What are the top 10 universities in the USA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The tiers tend to help nuance the rankings.

No, they do not. It's turd polishing at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My take

1. HYPSM
2. Caltech, Columbia, Chicago
3. Northwestern, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern
5. JHU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A college with ED doesn't belong to the top tier. It demonstrates lack of confidence competing with HYPSM. So Columbia isn't HYPSM caliber. Neither is Penn or Chicago.

Using ED and SCEA to distinguish colleges is foolish. In the early 2000's, both Yale and Princeton had ED, while Harvard had SCEA. So does that mean that Yale and Princeton wasn't a top tier school before, but suddenly became a superior university just because they changed from ED to SCEA? If that's your criteria, don't forget to include Georgetown and Notre Dame as a top tier school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My take

1. HYPSM
2. Caltech, Columbia, Chicago
3. Northwestern, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Duke
5. JHU, Cornell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My take

1. HYPSM
2. Caltech, Columbia, Chicago
3. Northwestern, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Duke
5. JHU, Cornell

you forgot Chicago, which probably belongs to 3, but otherwise looks ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HYPSM
Columbia Chicago Caltech Penn
Northwestern Duke Dartmouth Brown
Johns Hopkins Cornell

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not sure Stanford is above Yale, Princeton, Columbia. I know multiple kids who were rejected by Yale, Princeton, Columbia but admitted to Stanford.

Stanford is probably in a similar tier with Yale and Princeton, but these days perception is that Harvard and Stanford are best of best. There is a drop between HYPSM and Columbia

So what exactly is this gap between HYPSM and Columbia?

Yes, Columbia equivalent are Chicago and Penn

Endowment and caliber of students

Columbia’s acceptance rate this year was 4% this year. No different from Princeton, Yale or Stanford. You guys are living in the past. My son is at Yale but almost chose Columbia. He did not consider it any less prestigious

Much lower yield rate..Columbia is stil nowhere near HYPSM

University of Puerto Rico yield rate is 78.34% So what?

Doesn't change the fact that Columbia students are mostly HYPSM Wharton rejects

If Columbia were located in let’s say Newark, NJ do you think they would even be in the top 10? The biggest allure is NYC and that is undeniable.

What's with all this nonsense Columbia bashing. It's pathetic and annoying. Even the Berkeley bashers took a more rational approach than them.

Accept the facts: its acceptance rate is only beaten by Harvard, but they still lose in undergrad desirability as they have to use ED instead of SCEA. The "everyone applies because of NYC" thing is stupid, then every college in NYC would have a substantially lower acceptance rate, which is not true. The number of people who throw an application for Harvard just for giggles is probably greater. In undergrad desirability, it is below HYPSM, but above Penn and Chicago.

Graduate programs are a whole different story. Law is top 4, med is top 4, business is part of the M7. No other school except Harvard and Stanford are better than Columbia in all three of these. They have the #1 international relations school and the #1 journalism school as well. For arts and sciences, it is only beaten by Harvard and Stanford again; for example, Columbia's STEM is way better than Yale's, but their humanities is inferior by a tiny bit.

When speaking about the overall success of Columbia, it is only bested by Harvard and Stanford. Maybe MIT because their unrivaled STEM programs can outweigh the lack of other subjects. Maybe Berkeley because while their undergrad program has much left to be desired, Berkeley dominates in the graduate arts and sciences. But other than that, no other school can match the broad success that Columbia has achieved.

Because of the lower undergraduate desirability compared to HYPSM, many Columbia's students are HYPSM rejects (otherwise they would have gone to HYPSM if given the choice), and Columbia knows it. That's why they can't do SCEA and has to use ED to lock students.

Columbia having lower acceptance rate is because many more students applied to the school, probably thinking they had better chance to get into it than HYPSM because they thought Columbia would be easier. They were already self filtering from what they considered in their mind which one is more elite.

Ok, sure, you can say Columbia’s undergrad is less desirable (not necessarily inferior) than HYPSM. One down, thirteen more programs inside Columbia to go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A college with ED doesn't belong to the top tier. It demonstrates lack of confidence competing with HYPSM. So Columbia isn't HYPSM caliber. Neither is Penn or Chicago.

Can’t we stipulate that HYPSM are the top tier?
It is reality that Columbia, Chicago and Northwestern are not currently in the same tier as HYPSM.

