Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:53     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Williams
Amherst
Princeton
Dartmouth
Carleton
Pomona
Middlebury
Davidson
Rice
Wake Forest
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:51     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Northwestern
Rice
Claremont Consortium (5Cs)




I like this list ...
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:50     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Northwestern
Rice
Claremont Consortium (5Cs)



Claremont booster. Disregard their opinion.


Eh? My oldest isn't in college yet. How can I be a booster of something where I didn't go and my kid hasn't gone?

I put in 5Cs because I don't think any one LAC on it's own stands up to the rest, but since the Claremont Consortium is unique in that you have access to nearly all the resources of the group and the consortium includes some real stand outs like Pomona, CMC and Mudd, it rises above any other single LAC (and there are obviously individual LACs that arguably better than Pomona alone but when you combine it with the power of all the consortioum, it's hard to beat!
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:50     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:Harvard
MIT
Caltech
Princeton
Berkeley EECS or PhD






Why even rank Berkeley?
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:49     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Harvard
MIT
Caltech
Princeton
Berkeley EECS or PhD





Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:44     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Northwestern
Rice
Claremont Consortium (5Cs)



Claremont booster. Disregard their opinion.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:42     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) Uchicago
2) CalTech
2) Reed
3) Princeton
4) Deep Springs (but it's not a 4-year), Swarthmore
5) Harvey Mudd
6) Amherst
7) Williams or Pomona
8) Pomona or Williams
9) Berkeley
10) St Johns

I tend to personally rank STEM-heavy colleges lower on the intellectual component, but even I can admit Caltech is deeply committed to science and progress in a way that most colleges with career-hungry stem students aren't.

My main criteria is an intellectual atmosphere that emphasizes rigo
r aka ... a college.

Shut up.

No. You can just carry on your life instead of throwing tantrums when you don’t like something!
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:39     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Northwestern
Rice
Claremont Consortium (5Cs)


Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:38     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:1) Uchicago
2) CalTech
2) Reed
3) Princeton
4) Deep Springs (but it's not a 4-year), Swarthmore
5) Harvey Mudd
6) Amherst
7) Williams or Pomona
8) Pomona or Williams
9) Berkeley
10) St Johns

I tend to personally rank STEM-heavy colleges lower on the intellectual component, but even I can admit Caltech is deeply committed to science and progress in a way that most colleges with career-hungry stem students aren't.

My main criteria is an intellectual atmosphere that emphasizes rigo
r aka ... a college.

Shut up.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:36     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

I’d add Carnegie Mellon to the list.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:35     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Rice
Berkeley
Michigan
Cornell
UCLA
Penn
Texas

Schools that aren't outstanding in engineering should not be on any list in 2025.


Yale is very meh in this area


And, hello, UChicago DOES have engineering, and it's not ABET because they didn't want to be constrained, similar to the TOP engineering schools, like Caltech.


Chicago is bad for engineering. I don't get your point.


Says who??? It's the actual interesting type of Engineering, ABET is ABET, the same stuff.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:34     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Rice
Berkeley
Michigan
Cornell
UCLA
Penn
Texas

Schools that aren't outstanding in engineering should not be on any list in 2025.


Yale is very meh in this area


And, hello, UChicago DOES have engineering, and it's not ABET because they didn't want to be constrained, similar to the TOP engineering schools, like Caltech.


Chicago is bad for engineering. I don't get your point.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:28     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

I think it is a false distinction. You cannot and should not attempt to rank colleges in a linnear fashion.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:27     Subject: If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Rice
Berkeley
Michigan
Cornell
UCLA
Penn
Texas

Schools that aren't outstanding in engineering should not be on any list in 2025.


Yale is very meh in this area


And, hello, UChicago DOES have engineering, and it's not ABET because they didn't want to be constrained, similar to the TOP engineering schools, like Caltech.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 18:10     Subject: Re:If the Ivy label never existed, what are the true top 10 best U.S. colleges in your mind?

1. Williams
2. Princeton
3. Dartmouth

Focus on undergraduate teaching