What are the top 10 universities in the USA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it’s due to where I am in the country but I don’t know many people (if at all) who would prefer Berkeley over Duke or Northwestern.

Outside of STEM, sure. Those universities are less rigorous and student quality of academic life (small class sizes, signing up for classes, etc.) is certainly better.

But this thread is about the top 10 universities, not universities for undergraduate education or student life. And the best undergraduate education is provided SLACs anyways, especially outside of STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a bit of a nebulous concept but I think most would say that these kinds of lists are trying to capture some mixture of prestige, student caliber, desirability, teaching quality, and research productivity. While I think PP's list is a good one, I think it leans a bit heavy toward the graduate schools and research output.

My list is pretty much identical to this earlier list upthread:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. Princeton
6. U. Pennsylvania
7. U. Chicago
8. Northwestern
9. Duke
10. Johns Hopkins

I'm not quite sure UC Berkeley would be considered a top 10 university. For many PhD programs, absolutely. But not many would consider it within the context of these other super-schools.

Caltech, too, strikes me as a bit too small to be included here, although I would also consider it world-class. Along with Juilliard, those two schools sort of occupy polar ends of a spectrum of higher education, and are arguably the world's best in each of their respective domains.

I disagree that UCB should not be included in the top ten. After HYPSM, there are about 15 schools that could be considered top ten. So many posters are stuck on USNWR undergraduate ratings they forget that universities have multiple purposes, and that includes graduate programs. When a poster asks about the top ten universities in the USA, it shouldn’t automatically exclude the reputation of the entire school.

I don't disagree with you there! While UCB is a powerhouse in academia (one of the best), however, schools like Northwestern & Duke, for example, have stronger law schools, med schools, and in the case of NW, a stronger business school as well. They also have much stronger undergraduate offerings.

As an aside, would throw MIT into that list up top as well.

Duke and Northwestern do not have stronger law schools than Berkeley, Berkeley law is considered stronger. Duke has a worse business school and Northwestern is about the same.

Berkeley doesn't have a medical school so comparing medical schools makes no sense. If you want to count UCSF as Berkeley's medical school, it blows Duke and Northwestern's medical school out of the water.

Berkeley Law is not considered stronger than Duke and Northwestern. They're peers within the T14, but Duke and Northwestern historically rank above Berkeley. Northwestern's business school is widely considered a whole tier above Berkeley, not just "about the same."

UCSF is a different school (unless you're also about to claim UCLA's achievements for Berkeley as well).

If you're going to shill Berkeley, at least be a little bit less obvious about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a bit of a nebulous concept but I think most would say that these kinds of lists are trying to capture some mixture of prestige, student caliber, desirability, teaching quality, and research productivity. While I think PP's list is a good one, I think it leans a bit heavy toward the graduate schools and research output.

My list is pretty much identical to this earlier list upthread:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. Princeton
6. U. Pennsylvania
7. U. Chicago
8. Northwestern
9. Duke
10. Johns Hopkins

I'm not quite sure UC Berkeley would be considered a top 10 university. For many PhD programs, absolutely. But not many would consider it within the context of these other super-schools.

Caltech, too, strikes me as a bit too small to be included here, although I would also consider it world-class. Along with Juilliard, those two schools sort of occupy polar ends of a spectrum of higher education, and are arguably the world's best in each of their respective domains.

I disagree that UCB should not be included in the top ten. After HYPSM, there are about 15 schools that could be considered top ten. So many posters are stuck on USNWR undergraduate ratings they forget that universities have multiple purposes, and that includes graduate programs. When a poster asks about the top ten universities in the USA, it shouldn’t automatically exclude the reputation of the entire school.

I don't disagree with you there! While UCB is a powerhouse in academia (one of the best), however, schools like Northwestern & Duke, for example, have stronger law schools, med schools, and in the case of NW, a stronger business school as well. They also have much stronger undergraduate offerings.

As an aside, would throw MIT into that list up top as well.

Duke and Northwestern do not have stronger law schools than Berkeley, Berkeley law is considered stronger. Duke has a worse business school and Northwestern is about the same.

Berkeley doesn't have a medical school so comparing medical schools makes no sense. If you want to count UCSF as Berkeley's medical school, it blows Duke and Northwestern's medical school out of the water.

