Composite Ranking of Research Universities for Undergraduate Study

[arwarw]

@arwarw Thank you! Can you share some insights on why those schools please?

They meet your stated criteria:

a moderately sized university which will provide a well rounded liberal arts education. The school’s academic profile is important to me, since my parents will be spending a lot of money on my education. I am primarily focusing on universities with a good balance between teaching and research. Teaching for the obvious reason and good research because I believe undergrads can indeed benefit from attending a strong research university, provided teaching at that university doesn’t take a back seat. So I would be interested in universities which have a strong record of both teaching and research. I also want my fellow students to be high achieving and academically gifted, because I think that will enhance my academic experience.

And have a 30% plus ED acceptance rates. Except NU and Vandy seemed to have dropped below 30%. Maybe look at Emory instead of those two.

So short list: Barnard, Emory, JHU and WashU.
Note: Barnard is an LAC, but students have full access to Columbia University.

Again, not my recommended general approach to picking a college - but in line with your approach.

Best of luck.

[nevrgiveup]

@arwarw Thank you!

[dragonmom3]

Any ranking that places UC Berkeley above WASHU and Vanderbilt for undergraduate experience is out of touch with reality as far as our family is concerned–we have had STEM kids at all three.

[simba9]

I would say the quality of undergraduate teaching has about a -0.8 correlation with size of the university.

[ricka8]

Just warning you as I thought the same at first, applying ED really doesn’t boost your chances. I did ED for Brown and quickly came to realize that it’s frankly all BS- the stats showing a much higher acceptance rate and everything else. ED draws in a whole load of legacies and recruited athletes (who are told to apply ED), so in the end that’s the only reason the acceptance rate is higher than for RD. If you calculate the ED acceptance rate, it’s only about 2% higher than the RD one for many top schools. Just keep this in mind before you make that sort of commitment in applying ED next year.