Is this the Top 1-30 that everyone is referring to? I'm so confused when people reference T1 or T20 or T30.

[Anonymous]

I like the .5 list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Cornell, Columbia, Northwestern,Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Williams, Amherst, Chicago, Dartmouth**

Tier 3: Vandeebilt**, Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Pomona

Tier 4: UCLA, UVA, Umich, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Harvey Mudd, Barnard, Gatech**

Can someone explain the romance with Rice on this forum, its the most unknown in the T25, and has a 4.2 reputation score on US news same as Georgetown and others. There's a ton of east coast bias here. It's not the 90's, LACs are not ivy level anymore. I put "**" next to the school I think are questionable, Dartmouth and Gatech could go down 1, and Vanderbilt could go up 1.

Add .5 tiers
Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

I forgot WashU to Tier 3.

[Anonymous]

EDIT: Forgot WashU and CMU

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, WashU, CMU

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Cornell, Columbia, Northwestern,Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Williams, Amherst, Chicago, Dartmouth**

Tier 3: Vandeebilt**, Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Pomona

Tier 4: UCLA, UVA, Umich, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Harvey Mudd, Barnard, Gatech**

Can someone explain the romance with Rice on this forum, its the most unknown in the T25, and has a 4.2 reputation score on US news same as Georgetown and others. There's a ton of east coast bias here. It's not the 90's, LACs are not ivy level anymore. I put "**" next to the school I think are questionable, Dartmouth and Gatech could go down 1, and Vanderbilt could go up 1.

Add .5 tiers
Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

Ranking Pomona and Harvey Mudd low is an east coast bias.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Wall Street Journal / Times Higher Education rankings combined both National Universities and LACs into a single ranking. The top LACs were ranked at #22 Amherst College, #23 Williams College, #25 Pomona College, #29 Swarthmore College, #31 Wellesley College, #34 Claremont McKenna College, and #35 Carleton College.

Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education combined National University/Liberal Arts College ranking:

1) Harvard
2) Stanford
3) MIT
4) Yale
5) Duke
6) Brown
7) CalTech
8) Princeton
9) Northwestern & Johns Hopkins (tied)

11) Cornell
12) U Penn
13) Dartmouth
14) U Chicago
15) Vanderbilt
16) Columbia
17) WashUStL
18) Rice
19) USC
20) Emory

21) Carnegie Mellon Univ.
22) Amherst College
23) Williams College
24) U Michigan
25) Pomona College
26) NYU
27) UCLA
28) Notre Dame
29) Swarthmore College
30) Tufts

31) Wellesley College
32) Georgetown
33) UNC
34) Claremont McKenna College
35) Carleton College
36) UC-Berkeley

These are usually regarded as the top 36 schools, but any combined National University & Liberal Arts College list should include at least 40 schools and probably even better if it included 50 schools.

This makes sense than the us news ranking s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lists are worthless unless you have no clue what you want to study. Look at the program first and the school second.

10000000+

[Anonymous]

Fix it for you

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Upenn, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, CalTech, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona

Tier 3: Dartmouth, Cornell, Chicago, Vanderbilt**, Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Wellesley, Bowdoin

Tier 4: Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Umich, USC, NYU, CMC, Carleton, Harvey Mudd, Barnard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fix it for you

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Upenn, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, CalTech, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona

Tier 3: Dartmouth, Cornell, Chicago, Vanderbilt**, Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Wellesley, Bowdoin

Tier 4: Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Umich, USC, NYU, CMC, Carleton, Harvey Mudd, Barnard

LAC bias. Swarthmore and Pomona are Emory/WashU level honestly. Would you honestly put Pomona and Duke in the same sentence? Bowdoin is Gatech/ Tufts level, and the Big4 publics can be moved to 3 as well. But I think if you do that, Dartmouth and maybe Vanderbilt need to move up to 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Forgot WashU and CMU

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, WashU, CMU

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

I generally like this list (although things get murky by the 5th Tier). FWIW, I don't believe there's a real difference between the kids at any of the top 2.5 tiers. Geography, wealth, race (sorry but true), and magic fairy dust are the only reason kids get into some of them vs others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While acknowledging that this is a silly, navel-gazing exercise bereft of any empirical basis, below are my personal set of tiers, which are very loose. I honestly don't know how one can claim, as a very general matter, that Princeton is "better" than Harvard, Duke better than Brown, or Amherst better than Pomona. People get really upset because of a ridiculous obsession with ordinal numeration. Anyhow:

Tier 1: HYPSM

Tier 2: The remaining Ivies, Duke, CalTech, JHU, Northwestern, Rice, WASP

Tier 3: UCLA, Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, CMU, Georgetown, Notre Dame, WashU, Vanderbilt, Emory, USC, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Carleton, Mudd, CMC.