Berkeley Law is not considered stronger than Duke and Northwestern. They're peers within the T14, but Duke and Northwestern historically rank above Berkeley. Northwestern's business school is widely considered a whole tier above Berkeley, not just "about the same."

UCSF is a different school (unless you're also about to claim UCLA's achievements for Berkeley as well).

If you're going to shill Berkeley, at least be a little bit less obvious about it.

We’re talking undergrad here, and it’s open knowledge Berkeley is open admissions these days

[Anonymous]

Harvard
Stanford
Yale
MIT
Princeton
Columbia
Caltech
Chicago
Penn
Northwestern
Duke
Dartmouth
Brown
Cornell
JHU

[Anonymous]

HYPSM
Catech Columbia Chicago Penn
Northwestern Duke
Brown Dartmouth
Cornell Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. Columbia
4. UPenn
5. MIT
6. Caltech
7. Yale
8. Princeton
9. UChicago
10 UC Berkeley

+1. OP is asking for the top 10 universities, not colleges within these universities; the list must be based on a comprehensive evaluation of all programs within a university. The addition of UC Berkeley is necessary because of its top graduate programs; overall, it's a more productive and successful university than the likes of Duke and Northwestern.

MIT should be ahead of Columbia because its research in STEM is so productive that it outweighs their relative lack of professional schools and non-STEM subjects. The opposite argument can be made about Yale and Caltech, with Caltech being even more niche than MIT. UC Berkeley loses points for not having a top undergraduate college. Columbia ahead of Yale because of better med and business, way better STEM overall that outweighs Yale's slightly better humanities, and other elite programs like Journalism, SIPA, that Yale doesn't have. Penn ahead of Princeton because while Penn's arts and sciences may be weak on this list, their overall strength in professional schools make them above Princeton with only SPIA.

1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. MIT
4. Columbia
5. Yale
6. Caltech
7. Penn
8. Princeton
9. UC Berkeley
10. UChicago

This list is very similar to the world rankings of US News, ARWU, CWUR, Round University Rankings, etc.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Harvard / Stanford
2. Yale / MIT / Princeton
3. Columbia / Chicago / UPenn
4. Northwestern / Duke / Johns Hopkins
5. Cornell / Brown / Dartmouth

- source: DH is a prof at a top private R1

The best one and clearly better than US News.

+1. May add Caltech to 3 and separate it from the Chicago and UPenn tier.

JHU in tier 5

Fair. I’d agree.

I think this is the best list so far on the board

1. Harvard / Stanford
2. Yale / MIT / Princeton
3. Columbia / Caltech
4. UPenn / Chicago
5. Duke / Northwestern
6. Cornell / Brown / Dartmouth / Johns Hopkins

Nailed it!

[Anonymous]

Harvard Stanford
MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown
Cornell Johns Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a bit of a nebulous concept but I think most would say that these kinds of lists are trying to capture some mixture of prestige, student caliber, desirability, teaching quality, and research productivity. While I think PP's list is a good one, I think it leans a bit heavy toward the graduate schools and research output.

My list is pretty much identical to this earlier list upthread:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. Princeton
6. U. Pennsylvania
7. U. Chicago
8. Northwestern
9. Duke
10. Johns Hopkins

I'm not quite sure UC Berkeley would be considered a top 10 university. For many PhD programs, absolutely. But not many would consider it within the context of these other super-schools.

Caltech, too, strikes me as a bit too small to be included here, although I would also consider it world-class. Along with Juilliard, those two schools sort of occupy polar ends of a spectrum of higher education, and are arguably the world's best in each of their respective domains.

I disagree that UCB should not be included in the top ten. After HYPSM, there are about 15 schools that could be considered top ten. So many posters are stuck on USNWR undergraduate ratings they forget that universities have multiple purposes, and that includes graduate programs. When a poster asks about the top ten universities in the USA, it shouldn’t automatically exclude the reputation of the entire school.

I don't disagree with you there! While UCB is a powerhouse in academia (one of the best), however, schools like Northwestern & Duke, for example, have stronger law schools, med schools, and in the case of NW, a stronger business school as well. They also have much stronger undergraduate offerings.

As an aside, would throw MIT into that list up top as well.

Duke and Northwestern do not have stronger law schools than Berkeley, Berkeley law is considered stronger. Duke has a worse business school and Northwestern is about the same.

