<p>Here’s my trouble, balletgirl…</p>
<p>The methodology behind your list seems about as good as we’ll get in this thread. But I took numerous classes at one of the schools on that list–I worked with professors, I was friends with students, I’m familiar with campus requirements–and yet I feel like I received a “better” education than many students there, even though my own school is ranked about 20 spots lower. I still think that the school belongs on your list, as it certainly provides its students with an excellent academic experience, but then it’s important to realize the narrowness of the list–the fact that it represents six of many viable contenders, and not necessarily the top six, at that.</p>
<p>Obviously, an educational approach or environment that’s “better” for me isn’t necessarily “better” for someone else, and I think we all realize that that is the biggest hurdle here. But beyond that is the fact that this is just not an easily quantified thing. We can look at things like PhD production, overall ranking, average class size, student:faculty ratio, core curriculum, etc. and use them to “get a feel” for whether or not a school is likely to provide a good academic experience, but I just don’t see us putting together a list that could even begin to feel comprehensive, let alone ordered.</p>
<p>It seems safe to say that “any of the top 15-20 universities or LACs would provide, within the context of other aspects of ‘fit,’ the best education for a particular student,” and indeed, I’m sure that this is true. But it’s still far too narrow. I have an exceptionally intelligent friend who went to a college with a 98-99% admit rate, and she’s quite sure that she received a top-notch education there. At my school, ranked outside of the top 20, I’m also quite sure that I enjoyed not only an excellent academic experience, but also one on par with those offered by multiple higher-ranked institutions, including at least one that’s made a few of these tentative lists (and I know this not by assumption, but by actual experience). Since some posters will know which particular schools I’m discussing in this post, I want to reiterate the fact that I’m not attempting to make objective claims about quality. Never has “To each, his own” been more true than in discussions such as this one.</p>
<p>One of the founding principles of my own school was that “living and learning are not only compatible, they are inseparable.” It’s largely for this reason that I see any attempt to ignore “fit” as futile. I definitely understand the purpose of the original post, but I think that the best way for the OP to go about answering the question is to compile a general set of schools that interest him/her (potentially using lists of notoriously quirky, intellectual, or “elite” schools as a jumping-off point, as desired), and then asking current students specific questions about intellectual environment, core program, or whatnot.</p>
<p>During my own college search, I could’ve spent all the time I wanted pouring over rankings and statistics and program descriptions. Instead, I found schools that “felt” interesting–some more highly ranked than others–and during visits, I stopped current students and asked them questions such as “Is it common for students to get excited and spend free time talking about stuff from their classes?” At some schools, everyone I asked got confused or rolled their eyes, telling me not to worry, that they weren’t nerds. At other schools, students absolutely lit up at my questions. Responses weren’t necessarily correlated with ranking. I found exactly the answers I needed. Of course, there are risks involved in this method as well, and maybe I’m not actually understanding the info that the OP is looking for. But this is what worked for me, and I think I was attempting a similar search.</p>