<p>I will admit this probably isn’t the best way but I used a few methods.
a.) Looked at ************** rankings
b.) Talked with people who actually were in college
c.) Observed which schools people were picking over others</p>
<p>I’ll reveal my rankings for the schools in terms of Academic Selectivity and Academic Quality.
Some universities were penalized if it seemed that they were too focused on holistic factors in college admissions and waitlisted/rejected people who were obviously more academically capable. Schools which accepted more applicants with low test scores/grades were penalized in my rankings.
This is how Wash U is so high in my rankings for academic selectivity (#6). Many of the ‘more prestigious’ schools have more unfair admissions policies to achieve other ‘student body goals’ besides obtaining the most academically competent class possible. Other schools have the opportunity to be more academically selective but they choose to not do so. </p>
<p>So here is how I rank them in terms of these two categories.</p>
<p>Academic Selectivity
Caltech
Harvard, Yale
Princeton
MIT
Wash U
Columbia
Northwestern
Stanford, Duke, Tufts
Penn, Chicago, Dartmouth, Brown
Rice
Emory, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Georgetown
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon
Brandeis
USC
William & Mary, RPI
Wake Forest, NYU, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Lehigh
Rochester
UC-Berkeley, Michigan
UNC-Chapel Hill
UVA, Case Western, George Washington
Tulane, WPI
UCLA, Miami, Binghamton<br>
Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, Boston University, American, Stevens </p>
<p>Academic Quality
Harvard, Yale
Princeton, Caltech
MIT
Stanford, Dartmouth
Columbia, Duke
Penn, Chicago, Wash U, Brown, Rice
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Cornell, Johns Hopkins
Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Tufts
Vanderbilt
Emory, UC-Berkeley
USC, Brandeis<br>
William & Mary
UCLA, NYU, Boston College
UVA, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Rochester, RPI<br>
Wake Forest, Illinois, Case Western<br>
UNC-Chapel Hill
Lehigh
Wisconsin, George Washington, Maryland, WPI<br>
Tulane, Miami, Boston University<br>
American, Stevens
Binghamton </p>
<p>If anyone is curious about why certain schools (which you think might be deserving of Top 50) didn’t make the list using this criteria, I’ll gladly explain myself.</p>