I think there's ~15 "elite" schools in the US, of which "top tier" constitutes HYPSM. The other 10 elite schools are (no particular order):

Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Chicago
Northwestern
Duke
Dartmouth
JHU
Caltech
Penn

This is for undergrad only obviously

People on here need to look up the definition of university. I thought there were decent number of educated folks l
around here. University includes all students both undergraduate and graduate, faculty and academic research.

+1. I am disappointed in how all these posters keep talking about the undergraduate college as if it's the only component within a university. Clearly they do not know what a university is.

If this thread was named "what are the top 10 most desirable undergraduate colleges in the USA?," then those posters' argument would stand true.

The fact of the matter is that HYPSM has no legitimacy nor significance outside the undergraduate colleges. You can't assume that HYPSM are the best 5 universities just because they have the most desirable undergraduate programs.

Princeton as a university is weaker than Columbia. While Princeton's STEM is better than Columbia's, they are pretty much equal in the humanities and social sciences. But Princeton loses because they do not have top business, law, and medical schools like Columbia.

I don't understand why to some posters, the only important component of a university is their undergrad. If anything, grad school is more important and significant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My take



1. HYPSM
2. Columbia, Penn, Caltech
3. Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth
4. Duke, Cornell, Northwestern
5. JHU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A college with ED doesn't belong to the top tier. It demonstrates lack of confidence competing with HYPSM. So Columbia isn't HYPSM caliber. Neither is Penn or Chicago.

Can’t we stipulate that HYPSM are the top tier?
It is reality that Columbia, Chicago and Northwestern are not currently in the same tier as HYPSM.

I think there's ~15 "elite" schools in the US, of which "top tier" constitutes HYPSM. The other 10 elite schools are (no particular order):

Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Chicago
Northwestern
Duke
Dartmouth
JHU
Caltech
Penn

This is for undergrad only obviously

People on here need to look up the definition of university. I thought there were decent number of educated folks l
around here. University includes all students both undergraduate and graduate, faculty and academic research.

+1. I am disappointed in how all these posters keep talking about the undergraduate college as if it's the only component within a university. Clearly they do not know what a university is.

If this thread was named "what are the top 10 most desirable undergraduate colleges in the USA?," then those posters' argument would stand true.

The fact of the matter is that HYPSM has no legitimacy nor significance outside the undergraduate colleges. You can't assume that HYPSM are the best 5 universities just because they have the most desirable undergraduate programs.

Princeton as a university is weaker than Columbia. While Princeton's STEM is better than Columbia's, they are pretty much equal in the humanities and social sciences. But Princeton loses because they do not have top business, law, and medical schools like Columbia.

I don't understand why to some posters, the only important component of a university is their undergrad. If anything, grad school is more important and significant.

Most will pretend not to notice what you said because many send their kids to SLACs since their kids couldn’t get into top 25 universities so they have to hype up undergraduate programs rather than the universities similar to how uva propagandists hype up uva on here incessantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A college with ED doesn't belong to the top tier. It demonstrates lack of confidence competing with HYPSM. So Columbia isn't HYPSM caliber. Neither is Penn or Chicago.

Can’t we stipulate that HYPSM are the top tier?
It is reality that Columbia, Chicago and Northwestern are not currently in the same tier as HYPSM.

I think there's ~15 "elite" schools in the US, of which "top tier" constitutes HYPSM. The other 10 elite schools are (no particular order):

Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Chicago
Northwestern
Duke
Dartmouth
JHU
Caltech
Penn

This is for undergrad only obviously

People on here need to look up the definition of university. I thought there were decent number of educated folks l
around here. University includes all students both undergraduate and graduate, faculty and academic research.

+1. I am disappointed in how all these posters keep talking about the undergraduate college as if it's the only component within a university. Clearly they do not know what a university is.

If this thread was named "what are the top 10 most desirable undergraduate colleges in the USA?," then those posters' argument would stand true.

The fact of the matter is that HYPSM has no legitimacy nor significance outside the undergraduate colleges. You can't assume that HYPSM are the best 5 universities just because they have the most desirable undergraduate programs.

Princeton as a university is weaker than Columbia. While Princeton's STEM is better than Columbia's, they are pretty much equal in the humanities and social sciences. But Princeton loses because they do not have top business, law, and medical schools like Columbia.

I don't understand why to some posters, the only important component of a university is their undergrad. If anything, grad school is more important and significant.