Berkeley doesn't have a medical school so comparing medical schools makes no sense. If you want to count UCSF as Berkeley's medical school, it blows Duke and Northwestern's medical school out of the water.

Berkeley Law is not considered stronger than Duke and Northwestern. They're peers within the T14, but Duke and Northwestern historically rank above Berkeley. Northwestern's business school is widely considered a whole tier above Berkeley, not just "about the same."

UCSF is a different school (unless you're also about to claim UCLA's achievements for Berkeley as well).

If you're going to shill Berkeley, at least be a little bit less obvious about it.

First of all, you are imagining up medical schools that Berkeley does not have. You making up a non-existent Berkeley medical schools to compare Northwestern's or Duke's medical schools favorably, which is utterly idiotic. So yes, it makes sense to compare it to the next closest thing - UCSF's medical school which is 20 minutes drive away.

Northwestern's medical school is in Chicago, not Evanston, about as far away. UCLA is 6 hours away from Berkeley, the fact you are bringing UCLA up shows you are a moron.

Berkeley compared to Duke and Northwestern is absolutely hilarious. The latter two are widely known party schools that are regionally respected, perhaps even regionally "prestigious".

The fact you are brining up "historical" rankings when arguing against the fact that Berkeley is ranked higher is hilarious. Duke's law school has always been at the lower end of the T14 below the state schools, in fact even regionally UVA's law school has always been considered better. Northwestern's law school has generally been lower than Berkeley as well, to argue that its better in any form is hilarious.

Berkeley and Northwestern are not in separate "tiers" for business schools, lmao. There's a top tier of Harvard, Wharton, Stanford and perhaps Booth. Northwestern is no where close to that tier. It's in the next tier with Columbia, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.
Berkeley is renowned world-wide as a top university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a bit of a nebulous concept but I think most would say that these kinds of lists are trying to capture some mixture of prestige, student caliber, desirability, teaching quality, and research productivity. While I think PP's list is a good one, I think it leans a bit heavy toward the graduate schools and research output.

My list is pretty much identical to this earlier list upthread:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. Princeton
6. U. Pennsylvania
7. U. Chicago
8. Northwestern
9. Duke
10. Johns Hopkins

I'm not quite sure UC Berkeley would be considered a top 10 university. For many PhD programs, absolutely. But not many would consider it within the context of these other super-schools.

Caltech, too, strikes me as a bit too small to be included here, although I would also consider it world-class. Along with Juilliard, those two schools sort of occupy polar ends of a spectrum of higher education, and are arguably the world's best in each of their respective domains.

I disagree that UCB should not be included in the top ten. After HYPSM, there are about 15 schools that could be considered top ten. So many posters are stuck on USNWR undergraduate ratings they forget that universities have multiple purposes, and that includes graduate programs. When a poster asks about the top ten universities in the USA, it shouldn’t automatically exclude the reputation of the entire school.

I don't disagree with you there! While UCB is a powerhouse in academia (one of the best), however, schools like Northwestern & Duke, for example, have stronger law schools, med schools, and in the case of NW, a stronger business school as well. They also have much stronger undergraduate offerings.

As an aside, would throw MIT into that list up top as well.

Duke and Northwestern do not have stronger law schools than Berkeley, Berkeley law is considered stronger. Duke has a worse business school and Northwestern is about the same.

Berkeley doesn't have a medical school so comparing medical schools makes no sense. If you want to count UCSF as Berkeley's medical school, it blows Duke and Northwestern's medical school out of the water.

Berkeley Law is not considered stronger than Duke and Northwestern. They're peers within the T14, but Duke and Northwestern historically rank above Berkeley. Northwestern's business school is widely considered a whole tier above Berkeley, not just "about the same."

UCSF is a different school (unless you're also about to claim UCLA's achievements for Berkeley as well).

If you're going to shill Berkeley, at least be a little bit less obvious about it.

First of all, you are imagining up medical schools that Berkeley does not have. You making up a non-existent Berkeley medical schools to compare Northwestern's or Duke's medical schools favorably, which is utterly idiotic. So yes, it makes sense to compare it to the next closest thing - UCSF's medical school which is 20 minutes drive away.

Northwestern's medical school is in Chicago, not Evanston, about as far away. UCLA is 6 hours away from Berkeley, the fact you are bringing UCLA up shows you are a moron.

