List your top 50 universities/LACs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) BC, UT Austin, W&M, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

You list ranked by Princeton Review Academic Rating scores. Thought it would be interesting to compare to the list above which appears to be more of a synthesis of rankings.

Academics
How hard students work and how much they get back for their efforts, on a scale of 60–99. This rating is calculated from student survey results and statistical information reported by administrators. Factors weighed include how many hours students study outside of the classroom and the quality of students the school attracts. We also considered students' assessments of their professors, class size, student–teacher ratio, use of teaching assistants, amount of class discussion, registration, and resources.

Middlebury 99
Williams 99

Carleton 98

Chicago 94
Haverford 94
Wellesley 94

Bowdoin 93
Dartmouth 93
Johns Hopkins 93
MIT 93
Pomona 93

Brown 92
Hamilton 92
Vanderbilt 92
Vassar 92
Yale 92

Claremont McKenna 91
Emory 91
Stanford 91

Amherst 90
Caltech 90
Columbia 90
Cornell 90
Wash U 90

Barnard 89
Rice 89
W&M 89

BC 88
Duke 88
Northwestern 88
Princeton 88

CMU 87

Michigan 86
Penn 86

UNC 85
UVA 85

Notre Dame 84

Harvard 83

Davidson 82
Georgia Tech 82
Swarthmore 82

UCLA 81

Georgetown 80
UC Berkeley 80
UT Austin 80

USC 78

Hahahaha. I’m sorry Middlebury is the best school your kid got into, but let’s at least be realistic in our delusions.

Would have expected Chicago, MIT, and Columbia to be at the top of the list!

I suspected the LACs would do well. I thought Princeton would be higher, closer to Dartmouth and Brown. USC and Georgetown are surprisingly low, as is Swarthmore.

[Anonymous]

For those of you relying on the Reddit post--I did something similar when my kids got into school but I only used like five key publications because they are more widely read. Washington Monthly means nothing outside of...well...Washington.

I recall I used Forbes, WSJ, Niche, etc. Even Niche is not renowned...does not have the rigor. But for US News I double counted it meaning weighted it to US News. Why? Because it is generally regarded is the most widely read, most reputable, the big one, the grandaddy of them all, etc. Rankings moved very little. My kids were choosing between an ivy, a top 4 SLAC, and UVA. Went with the Ivy...Ivy is Ivy at the end of the day...yes even Cornell (kid not there but another Ivy not HYP).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

+1 The Reddit post is definitely the fairest way to do it if there's any way of doing this at all. Using 13 rankings and averaging them is a reasonably impartial measure to see what schools are widely considered the best. It's crazy that only four schools are in the top 10 in all 13 rankings, but it least it shows consistency: MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and Duke. Harvard of course got ambushed by Forbes college ranking this year so it unfortunately missed out.

Most of the 13 rankings don't have wide circulation or almost any public acceptance, so it honestly doesn't matter. We could add in 5 of the reranked lists from this thread, which would make 18 rankings. Would that be even fairer than the fairest way of doing things?

I kind of agree, I looked at the Reddit post and I would say probably 8 of the 13 rankings that were used are actually valuable based on their methodologies and circulation: US News, WSJ/THE, Forbes, Niche, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, and Degree Choices. I think the other 5 probably don't need to be considered much and are a bit redundant. Still, even taking out those 5 rankings the overall numbers don't change much. MIT is still #1 by a good margin, the top 6 are still MIT/Stanford/Princeton/Harvard/Duke/Yale by a good margin, Penn/Caltech/Columbia/Northwestern are next up, and Rice/Dartmouth/UChicago/Brown/Cornell round out the top private schools. I think the main difference is some of the best public schools go up more, like UMich, UCLA, and Berkeley.

Wouldn't it be amazing if there was just 1 publication that had by far the largest American rankings circulation ?
If there was such a list (or 2), would the methodology of other lists that are rarely used really even matter?
Pushing that publisher to make meaningful updates to their methodology might be far more important...

