"Top 10" - what does that mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard
2 Stanford
3 MIT
4 Princeton
5 Yale
6 Penn
7 Duke
8 Northwestern
9 Columbia
10 Chicago/Hopkins/Caltech

There are 12 schools people consider T10. No one considers Vanderbilt or Rice or WashU T10. The 12 arguable “T10” schools, plus the other three ivies (Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell) make up the Ivy Plus. It’s a pretty objective list of the 15 schools people would consider “top” colleges and there’s a gap after that.

Case in point, with the exception of UChicago, who famously games the rankings, I don’t think any of those schools need to offer an ED2. The Vanderbilt Emory WashU tier schools all need ED2 for yield rates and to keep acceptance rates lower.

So does that make Emory/ GU arguably top 20. If there's 12 top 10 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Top 10" National Universities:

1) Princeton
2) Stanford
3) Harvard
4) MIT
5) Yale

6) U Penn
7) Northwestern
8) Duke
9) Chicago
10) Columbia

Top 10 LACs

USNA-Annapolis
USMA--West Point
USAFA--Colorado Springs

1) Williams College
2) Amherst College
3) Swarthmore College
4) Pomona College
5) Claremont McKenna College

6) Bowdoin College
7) Carleton Colege
8) Wellesley College
9) Middlebury College
10) Davidson College

I agree with your national universities list, but no one considers SLACs to be part of the conversation when discussing T10 schools...

Do NOT agree with your list. You just made it up.

I and US News and many other sources seem to have "just made it up" with respect to the Top 10 list. Perhaps you are seeking a biblical reference as support ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard
2 Stanford
3 MIT
4 Princeton
5 Yale
6 Penn
7 Duke
8 Northwestern
9 Columbia
10 Chicago/Hopkins/Caltech

There are 12 schools people consider T10. No one considers Vanderbilt or Rice or WashU T10. The 12 arguable “T10” schools, plus the other three ivies (Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell) make up the Ivy Plus. It’s a pretty objective list of the 15 schools people would consider “top” colleges and there’s a gap after that.

Case in point, with the exception of UChicago, who famously games the rankings, I don’t think any of those schools need to offer an ED2. The Vanderbilt Emory WashU tier schools all need ED2 for yield rates and to keep acceptance rates lower.

So does that make Emory/ GU arguably top 20. If there's 12 top 10 schools?

Yes, this is a reasonable inference/thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Top 10" National Universities:

1) Princeton
2) Stanford
3) Harvard
4) MIT
5) Yale

6) U Penn
7) Northwestern
8) Duke
9) Chicago
10) Columbia

Top 10 LACs

USNA-Annapolis
USMA--West Point
USAFA--Colorado Springs

1) Williams College
2) Amherst College
3) Swarthmore College
4) Pomona College
5) Claremont McKenna College

6) Bowdoin College
7) Carleton Colege
8) Wellesley College
9) Middlebury College
10) Davidson College

I agree with your national universities list, but no one considers SLACs to be part of the conversation when discussing T10 schools...

Do NOT agree with your list. You just made it up.

I and US News and many other sources seem to have "just made it up" with respect to the Top 10 list. Perhaps you are seeking a biblical reference as support ?

If you are new to the business, USN&WR is considered an industry standard and flagship ranking.
So when people say T10 T20 T25 T50, it's going by USN&WR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Top 10" National Universities:

1) Princeton
2) Stanford
3) Harvard
4) MIT
5) Yale

6) U Penn
7) Northwestern
8) Duke
9) Chicago
10) Columbia

Top 10 LACs

USNA-Annapolis
USMA--West Point
USAFA--Colorado Springs

1) Williams College
2) Amherst College
3) Swarthmore College
4) Pomona College
5) Claremont McKenna College

6) Bowdoin College
7) Carleton Colege
8) Wellesley College
9) Middlebury College
10) Davidson College

I agree with your national universities list, but no one considers SLACs to be part of the conversation when discussing T10 schools...

Do NOT agree with your list. You just made it up.

I and US News and many other sources seem to have "just made it up" with respect to the Top 10 list. Perhaps you are seeking a biblical reference as support ?

If you are new to the business, USN&WR is considered an industry standard and flagship ranking.
So when people say T10 T20 T25 T50, it's going by USN&WR.

+1.

The consistent Top 10 schools are, in some fashion, roughly:

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

Yes, there are more than ten listed here, but those are the surefire "T10s" that are essentially reconfigured slightly every year. Last year was an anomaly because Columbia dropped to #18 after being caught falsifying its data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard
2 Stanford
3 MIT
4 Princeton
5 Yale
6 Penn
7 Duke
8 Northwestern
9 Columbia
10 Chicago/Hopkins/Caltech

There are 12 schools people consider T10. No one considers Vanderbilt or Rice or WashU T10. The 12 arguable “T10” schools, plus the other three ivies (Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell) make up the Ivy Plus. It’s a pretty objective list of the 15 schools people would consider “top” colleges and there’s a gap after that.