Tier 4: A bunch more really good schools that are very close to the Tier 3.

To be clear, all of the schools above are really, really good. Any kid who gains admission to any one of them is blessed. But people here always forget this as they take extreme positions in an effort to distinguish nearly identical schools.

I agree this is a dumb exercise and fit and major are what matters. However...

There really aren't a lot of top students going to SLACs these days. This categorization is overvaluing small liberal arts colleges. I do agree though that absolutely nothing is going to topple HYPSM from the top tier. I have two kids at top 20 schools, and the way I'd frame it for this generation of students would be:

Tier 1: MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale

Tier 2: Penn, CalTech, Duke, Rice, Williams - these schools generally have really exceptional students

Tier 3: Cornell, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Chicago, Brown, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Pomona, Bowdoin

Tier 4: Georgetown, Notre Dame, Berkeley, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, Amherst, WashU, Harvey Mudd

I would add West Point and Annapolis somewhere, but they are peculiar schools and difficult to put into any kind of useful comparison list.

Accurate based on the students from our top 3 privates! Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Forgot WashU and CMU

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, WashU, CMU

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

I generally like this list (although things get murky by the 5th Tier). FWIW, I don't believe there's a real difference between the kids at any of the top 2.5 tiers. Geography, wealth, race (sorry but true), and magic fairy dust are the only reason kids get into some of them vs others.

3.5 and 4 should be combined

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Forgot WashU and CMU


Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt


I generally like this list (although things get murky by the 5th Tier). FWIW, I don't believe there's a real difference between the kids at any of the top 2.5 tiers. Geography, wealth, race (sorry but true), and magic fairy dust are the only reason kids get into some of them vs others.

Agree. My DC applied to four of the 2.5 schools: accepted at one, rejected at one, waitlisted at two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Forgot WashU and CMU

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, WashU, CMU

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

I generally like this list (although things get murky by the 5th Tier). FWIW, I don't believe there's a real difference between the kids at any of the top 2.5 tiers. Geography, wealth, race (sorry but true), and magic fairy dust are the only reason kids get into some of them vs others.

It's not about getting in per say. It's about cross admits. The kids that get into Vanderbilt and Stanford, the vast majority are choosing Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Forgot WashU and CMU

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT

Tier 1.5:Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Duke, Columbia, Upenn, Brown, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Chicago,

Tier 2.5: Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Vanderbilt

Tier 3: Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Berkeley, Swarthmore, WashU, CMU

Tier 3.5: UCLA, Umich, Pomona

Tier 4: UVA, USC, NYU, Wellesley, Bowdoin, CMC, Barnard

Tier 4.5: Gatech, UNC, Harvey Mudd, top Military Academies, Boston College, UT, Tufts

Tier 5: Vassar, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UF, UW, W&M, BU, UMD, Wake Forest, Tulane

I generally like this list (although things get murky by the 5th Tier). FWIW, I don't believe there's a real difference between the kids at any of the top 2.5 tiers. Geography, wealth, race (sorry but true), and magic fairy dust are the only reason kids get into some of them vs others.

It's not about getting in per se. It's about cross admits. The kids that get into Vanderbilt and Stanford, the vast majority are choosing Stanford.

Per se*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fix it for you

Tier 1: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton

Tier 2: Upenn, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, CalTech, Williams

Tier 3: Dartmouth, Cornell, Chicago, Vanderbilt**, Rice, GTown, Emory, ND, Wellesley, Bowdoin, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, JHU

Tier 4: Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Umich, USC, NYU, CMC, Carleton, Harvey Mudd, Barnard

LAC bias. Swarthmore and Pomona are Emory/WashU level honestly. Would you honestly put Pomona and Duke in the same sentence? Bowdoin is Gatech/ Tufts level, and the Big4 publics can be moved to 3 as well. But I think if you do that, Dartmouth and maybe Vanderbilt need to move up to 2.