Berkeley compared to Duke and Northwestern is absolutely hilarious. The latter two are widely known party schools that are regionally respected, perhaps even regionally "prestigious".

The fact you are brining up "historical" rankings when arguing against the fact that Berkeley is ranked higher is hilarious. Duke's law school has always been at the lower end of the T14 below the state schools, in fact even regionally UVA's law school has always been considered better. Northwestern's law school has generally been lower than Berkeley as well, to argue that its better in any form is hilarious.

Berkeley and Northwestern are not in separate "tiers" for business schools, lmao. There's a top tier of Harvard, Wharton, Stanford and perhaps Booth. Northwestern is no where close to that tier. It's in the next tier with Columbia, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.
Berkeley is renowned world-wide as a top university.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

No Berkeley please

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown Berkeley
Cornell Johns Hopkins

Best list so far.

Harvard Stanford MIT
Yale Princeton Columbia
Penn Chicago Caltech
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown
Cornell Johns Hopkins
Berkeley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a bit of a nebulous concept but I think most would say that these kinds of lists are trying to capture some mixture of prestige, student caliber, desirability, teaching quality, and research productivity. While I think PP's list is a good one, I think it leans a bit heavy toward the graduate schools and research output.

My list is pretty much identical to this earlier list upthread:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. Princeton
6. U. Pennsylvania
7. U. Chicago
8. Northwestern
9. Duke
10. Johns Hopkins

I'm not quite sure UC Berkeley would be considered a top 10 university. For many PhD programs, absolutely. But not many would consider it within the context of these other super-schools.

Caltech, too, strikes me as a bit too small to be included here, although I would also consider it world-class. Along with Juilliard, those two schools sort of occupy polar ends of a spectrum of higher education, and are arguably the world's best in each of their respective domains.

I disagree that UCB should not be included in the top ten. After HYPSM, there are about 15 schools that could be considered top ten. So many posters are stuck on USNWR undergraduate ratings they forget that universities have multiple purposes, and that includes graduate programs. When a poster asks about the top ten universities in the USA, it shouldn’t automatically exclude the reputation of the entire school.

I don't disagree with you there! While UCB is a powerhouse in academia (one of the best), however, schools like Northwestern & Duke, for example, have stronger law schools, med schools, and in the case of NW, a stronger business school as well. They also have much stronger undergraduate offerings.

As an aside, would throw MIT into that list up top as well.

Duke and Northwestern do not have stronger law schools than Berkeley, Berkeley law is considered stronger. Duke has a worse business school and Northwestern is about the same.

Berkeley doesn't have a medical school so comparing medical schools makes no sense. If you want to count UCSF as Berkeley's medical school, it blows Duke and Northwestern's medical school out of the water.

Berkeley Law is not considered stronger than Duke and Northwestern. They're peers within the T14, but Duke and Northwestern historically rank above Berkeley. Northwestern's business school is widely considered a whole tier above Berkeley, not just "about the same."

UCSF is a different school (unless you're also about to claim UCLA's achievements for Berkeley as well).

If you're going to shill Berkeley, at least be a little bit less obvious about it.

First of all, you are imagining up medical schools that Berkeley does not have. You making up a non-existent Berkeley medical schools to compare Northwestern's or Duke's medical schools favorably, which is utterly idiotic. So yes, it makes sense to compare it to the next closest thing - UCSF's medical school which is 20 minutes drive away.

Northwestern's medical school is in Chicago, not Evanston, about as far away. UCLA is 6 hours away from Berkeley, the fact you are bringing UCLA up shows you are a moron.

Berkeley compared to Duke and Northwestern is absolutely hilarious. The latter two are widely known party schools that are regionally respected, perhaps even regionally "prestigious".

The fact you are brining up "historical" rankings when arguing against the fact that Berkeley is ranked higher is hilarious. Duke's law school has always been at the lower end of the T14 below the state schools, in fact even regionally UVA's law school has always been considered better. Northwestern's law school has generally been lower than Berkeley as well, to argue that its better in any form is hilarious.

Berkeley and Northwestern are not in separate "tiers" for business schools, lmao. There's a top tier of Harvard, Wharton, Stanford and perhaps Booth. Northwestern is no where close to that tier. It's in the next tier with Columbia, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.
Berkeley is renowned world-wide as a top university.

+1

People are ignorant of Berkeley. It's much better than much worshipped UVA. Isn't that approaching God like status?