<p>Here’s my latest update of the consensus list of most noteworthy colleges. It has reduced in size a little bit. Asterisks next to each college name are based on the Barrons system of rating college selectivity, a methodology decided by the Barrons editors, not by me. More asterisks can be taken to mean that the college is harder to get into, and possibly also that the college provides you with more smart classmates to learn from. </p>
<p>Agnes Scott College (Decatur, GA) *
Allegheny College (Meadville, PA) *
American University (Washington, DC) **
Amherst College (Amherst, MA) ***
Barnard College (New York, NY) ***
Bates College (Lewiston, ME) ***
Baylor University (Waco, TX) *
Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA) ***
Boston University (Boston, MA) **
Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME) ***
Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) ***
Brigham Young University (Provo, UT) **
Brown University (Providence, RI) ***
Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA) **
Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA) ***
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) ***
Carleton College (Northfield, MN) ***
Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) ***
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH) ***
Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA) ***
Clemson University (Clemson, SC) *
Colby College (Waterville, ME) ***
Colgate University (Hamilton, NY) ***
College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ) ***
College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA) ***
College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) ***
Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO) *
Columbia University (New York, NY) ***
Connecticut College (New London, CT) ***
Cooper Union (New York, NY) ***
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) ***
Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) ***
Davidson College (Davidson, NC) ***
DePauw University (Greencastle, IN) *
Denison University (Granville, OH) *
Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) **
Duke University (Durham, NC) ***
Emory University (Atlanta, GA) ***
Fordham University (Bronx, NY) *
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, PA) *
Furman University (Greenville, SC) **
George Washington University (Washington, DC) ***
Georgetown University (Washington, DC) ***
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) **
Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA) *
Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) **
Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, MN) *
Hamilton College (Clinton, NY) ***
Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) ***
Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, CA) ***
Haverford College (Haverford, PA) ***
Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL) **
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) ***
Kenyon College (Gambier, OH) ***
Lafayette College (Easton, PA) ***
Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) **
Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA) **
Macalester College (St. Paul, MN) ***
Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI) *
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) ***
Miami University (Oxford, OH) *
Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT) ***
Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA) **
Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA) **
New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL) **
New York University (New York, NY) ***
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC) *
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) ***
Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) ***
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA) ***
Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) *
Penn State University Park (State College, PA) *
Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA) *
Pomona College (Claremont, CA) ***
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) ***
Reed College (Portland, OR) ***
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) **
Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) *
Rice University (Houston, TX) ***
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (New Brunswick, NJ) *
Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY) *
Scripps College (Claremont, CA) ***
Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY) *
Smith College (Northampton, MA) ***
Southwestern University (Georgetown, TX) *
St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN) *
Stanford University (Stanford, CA) ***
State University of New York at Binghamton (NY) *
State University of New York at Stony Brook (NY) *
Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) ***
Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY) *
Texas A and M University (College Station, TX) *
Trinity College (Hartford, CT) **
Tufts University (Medford, MA) ***
Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) ***
Union College (Schenectady, NY) *
United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, CO) **
United States Military Academy (West Point, NY) ***
United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD) ***
University of California: Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) **
University of California: Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) ***
University of California: San Diego (La Jolla, CA) *
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) ***
University of Delaware (Newark, DE) *
University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) *
University of Georgia (Athens, GA) *
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Urbana-Champaign, IL) **
University of Maryland–College Park (College Park, MD) *
University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL) ***
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) **
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN) *
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) ***
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN) ***
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) ***
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA) *
University of Richmond (Richmond, VA) ***
University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) ***
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) ***
University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX) *
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK) *
University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) ***
University of Wisconsin–Madison (Madison, WI) *
University of the South (Sewanee, TN) *
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) ***
Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) ***
Villanova University (Villanova, PA) **
Wabash College (Crawfordsville, IN) *
Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) ***
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO) ***
Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) ***
Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA) ***
Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) ***
Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL) *
Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA) **
Williams College (Williamstown, MA) ***
Wofford College (Spartanburg, SC) *
Yale University (New Haven, CT) ***</p>