The point is that US News can never have the right balance in their methodology that works for everyone, that's why using multiple rankings is more useful. WSJ/THE is probably the second most important ranking, and it focuses much more on student outcomes and earnings after graduation. US News would have to completely uproot itself to do that, which we know it never would. The US News hallmark is their survey of administrators at schools which no other ranking does, but it's also questionable what administrators at universities would know about other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Interesting compilation, but I would prefer to see such a compilation based on just US News, WSJ/THE, & Forbes. I do not give much credence to either Niche or the Washington Monthly rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you relying on the Reddit post--I did something similar when my kids got into school but I only used like five key publications because they are more widely read. Washington Monthly means nothing outside of...well...Washington.

I recall I used Forbes, WSJ, Niche, etc. Even Niche is not renowned...does not have the rigor. But for US News I double counted it meaning weighted it to US News. Why? Because it is generally regarded is the most widely read, most reputable, the big one, the grandaddy of them all, etc. Rankings moved very little. My kids were choosing between an ivy, a top 4 SLAC, and UVA. Went with the Ivy...Ivy is Ivy at the end of the day...yes even Cornell (kid not there but another Ivy not HYP).

Niche is absolutely being used, they've carved out their value in their own way. They're basically the only good source for high school rankings, so people start using it early, and then continue using it for college. They're also the only major ranking that takes in student feedback and reviews into consideration, which seems somewhat important.

[Anonymous]

Just stop

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still, even taking out those 5 rankings the overall numbers don't change much. MIT is still #1 by a good margin.

MIT is just not the best school in the US by any margin. The Kochs would need to donate a ton more for that to happen!

For serious academics and no chance of buying a way in, it's the most serious school in the country, along with Caltech. No one "slips into" MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Interesting compilation, but I would prefer to see such a compilation based on just US News, WSJ/THE, & Forbes. I do not give much credence to either Niche or the Washington Monthly rankings.

Washington Monthly is incredibly underrated and in my opinion deserves to be in the 5 major rankings along with US News, WSJ/THE, Forbes, and Niche, but I understand it might not fit the criteria you care most about. If you take the average rankings of just US News, WSJ/THE, and Forbes, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
4. Yale
5. Harvard (Forbes put Harvard at 15 otherwise it would obviously be higher)
6. Duke
7. Penn
8. Northwestern
9. Johns Hopkins
10. Brown
11. Columbia (tie)
11. Dartmouth (tie)
13. UChicago
14. Vanderbilt
15. Cornell
16. Rice
17. UCLA
18. Berkeley
19. WashU
20. Caltech (Forbes put it at 45, otherwise it would obviously be higher)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Interesting compilation, but I would prefer to see such a compilation based on just US News, WSJ/THE, & Forbes. I do not give much credence to either Niche or the Washington Monthly rankings.

Washington Monthly is incredibly underrated and in my opinion deserves to be in the 5 major rankings along with US News, WSJ/THE, Forbes, and Niche, but I understand it might not fit the criteria you care most about. If you take the average rankings of just US News, WSJ/THE, and Forbes, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
4. Yale
5. Harvard (Forbes put Harvard at 15 otherwise it would obviously be higher)
6. Duke
7. Penn
8. Northwestern
9. Johns Hopkins
10. Brown
11. Columbia (tie)
11. Dartmouth (tie)
13. UChicago
14. Vanderbilt
15. Cornell
16. Rice
17. UCLA
18. Berkeley
19. WashU
20. Caltech (Forbes put it at 45, otherwise it would obviously be higher)

I agree Washington Monthly is a great resource. Can you do the same but with the top 8 rankings (US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, Degree Choices). I think these are the only rankings I see to have meaningful difference and impact with their methodologies, making an average of them actually somewhat useful. No worries if you don't want to but if you already have the numbers pulled up and can easily do it, would appreciate it greatly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Interesting compilation, but I would prefer to see such a compilation based on just US News, WSJ/THE, & Forbes. I do not give much credence to either Niche or the Washington Monthly rankings.