Most will pretend not to notice what you said because many send their kids to SLACs since their kids couldn’t get into top 25 universities so they have to hype up undergraduate programs rather than the universities similar to how uva propagandists hype up uva on here incessantly.

So true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just look at US News & World Report and be done with it.

I don’t think so.

Why not?

Why?

Seems like USNWR often changes its ranking formula in order to jumble up their list to get more eyeballs and clicks. Would be bad for USNWR business, if the top 10 was the same every year. Was a joke when they listed Chicago at number 3. HYPSM should be alone in the top 5 every year until they are knocked off their respective perches. USNWR lost credibility with me with the #3 Chicago ranking a few years back. Chicago should be somewhere in the 6-10 range. No way Chicago deserves to be at number 3. This is not an attack on Chicago but how many students would choose Chicago over Stanford. 1 in a hundred maybe.

Student preference shouldn't be factored in rankings. Many reasons why a kid will choose one school over another, like Cali weather or grade inflation, etc.

Of course it should be factored. It means that one school is getting a much stronger student body and the other not. It would be like a NFL draft where HYPSM gets to choose all the players in the first 5 rounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just look at US News & World Report and be done with it.

I don’t think so.

Why not?

Why?

Seems like USNWR often changes its ranking formula in order to jumble up their list to get more eyeballs and clicks. Would be bad for USNWR business, if the top 10 was the same every year. Was a joke when they listed Chicago at number 3. HYPSM should be alone in the top 5 every year until they are knocked off their respective perches. USNWR lost credibility with me with the #3 Chicago ranking a few years back. Chicago should be somewhere in the 6-10 range. No way Chicago deserves to be at number 3. This is not an attack on Chicago but how many students would choose Chicago over Stanford. 1 in a hundred maybe.

Student preference shouldn't be factored in rankings. Many reasons why a kid will choose one school over another, like Cali weather or grade inflation, etc.

Of course it should be factored. It means that one school is getting a much stronger student body and the other not. It would be like a NFL draft where HYPSM gets to choose all the players in the first 5 rounds.

But that doesn't mean you can create tiers out of it. It's not like after the 5th round, the students suddenly become unintelligent and undistinguished. There's no sudden drop in student caliber after HYPSM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My take

1. HYPSM
2. Caltech, Columbia, Chicago
3. Northwestern, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech, Duke
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern
5. JHU

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech
4. Brown, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Duke
5. JHU, Cornell

you forgot Chicago, which probably belongs to 3, but otherwise looks ok

1. HYPSM
2. Columbia
3. Penn, Caltech, Chicago
4. Duke, Brown, Dartmouth, Northwestern
5. JHU, Cornell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A college with ED doesn't belong to the top tier. It demonstrates lack of confidence competing with HYPSM. So Columbia isn't HYPSM caliber. Neither is Penn or Chicago.

Can’t we stipulate that HYPSM are the top tier?
It is reality that Columbia, Chicago and Northwestern are not currently in the same tier as HYPSM.

I think there's ~15 "elite" schools in the US, of which "top tier" constitutes HYPSM. The other 10 elite schools are (no particular order):

Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Chicago
Northwestern
Duke
Dartmouth
JHU
Caltech
Penn

This is for undergrad only obviously

People on here need to look up the definition of university. I thought there were decent number of educated folks l
around here. University includes all students both undergraduate and graduate, faculty and academic research.

+1. I am disappointed in how all these posters keep talking about the undergraduate college as if it's the only component within a university. Clearly they do not know what a university is.

If this thread was named "what are the top 10 most desirable undergraduate colleges in the USA?," then those posters' argument would stand true.

The fact of the matter is that HYPSM has no legitimacy nor significance outside the undergraduate colleges. You can't assume that HYPSM are the best 5 universities just because they have the most desirable undergraduate programs.

Princeton as a university is weaker than Columbia. While Princeton's STEM is better than Columbia's, they are pretty much equal in the humanities and social sciences. But Princeton loses because they do not have top business, law, and medical schools like Columbia.

I don't understand why to some posters, the only important component of a university is their undergrad. If anything, grad school is more important and significant.

Most will pretend not to notice what you said because many send their kids to SLACs since their kids couldn’t get into top 25 universities so they have to hype up undergraduate programs rather than the universities similar to how uva propagandists hype up uva on here incessantly.

One of the most insightful posts on here in a while.