<p>Schools with strong overall academics, based on the percentage of graduates who later earn a PhD in any field:</p>
<p>1 35.8% California Institute of Technology<br>
2 24.7% Harvey Mudd College
3 21.1% Swarthmore College<br>
4 19.9% Reed College<br>
5 18.3% Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
6 16.8% Carleton College<br>
7 15.8% Bryn Mawr College<br>
8 15.7% Oberlin College
9 15.3% University of Chicago<br>
10 14.5% Yale University
11 14.3% Princeton University<br>
12 14.3% Harvard University<br>
13 14.1% Grinnell College<br>
14 13.8% Haverford College<br>
15 13.8% Pomona College<br>
16 13.1% Rice University
17 12.7% Williams College<br>
18 12.4% Amherst College
19 11.4% Stanford University
20 11.3% Kalamazoo College</p>
<p>Best for computer science (in no order):</p>
<p>MIT
Stanford
UC Berkeley
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Best for "liberal" education:</p>
<p>Brown
Wesleyan
Oberlin
Reed
Chicago (?)</p>
<p>Best for undergrad linguistics:</p>
<p>UCLA
Stanford
MIT
Berkeley
UCSD
Penn
Yale
Cornell
UCSC
Chicago</p>
<p>These are the best colleges in America for what I consider the quintessential undergraduate college experience:</p>
<ol>
<li>great undergraduate academics</li>
<li>great social scene encompassing a variety of student interests</li>
<li>great athletic scene with exciting and nationally competitive teams in major sports</li>
</ol>
<p>THE PLATINUM STANDARD
Stanford
Duke</p>
<p>THE GOLD STANDARD
Northwestern
Rice
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame</p>
<p>THE SILVER STANDARD-PRIVATE COLLEGE VERSION
Georgetown
USC
Wake Forest</p>
<p>THE SILVER STANDARD-PUBLIC COLLEGE VERSION
UC Berkeley
U Virginia
UCLA
U Michigan
U North Carolina</p>
<p>THE BRONZE STANDARD-IVY DIVISION
Princeton
Dartmouth
Cornell
U Penn</p>
<p>THE BRONZE STANDARD-NON IVY DIVISION
Georgia Tech
Boston College
U Wisconsin
U Illinois</p>
<p>The Best National Universities:</p>
<p>Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
Yale
Berkeley
Caltech
Columbia
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Chicago
U Penn
Michigan
Duke
Brown
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Virginia
Carnegie Mellon
UCLA
UNC-Chapel Hill
UT-Austin
Wisconsin
Washington University-St. Louis
Emory
Georgetown
Rice
Georgia Tech
UIUC
Vanderbilt
USC</p>
<p>According to a survey of over 2,000 academics. (a.k.a. - USNWR Peer Assessment Score)</p>
<p>Hawkette I like your lists, I'd make room for Penn State into bronze or even silver public.</p>
<p>2331clk,
I thought about Penn State and would absolutely, positively do so for anyone looking at their Schreyer program and I would put them into the Silver category. Penn State is a potentially wonderful undergraduate experience. Certain of its academic programs are outstanding, the social life is great (compared to something like U Penn, it is otherworldly), and the athletic life would be among the top 5 or 10 in the USA.</p>
<p>I ultimately decided not to include Penn State (and U Florida) because I don't think that those schools and their student bodies, when taken as a whole, are on the same level as the ones I ranked. But no question that a student can have a great four years in Happy Valley and come out of there very well prepared with a large variety of postgraduate opportunities and a legendary alumni network.</p>