Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is too much top tier student demand globally for there only to be a "top 10".

So if you mean "top school that students generally are most interested in" that get 30K+ applications and employers love, and have low admission rates/high stats, the list is:

Top Schools:
Ivy Plus + 10 private "New Ivies" (forbes) + 10 public "New Ivies" (forbes) + UCLA/Berkeley (since they don't accept SAT and weren't eligible for "new Ivies") + top 3-4 SLACs (WASP) + Air Force/Naval Academies.

That's it. Those are the "top" schools to start considering and vetting.

NYU gets 120k applicants a year, UCLA 150k.

Wow 30k apps, LOL.

These schools are really hot, looking forward to hearing why they are 400% behind the real leaders.

Top SLACs barely break 15K applications. 30K+ is double what Williams gets and more than double what Pomona gets.

Please understand that NYU getting 120K when they have a huge school as well as multiple campuses is very different than Pomona that gets only 12K applications but also has less than 1K spots. It comparative.

Also, UCLA was included by the PP's list of the schools that matter. I guess you're sore that NYU was not. Oh well.

Anonymous wrote:Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UChicago, Duke, Penn, Northwestern, JHU. Columbia and Caltech can arguably be squeezed in there too.

Anonymous wrote:Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UChicago, Duke, Penn, Northwestern, JHU. Columbia and Caltech can arguably be squeezed in there too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

No, the USNWR is garbage. Their rankings are based on whatever criteria they deem important, and whatever data the admins of the school chooses to provide in their own discretion. In the past Columbia, Claremont Mckenna College and others have fudged numbers. So I hardly call USNWR's criteria or accuracy reliable. For example, they weight social mobility over class size which may not be what a student is looking for. And they rank R1 unis and LACs separately, and many colleges are test optional with only 25% of people submitting tests so there is no apples to apples comparison on peer student strength when there are other colleges where 75+% submit test scores. So be skeptical of USNWR.

What I would suggest instead is to look at rankings for top 15-25 schools that are very strong in your DC's intended major: engineering, international relations, undergrad business, pre-med, art, etc. These look very different depending on the school. Purdue is much stronger for engineering than many traditional top 15 schools and most SLACs, and GW punches above its weight in traditional rankings for International Relations and Poli Sci.

So maybe start with the Fiske Guide (unranked but has ratings for each school's academic, social life, quality of life, etc.) and then do some googling and talking to professionals in the broad or specific subject area DC is interested in.

I do agree that these general prestige lists (Ivy Plus/New Ivies) aren't terrible since they do include generally rigorous schools that are well regarded by employers, but it's worth clicking down into the specific field unless your DC is fully undecided.

Good luck OP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:top 10 most commonly thought (by all the organizations that list universities) are: (in no particular order):

HPYMS (the top 5) and then (again in no particular order):

JHU
NU
Duke
Penn
Chicago

Now whether these are actually the best universities, take the best/strongest kids, are the hardest to gain admittance to or offer anything resembling the best undergraduate experience can be debated endlessly.

Penn looks like the odd duck in that list.

Disagree. The odd one here is Northwestern. It should be Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth before NU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

No, the USNWR is garbage. Their rankings are based on whatever criteria they deem important, and whatever data the admins of the school chooses to provide in their own discretion. In the past Columbia, Claremont Mckenna College and others have fudged numbers. So I hardly call USNWR's criteria or accuracy reliable. For example, they weight social mobility over class size which may not be what a student is looking for. And they rank R1 unis and LACs separately, and many colleges are test optional with only 25% of people submitting tests so there is no apples to apples comparison on peer student strength when there are other colleges where 75+% submit test scores. So be skeptical of USNWR.

What I would suggest instead is to look at rankings for top 15-25 schools that are very strong in your DC's intended major: engineering, international relations, undergrad business, pre-med, art, etc. These look very different depending on the school. Purdue is much stronger for engineering than many traditional top 15 schools and most SLACs, and GW punches above its weight in traditional rankings for International Relations and Poli Sci.

So maybe start with the Fiske Guide (unranked but has ratings for each school's academic, social life, quality of life, etc.) and then do some googling and talking to professionals in the broad or specific subject area DC is interested in.

I do agree that these general prestige lists (Ivy Plus/New Ivies) aren't terrible since they do include generally rigorous schools that are well regarded by employers, but it's worth clicking down into the specific field unless your DC is fully undecided.

Good luck OP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

You get the official list from the admissions office. Email Harvard, Yale, or Princeton admissions officers and request the official T10 ranking. You get reliable information that way not some DCUM list.

This is a joke, right? There is no “official” ranking.

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

You get the official list from the admissions office. Email Harvard, Yale, or Princeton admissions officers and request the official T10 ranking. You get reliable information that way not some DCUM list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is too much top tier student demand globally for there only to be a "top 10".

So if you mean "top school that students generally are most interested in" that get 30K+ applications and employers love, and have low admission rates/high stats, the list is:

Top Schools:
Ivy Plus + 10 private "New Ivies" (forbes) + 10 public "New Ivies" (forbes) + UCLA/Berkeley (since they don't accept SAT and weren't eligible for "new Ivies") + top 3-4 SLACs (WASP) + Air Force/Naval Academies.

That's it. Those are the "top" schools to start considering and vetting.

NYU gets 120k applicants a year, UCLA 150k.

Wow 30k apps, LOL.

These schools are really hot, looking forward to hearing why they are 400% behind the real leaders.

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, my DD is a sophmore in HS so we're just starting to truly think about this college application process (but no, we are not only now starting to think about having a well-rounded kid with a variety of interests, that's been her whole life).

But I'm new to reading this sub, and I see lots of people talk about T10 and T5. Are these the top 10 schools according to US News & World Report? Or where is the "official" list of T10 colleges and universities for undergrad?

The fact that you are asking this question indicates you are going about the college search process incorrectly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:top 10 most commonly thought (by all the organizations that list universities) are: (in no particular order):

HPYMS (the top 5) and then (again in no particular order):

JHU
NU
Duke
Penn
Chicago

Now whether these are actually the best universities, take the best/strongest kids, are the hardest to gain admittance to or offer anything resembling the best undergraduate experience can be debated endlessly.

Penn looks like the odd duck in that list.

Anonymous wrote:There is too much top tier student demand globally for there only to be a "top 10".

So if you mean "top school that students generally are most interested in" that get 30K+ applications and employers love, and have low admission rates/high stats, the list is:

Top Schools:
Ivy Plus + 10 private "New Ivies" (forbes) + 10 public "New Ivies" (forbes) + UCLA/Berkeley (since they don't accept SAT and weren't eligible for "new Ivies") + top 3-4 SLACs (WASP) + Air Force/Naval Academies.

That's it. Those are the "top" schools to start considering and vetting.