Washington Monthly is incredibly underrated and in my opinion deserves to be in the 5 major rankings along with US News, WSJ/THE, Forbes, and Niche, but I understand it might not fit the criteria you care most about. If you take the average rankings of just US News, WSJ/THE, and Forbes, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
4. Yale
5. Harvard (Forbes put Harvard at 15 otherwise it would obviously be higher)
6. Duke
7. Penn
8. Northwestern
9. Johns Hopkins
10. Brown
11. Columbia (tie)
11. Dartmouth (tie)
13. UChicago
14. Vanderbilt
15. Cornell
16. Rice
17. UCLA
18. Berkeley
19. WashU
20. Caltech (Forbes put it at 45, otherwise it would obviously be higher)

I agree Washington Monthly is a great resource. Can you do the same but with the top 8 rankings (US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, Degree Choices). I think these are the only rankings I see to have meaningful difference and impact with their methodologies, making an average of them actually somewhat useful. No worries if you don't want to but if you already have the numbers pulled up and can easily do it, would appreciate it greatly.

Sure thing. If you take the average ranking from US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, and Degree Choices, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
---Big Gap---
4. Harvard
5. Yale
6. Duke
7. Penn
---Big Gap---
8. Caltech
9. Northwestern
10. Columbia
11. Vanderbilt
12. UCLA
13. Berkeley
14. UMich
15. Dartmouth
16. Georgetown
17. Johns Hopkins
18. Cornell
19. Notre Dame
20. WashU (tie)
20. UChicago (tie)
22. UNC
23. UF (tie)
23. UVA (tie)
25. CMU
---Big Gap---
26. Georgia Tech
27. UCSD
28. USC
29. Emory
30. UIUC
31. UCD
32. UCI
33. UW Seattle
34. BC
35. Wake Forest
36. UT Austin
37. UW Madison
---Big Gap---
38. W&M
39. UCSB
40. Lehigh
41. Purdue
---Big Gap---
42. Texas A&M
43. UMD
44. Virginia Tech
45. BU
46. UGA
47. NYU
48. NCSU
49. BYU
50. GW

[Anonymous]

I find it difficult to include any SLAC among the top 20 to 25 colleges and universities for a variety of reasons including the option of honors colleges at large state public universities which, arguably, provide the best of both worlds. I think that US News is correct in separating rankings for National Universities & Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs).

Responding to the thread question to list one's top 50 National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs), but excluding the service academies (I would rank all three main service academies--USNA, USMA, & USAFA--among the first group of schools along with several other specialty schools such as USCGA, Juilliard, Curtis Institute of Music, Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, maritime academies, RISD, Cooper Union, Olin, Rose Hulman, & Berea College) :

Group One: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, & UPenn's Wharton School of Business.

Group Two: Northwestern, Chicago, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Columbia, Penn, Brown, WashUStL, & Georgetown's School of Foreign Service.

Group Three: Cornell, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Williams College, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna College, Pomona College, Swarthmore College & Amherst College.

Group Four: UC-Berkeley & UCLA & UC-San Diego, Georgia Tech & Michigan (all great schools, but large class sizes & poor student: teacher ratios).

Group Five: Virginia, William & Mary, Wellesley College, Notre Dame, Emory, Barnard College, USC, & Georgetown.

Group Six: NYU, UNC, Wake Forest, Davidson College, Bowdoin College, Carleton College, Middlebury College, Boston College, Hamilton College, Cal Poly & Tufts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Interesting compilation, but I would prefer to see such a compilation based on just US News, WSJ/THE, & Forbes. I do not give much credence to either Niche or the Washington Monthly rankings.

