<p>It seems that based on the responses in this thread, there is at least a clear set of 13 universities which most people besides a few partisans believe constitute the top 10. In alphabetical order:</p>
<p>Brown
CalTech
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth
Duke
Harvard
MIT
Northwestern
Penn
Princeton
Stanford
Yale</p>
<p>I think most people would agree that Cornell is at worst 14th. Now, the question is who is the clear 15th best school to make this a nice round figure? My vote would go to Johns Hopkins but I bet some people would mention Wash U or Rice.</p>