Case in point, with the exception of UChicago, who famously games the rankings, I don’t think any of those schools need to offer an ED2. The Vanderbilt Emory WashU tier schools all need ED2 for yield rates and to keep acceptance rates lower.

+1.

Also (with the exception of UChicago), it seems like these 15 schools play the least "games" to try to lower their acceptance rate, or boast about it incessantly in their marketing materials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard
2 Stanford
3 MIT
4 Princeton
5 Yale
6 Penn
7 Duke
8 Northwestern
9 Columbia
10 Chicago/Hopkins/Caltech

There are 12 schools people consider T10. No one considers Vanderbilt or Rice or WashU T10. The 12 arguable “T10” schools, plus the other three ivies (Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell) make up the Ivy Plus. It’s a pretty objective list of the 15 schools people would consider “top” colleges and there’s a gap after that.

Case in point, with the exception of UChicago, who famously games the rankings, I don’t think any of those schools need to offer an ED2. The Vanderbilt Emory WashU tier schools all need ED2 for yield rates and to keep acceptance rates lower.

+1.

Also (with the exception of UChicago), it seems like these 15 schools play the least "games" to try to lower their acceptance rate, or boast about it incessantly in their marketing materials.

Well, these schools were king of gaming. They don't need to do it as much anymore since they are maintaining superior positions.

These schools invented ED and all sorts of tactics.

UPenn invented ED to game the system, and soon all the ivies and top schools followed.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/09/the-early-decision-racket/302280/

Don't be naïve

[Anonymous]

here is the definitive explanation

people like to use all schools above their college ranking in the grouping they use, especially on DCUM!

when people say T5, it’s legit the top 5 ranked colleges

when people say their kid goes to a T10, that means it’s 6-10, otherwise they’d call it a T5

when people say their kid goes to a T15, that means it’s 11-15, (see above)

and so on and so forth up to T50 (which means 26-50)

That’s why Duke parents use T10 when they talk about their kid’s school, Rice T15, and Georgetown/NYU T25

[Anonymous]

^ best description yet - parent references their kid at a T15, they’re not talking about Yale

[Anonymous]

When did Hopkins and Chicago become top ten schools? It’s been ages since I’ve applied to college, but I recall both schools being obtainable for a fair amount of students. I did a little research to make sure my memory wasn’t fuzzy. https://weilcollegeadvising.com/admission-rates-30-years-ago/ I’m just wondering what changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When did Hopkins and Chicago become top ten schools? It’s been ages since I’ve applied to college, but I recall both schools being obtainable for a fair amount of students. I did a little research to make sure my memory wasn’t fuzzy. https://weilcollegeadvising.com/admission-rates-30-years-ago/ I’m just wondering what changed.

I feel like Chicago has always been incredibly respected. JHU and Northwestern seem like more recent initiations into this tier.

[Anonymous]

If the Ivy Plus is these top 10 schools + Cornell, Brown, and Dartmouth, where do schools like Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, WashU, and Notre Dame fit in? Berkeley?

I’ve always seen Duke and NW as being similar to Vanderbilt, Rice, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did Hopkins and Chicago become top ten schools? It’s been ages since I’ve applied to college, but I recall both schools being obtainable for a fair amount of students. I did a little research to make sure my memory wasn’t fuzzy. https://weilcollegeadvising.com/admission-rates-30-years-ago/ I’m just wondering what changed.

I feel like Chicago has always been incredibly respected. JHU and Northwestern seem like more recent initiations into this tier.

When I went to JHU 30 years ago it was typically compared to Chicago as most similar school, so interesting to see the acceptance rates back then pretty close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did Hopkins and Chicago become top ten schools? It’s been ages since I’ve applied to college, but I recall both schools being obtainable for a fair amount of students. I did a little research to make sure my memory wasn’t fuzzy. https://weilcollegeadvising.com/admission-rates-30-years-ago/ I’m just wondering what changed.

I feel like Chicago has always been incredibly respected. JHU and Northwestern seem like more recent initiations into this tier.

When I went to JHU 30 years ago it was typically compared to Chicago as most similar school, so interesting to see the acceptance rates back then pretty close.

Agreed which is why I was surprised at how they managed to become top ten schools. The rest in the link seem to be fairly consistent in terms of relative acceptance rates but both Hipkinsband Chicago accepted close to 50% of applicants. That’s a pretty big leap in 30 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still don’t get all the love for Duke. What is it exactly stellar in that makes it a top ten school?

There's many Duke fan boys on this thread. Duke is borderline top 10 at best