Washington Monthly is incredibly underrated and in my opinion deserves to be in the 5 major rankings along with US News, WSJ/THE, Forbes, and Niche, but I understand it might not fit the criteria you care most about. If you take the average rankings of just US News, WSJ/THE, and Forbes, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
4. Yale
5. Harvard (Forbes put Harvard at 15 otherwise it would obviously be higher)
6. Duke
7. Penn
8. Northwestern
9. Johns Hopkins
10. Brown
11. Columbia (tie)
11. Dartmouth (tie)
13. UChicago
14. Vanderbilt
15. Cornell
16. Rice
17. UCLA
18. Berkeley
19. WashU
20. Caltech (Forbes put it at 45, otherwise it would obviously be higher)

I agree Washington Monthly is a great resource. Can you do the same but with the top 8 rankings (US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, Degree Choices). I think these are the only rankings I see to have meaningful difference and impact with their methodologies, making an average of them actually somewhat useful. No worries if you don't want to but if you already have the numbers pulled up and can easily do it, would appreciate it greatly.

Sure thing. If you take the average ranking from US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, and Degree Choices, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
---Big Gap---
4. Harvard
5. Yale
6. Duke
7. Penn
---Big Gap---
8. Caltech
9. Northwestern
10. Columbia
11. Vanderbilt
12. UCLA
13. Berkeley
14. UMich
15. Dartmouth
16. Georgetown
17. Johns Hopkins
18. Cornell
19. Notre Dame
20. WashU (tie)
20. UChicago (tie)
22. UNC
23. UF (tie)
23. UVA (tie)
25. CMU
---Big Gap---
26. Georgia Tech
27. UCSD
28. USC
29. Emory
30. UIUC
31. UCD
32. UCI
33. UW Seattle
34. BC
35. Wake Forest
36. UT Austin
37. UW Madison
---Big Gap---
38. W&M
39. UCSB
40. Lehigh
41. Purdue
---Big Gap---
42. Texas A&M
43. UMD
44. Virginia Tech
45. BU
46. UGA
47. NYU
48. NCSU
49. BYU
50. GW

Wow good work. It's also nice to see the big publics get some love after saving families tens of thousands every year while providing top notch education and research opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it difficult to include any SLAC among the top 20 to 25 colleges and universities for a variety of reasons including the option of honors colleges at large state public universities which, arguably, provide the best of both worlds. I think that US News is correct in separating rankings for National Universities & Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs).

Responding to the thread question to list one's top 50 National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs), but excluding the service academies (I would rank all three main service academies--USNA, USMA, & USAFA--among the first group of schools along with several other specialty schools such as USCGA, Juilliard, Curtis Institute of Music, Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, maritime academies, RISD, Cooper Union, Olin, Rose Hulman, & Berea College) :

Group One: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, & UPenn's Wharton School of Business.

Group Two: Northwestern, Chicago, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Columbia, Penn, Brown, WashUStL, & Georgetown's School of Foreign Service.

Group Three: Cornell, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Williams College, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna College, Pomona College, Swarthmore College & Amherst College.

Group Four: UC-Berkeley & UCLA & UC-San Diego, Georgia Tech & Michigan (all great schools, but large class sizes & poor student: teacher ratios).

Group Five: Virginia, William & Mary, Wellesley College, Notre Dame, Emory, Barnard College, USC, & Georgetown.

Group Six: NYU, UNC, Wake Forest, Davidson College, Bowdoin College, Carleton College, Middlebury College, Boston College, Hamilton College, Cal Poly & Tufts.

This is so bad. WashUStL in group 2? CMU is only in group 2 for CS, not overall. If you're going to include Chicago, Hopkins, and Rice in group 2, you have to put Dartmouth. UCSD above USC, Notre Dame, and Georgetown? I could go on-and-on about the problems with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This debate was basically ended through that popular Reddit post where someone took all the popular ranking systems and averaged each top school's ranks to find the best overall schools: https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/xc0v5x/the_2023_supreme_t75_college_ranking_aggregating/

My breakdown would be:
1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Duke, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Northwestern

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Interesting compilation, but I would prefer to see such a compilation based on just US News, WSJ/THE, & Forbes. I do not give much credence to either Niche or the Washington Monthly rankings.

