<p>First thing I look at is rank in the majors I go into. I find that to be more important then overall rank. Next I look at number of majors that are among the top. This allows flexibility if I decide I want to change majors, while still attending a top program. Then finally, do I like the atmosphere of the school.</p>
<p>So here is how I choose colleges.</p>
<p>The Top 50 by Number of Disciplines Ranked</p>
<p>This list is confined to schools that were competitive for the overall top 40 and runners-up.</p>
<p>Rank School #in top 40</p>
<h1>Disciplines in top 40</h1>
<li> Stanford University 43</li>
<li> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 41</li>
<li> Indiana University, Bloomington 39</li>
<li> Ohio State University 39</li>
<li> Pennsylvania State University 39</li>
<li> University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 39</li>
<li> University of Washington, Seattle 39</li>
<li> University of Wisconsin, Madison 39</li>
<li> Cornell University 37</li>
<li> University of California, Berkeley 37</li>
<li> University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 37</li>
<li> University of Texas, Austin 37</li>
<li> University of California, Los Angeles 36</li>
<li> University of Pennsylvania 36</li>
<li> University of Southern California 36</li>
<li> Columbia University 34</li>
<li> Johns Hopkins University 34</li>
<li> University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 34</li>
<li> Duke University 33</li>
<li> Emory University 33</li>
<li> Rutgers University, New Brunswick 33</li>
<li> University of Iowa 33</li>
<li> University of California, Santa Barbara 32</li>
<li> University of Virginia 32</li>
<li> University of Colorado, Boulder 31</li>
<li> University of Massachussetts, Amherst 31</li>
<li> Brown University 30</li>
<li> Harvard University 30</li>
<li> Northwestern University 30</li>
<li> State University of New York, Stony Brook 30</li>
<li> University of Chicago 30</li>
<li> Yale University 30</li>
<li> California Institute of Technology 29</li>
<li> University of Arizona 29</li>
<li> University of California, San Diego 29</li>
<li> University of Maryland, College Park 28</li>
<li> University of Rochester 28</li>
<li> Texas A&M University 27</li>
<li> Washington University, St. Louis 27</li>
<li> City University of New York Graduate Center 26</li>
<li> University of California, Davis 26</li>
<li> Vanderbilt University 26</li>
<li> New York University 25</li>
<li> Purdue University 25</li>
<li> University of California, Irvine 24</li>
<li> Massachussetts Institute of Technology 23</li>
<li> North Carolina State University 23</li>
<li> Rice University 22</li>
<li> Case Western Reserve University 20</li>
<li> Princeton University 19</li>
<li> Carnegie-Mellon University 15</li>
</ol>