<p>Look into some of the schools that are high on the following list:
[National</a> University Rankings 2012 (sorted by “Research” strengths)](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/national_university_research.php]National”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/national_university_research.php)</p>
<p>However, I suggest you consider not only how high schools rank on this list, but also their level of undergraduate focus. Average class size is one quick-and-dirty proxy for that. The following list contains the top 35 universities for “research” (according to Washington Monthly), but re-sorted according to the average of their WM “research” ranks and their class size ranks *:</p>
<p>Harvard University (MA)
Stanford University (CA)
California Institute of Technology (CA)
Princeton University (NJ)
Columbia Univ. in the City of NY (NY)
Yale University (CT)
Duke University (NC)
University of Pennsylvania ¶
Johns Hopkins University (MD)
University of Chicago (IL)
Northwestern University (IL)
University of California-Berkeley (CA)*
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
Brandeis University (MA)
Washington University-St. Louis (MO)
Brown University (RI)
Cornell University (NY)
University of California-Los Angeles (CA)*
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (MI)*
Carnegie Mellon University ¶
University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)*
Dartmouth College (NH)
University of California-San Diego (CA)*
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main (GA)*
University of Washington-Seattle (WA)*
Case Western Reserve University (OH)
Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign (IL)*
University of California-Santa Barbara (CA)*
Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (NC)*
University of Texas at Austin (TX)*
University of Florida (FL)*
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (MN)*
University of California-Davis (CA)*
Pennsylvania State University-Main ¶*
Ohio State University-Main (OH)*</p>
<ul>
<li>For average class sizes I used poster Hawkette’s 4 year old ranking of national universities by average class size: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html</a>
The class size numbers probably haven’t changed much, but you can get updated class size distributions in each school’s Common Data Set file or on the US News site.</li>
</ul>
<p>You might also want to consider small liberal arts colleges with strong WM “research” numbers:
[Liberal</a> Arts College Rankings 2012 (sorted by “Research” strengths)](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/liberal_arts_research.php]Liberal”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/liberal_arts_research.php)</p>