just curious how others defined “elite” because I’m reading it all over these boards and wasn’t sure what exactly it meant. So now I know for sure…it means different things to different people 
Elite college is the one where you can major in History and still easily find employment after graduation
@cobrat I disagree, since I am oos for california, Berkley will never be elite for my family, I will always choose stanford, caltgtech and Harvey Mud above UC systems as no aid for my kids; If I was in state for california, yes then we will apply.
And if berkley offers money to my kids, I will choose stanford and caltech above it, then berkley and then Harvey Mud
NYU is NOT a public university. It is an expensive private university.
Well, yes, but that employment is likely to be in investment banking.
Why do I feel like I’ve read this same thread before…over and over…
There is something that has been bugging me about this thread, and similar related threads, and last night I think that I finally figured out what is is.
I have been lucky in some ways. I have been lucky enough to meet multiple people in my life who have accomplished great things. Some have made major contributions to things that we all use every day. Some are relatively famous. A few are now quite rich (in some cases having started out quite poor). I once saw one person I know portrayed on a late night comedy show.
In talking to these people, and in a few cases knowing some for many years, none of them has ever used the term “elite”. None of them has ever alluded to having gone to an “elite” school. None of them ever talked about wanting their kids to go to an “elite” school. I don’t recall any of them ever talking about “prestige”.
They talk about problems that they want to find a way to solve. They talk about what their kids are studying. They ask questions, often hard questions, about what I or a different person at the table is working on. They spar about who is going to pay for the $500 wine that they ordered with dinner (but the ones who can afford it are sparring, and they assume that one of them will). They talk about how they are now obsolete and the young kids (at the successful company that they founded) are the ones who made the company successful. They listen, and in particular they listen to other smart people.
In my experience, “Prestige” and “Elite” are terms that don’t seem to be in the vocabulary of people who actually make a difference in the world.
@DadTwoGirls , love ^ this.
Does it? Berea has a 33% acceptance rate. With a yield close to 80% seems like that makes it pretty elite, even using “YTAR”. What’s your “YTAR” formula? At what point does it delineate elite from not-elite?
My larger “flyspecking” point was that there really isn’t an objective measure of eliteness.
Elite: a school that can be extremely picky/peculiar with who they admit, and applicants are willing to pay a quarter million+ to enroll. This category, generally speaking, comprises private universities and liberal arts colleges.
Prestigious: a school bound by laws to admit certain students, and produce extremely impressive outcomes for its alumni regardless of admit rate. This category is mostly public schools whose primary mission is to educate their state’s students, and they do it so well that parents from other states will pay out-of-state fees equal to a quarter million to send their kids there.
I agree with @chzbrgr on “wow” factor. The simplest test for whether a school is elite or prestigious would be how your neighbor or colleague or social-climbing friend reacts when you tell them your kid got in.
Not saying his is the way it SHOULD be in a perfect world run by CC posters. Just saying this is the way it actually is in real life.
Berea is a tuition free christian school with an average ACT of 24. It’s BYU in Appalachia. Please move on.
Ridiculous flyspecking irrelevant to this discussion.
http://mathacle.blogspot.com/2010/03/yield-to-admit-rate-yar-index-for-class.html [FYI, data is a few years old.]
After you adjust for the obvious anomalies (BYU, Berea), YTAR pretty much nails it.
Probably the only quibble is whether the Public Ivies really belong here or not. They do pretty well on the YTAR metric because they experience very high yield on their in-state pool – $25k to go to UCB, UCLA, UVA, UM, UNC is an awesome deal!
If you want to disagree or flyspeck, then please post another objective metric that does a better job on this. Note that YTAR works pretty well for both LACs and universities.
“This is an improvement over yield, but it too can be gamed, using ED.”
Agree that extensive ED use can “manage/manipulate” yield. But only to a point.
Penn and Duke certainly pump up their yields by extensively using ED. But your school needs to have a very strong brand in order to get people to sign up for your ED program. No one is going to go ED to Bohonk U. YTAR (while not 100% bullt proof) is actually more “game resistant” as compared to other metrics people often use.
Bring it!!
Elite is a term I would never use to describe or categorize a university. And “public ivy” is an oxymoron in my book, there is no such thing as a private educational experience at any big public U.
But if these terms make people feel better, oh well.
As has been discussed numerous times on this board, college rankings are subjective. Doesn’t matter how many formulas you apply or ordered lists you create. All you are saying here is an objective appearing list comports with your subjective views of ranking colleges so you thus approve of that objective appearing list.
Good news with college rankings is if you don’t like one, you likely can find another one that will comport to your personal view.
I am still waiting for someone to move me away from the “Who cares” camp. So far all I see is my neighbors will say “Wow!” Gotta say that’s not very compelling.