Washington Monthly is incredibly underrated and in my opinion deserves to be in the 5 major rankings along with US News, WSJ/THE, Forbes, and Niche, but I understand it might not fit the criteria you care most about. If you take the average rankings of just US News, WSJ/THE, and Forbes, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
4. Yale
5. Harvard (Forbes put Harvard at 15 otherwise it would obviously be higher)
6. Duke
7. Penn
8. Northwestern
9. Johns Hopkins
10. Brown
11. Columbia (tie)
11. Dartmouth (tie)
13. UChicago
14. Vanderbilt
15. Cornell
16. Rice
17. UCLA
18. Berkeley
19. WashU
20. Caltech (Forbes put it at 45, otherwise it would obviously be higher)

I agree Washington Monthly is a great resource. Can you do the same but with the top 8 rankings (US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, Degree Choices). I think these are the only rankings I see to have meaningful difference and impact with their methodologies, making an average of them actually somewhat useful. No worries if you don't want to but if you already have the numbers pulled up and can easily do it, would appreciate it greatly.

Sure thing. If you take the average ranking from US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, and Degree Choices, you get:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
---Big Gap---
4. Harvard
5. Yale
6. Duke
7. Penn
---Big Gap---
8. Caltech
9. Northwestern
10. Columbia
11. Vanderbilt
12. UCLA
13. Berkeley
14. UMich
15. Dartmouth
16. Georgetown
17. Johns Hopkins
18. Cornell
19. Notre Dame
20. WashU (tie)
20. UChicago (tie)
22. UNC
23. UF (tie)
23. UVA (tie)
25. CMU
---Big Gap---
26. Georgia Tech
27. UCSD
28. USC
29. Emory
30. UIUC
31. UCD
32. UCI
33. UW Seattle
34. BC
35. Wake Forest
36. UT Austin
37. UW Madison
---Big Gap---
38. W&M
39. UCSB
40. Lehigh
41. Purdue
---Big Gap---
42. Texas A&M
43. UMD
44. Virginia Tech
45. BU
46. UGA
47. NYU
48. NCSU
49. BYU
50. GW

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it difficult to include any SLAC among the top 20 to 25 colleges and universities for a variety of reasons including the option of honors colleges at large state public universities which, arguably, provide the best of both worlds. I think that US News is correct in separating rankings for National Universities & Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs).

Responding to the thread question to list one's top 50 National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs), but excluding the service academies (I would rank all three main service academies--USNA, USMA, & USAFA--among the first group of schools along with several other specialty schools such as USCGA, Juilliard, Curtis Institute of Music, Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, maritime academies, RISD, Cooper Union, Olin, Rose Hulman, & Berea College) :

Group One: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, & UPenn's Wharton School of Business.

Group Two: Northwestern, Chicago, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Columbia, Penn, Brown, WashUStL, & Georgetown's School of Foreign Service.

Group Three: Cornell, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Williams College, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna College, Pomona College, Swarthmore College & Amherst College.

Group Four: UC-Berkeley & UCLA & UC-San Diego, Georgia Tech & Michigan (all great schools, but large class sizes & poor student: teacher ratios).

Group Five: Virginia, William & Mary, Wellesley College, Notre Dame, Emory, Barnard College, USC, & Georgetown.

Group Six: NYU, UNC, Wake Forest, Davidson College, Bowdoin College, Carleton College, Middlebury College, Boston College, Hamilton College, Cal Poly & Tufts.

This is so bad. WashUStL in group 2? CMU is only in group 2 for CS, not overall. If you're going to include Chicago, Hopkins, and Rice in group 2, you have to put Dartmouth. UCSD above USC, Notre Dame, and Georgetown? I could go on-and-on about the problems with this.

Don't bother as you obviously do not know schools well.