Which colleges are considered top elite in the US?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

You made a huge jump to get UVA and Gtown into the conversation. Bottom elite at best. What's the next tier after "Bottom Elite"?

UVA and Georgetown are much more "elite" than Umich. Especially Georgetown. I honestly would consider Umich as a step below the bottom elite. Umich is not that hard to get into. I would add UNC and USC in the Umich category.

It's common in my neighborhood for kids that get rejected at UVA to go U Mich. It is hard for kids at large NoVa schools to get into UVA. We had 22 U Michigan admits at our HS (out of 240 students). We had 6 UVA. We had 1 Georgetown. It's almost impossible to get into Georgetown at our NoVA public HS. There are 0-1 admitted each year out of a large class--and if there are more they are almost always legacy.

+1000, other than Ross, Umich grads don't impress. You can see it in their post-grad salaries. It's barely above 50k, some HBCUs do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

You made a huge jump to get UVA and Gtown into the conversation. Bottom elite at best. What's the next tier after "Bottom Elite"?

UVA and Georgetown are much more "elite" than Umich. Especially Georgetown. I honestly would consider Umich as a step below the bottom elite. Umich is not that hard to get into. I would add UNC and USC in the Umich category.

So admission rate determine rate determines level of "eliteness"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

You made a huge jump to get UVA and Gtown into the conversation. Bottom elite at best. What's the next tier after "Bottom Elite"?

UVA and Georgetown are much more "elite" than Umich. Especially Georgetown. I honestly would consider Umich as a step below the bottom elite. Umich is not that hard to get into. I would add UNC and USC in the Umich category.

So admission rate determine rate determines level of "eliteness"?

Yes. In people's eyes. It's why Harvard, MIT, Princeton, etc. are in top 10--you will see admit rates rise as you go up in numbers.

People see 'selectiveness' as 'eliteness'.

I don't make the rules and I am a big state school alum that works the same job as several Ivy alums. I believe you can get an excellent education (a lot of times even better) at publics and lower ranked schools.

[Anonymous]

Just look at USNWR online for free OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

ok, but some would say you wouldn’t even start to include the SLACS until after 20, where Georgetown and UVA comfortably reside in the second tier of national universities. But some would have a hard time considering Amherst above first tier T20 Rice or WashU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

You made a huge jump to get UVA and Gtown into the conversation. Bottom elite at best. What's the next tier after "Bottom Elite"?

UVA and Georgetown are much more "elite" than Umich. Especially Georgetown. I honestly would consider Umich as a step below the bottom elite. Umich is not that hard to get into. I would add UNC and USC in the Umich category.

So admission rate determine rate determines level of "eliteness"?

Michigan has an overall 18% admission rate. That’s close to UVA, with an overall admission rate of 16%. For engineering and CS, Michigan’s reputation and status as an elite college is much stronger than UVA.

https://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2023-2024_umaa.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

UVA is not elite. It's in the elite wannabe category with 40% acceptance rate and no top programs except for their overrated business and law schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

UVA is not elite. It's in the elite wannabe category with 40% acceptance rate and no top programs except for their overrated business and law schools.

1000% true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

Ok I was this poster a couple days ago. If you want to be really elite, I guess Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, and Chicago (even that's pushing it). I was being generous. Gtown does seem to have a good name for 22 or so ranked. Good international name cause in DC--like Arab princes go there. Or did in the 90s when I went to GW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

ok, but some would say you wouldn’t even start to include the SLACS until after 20, where Georgetown and UVA comfortably reside in the second tier of national universities. But some would have a hard time considering Amherst above first tier T20 Rice or WashU

WashU isn't T20

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

UVA is not elite. It's in the elite wannabe category with 40% acceptance rate and no top programs except for their overrated business and law schools.

40%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

UVA is not elite. It's in the elite wannabe category with 40% acceptance rate and no top programs except for their overrated business and law schools.

40%

HA. WTH did they get 40%? lmaof Not even close.

16% in-state this year. 12% OOS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

UVA is not elite. It's in the elite wannabe category with 40% acceptance rate and no top programs except for their overrated business and law schools.

Time to raise taxes in Virginia. UVA needs more funding!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

ok, but some would say you wouldn’t even start to include the SLACS until after 20, where Georgetown and UVA comfortably reside in the second tier of national universities. But some would have a hard time considering Amherst above first tier T20 Rice or WashU

WashU isn't T20

WashU literally spent 30 straight years in the T20, half of which was in the T15. It was only when USNWR changed its methodology last fall that WashU fell outside. It's myopic to say that WashU isn't T20 when it has been for the last 30 and #24 for all of six months.

I have no ties to WashU, but I find the WashU hate by a couple DCUM posters perplexing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona.

Below that non-ivies could be Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, and Cal Berkley. State schools by definition are less prestigious.

You made a huge jump to get UVA and Gtown into the conversation. Bottom elite at best. What's the next tier after "Bottom Elite"?

UVA and Georgetown are much more "elite" than Umich. Especially Georgetown. I honestly would consider Umich as a step below the bottom elite. Umich is not that hard to get into. I would add UNC and USC in the Umich category.

So admission rate determine rate determines level of "eliteness"?

Yes, this is a reasonable standard.

Combine a low admissions rate with a huge endowment fund and there you are !