top 15 most prestigious universities

College Search & Lists
1621

<p>This is unrelated, but after looking at the ESPN All-Academic link that someone posted, I was very impressed with Sam Bradford. He has a 3.95 at Oklahoma in Finance and he is a HEISMAN winner. That is an amazing combination.</p>

1622

<p>not nearly impressive as James Casey.</p>

<p>Not only did he get a 3.84 at RICE but he did it while taking eighteen to nineteen hours (about twenty percent more work than average at Rice) every semester and triple majoring in sports management, economics, and managerial studies.</p>

<p>PLUS he did this after not cracking open a book for 3 years (he played minor league baseball for 3 years) and overcoming the loss of his mothers.</p>

<p>He is the most versatile player in the NFL draft, and will be at least a second round pick.</p>

1623

<p>While, perhaps, not as current as could be, this list put together by the_prestige is pretty darn good.</p>

<p>Rank Name USNWR ('07-'91) Avg (USNWR Wgt.) WSJ Feeder (WSJ Wgt.) Rev. Pref. (RP Wgt.) NMSC (NMS Wgt.) Total Weighted Average</p>

<p>1 Harvard University 1.41 0.49 1 0.30 1 0.30 3.00 0.15 1.24
2 Yale University 2.53 0.89 2 0.60 2 0.60 2.00 0.10 2.19
3 Princeton University 1.82 0.64 3 0.90 6 1.80 4.00 0.20 3.54
4 Stanford University 4.65 1.63 4 1.20 3 0.90 6.00 0.30 4.03
5 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 4.82 1.69 8 2.40 5 1.50 5.00 0.25 5.84
6 Dartmouth College 8.47 2.96 7 2.10 10 3.00 11.00 0.55 8.61
7 Columbia University 10.06 3.52 11 3.30 8 2.40 15.00 0.75 9.97
8 Duke University 6.06 2.12 6 1.80 19 5.70 10.00 0.50 10.12
9 Brown University 13.41 4.69 12 3.60 7 2.10 13.00 0.65 11.04
10 California Inst. of Technology 5.71 2.00 28 8.40 4 1.20 1.00 0.05 11.65
11 University of Pennsylvania 8.65 3.03 16 4.80 12 3.60 17.00 0.85 12.28
12 Rice University 15.12 5.29 20 6.00 17 5.10 8.00 0.40 16.79
13 University of Chicago 11.47 4.01 14 4.20 27 8.10 16.00 0.80 17.11
14 Cornell University 12.12 4.24 25 7.50 15 4.50 42.00 2.10 18.34
15 Northwestern University 12.65 4.43 21 6.30 21 6.30 27.00 1.35 18.38
16 Georgetown University 21.71 7.60 17 5.10 16 4.80 23.00 1.15 18.65
17 Johns Hopkins University 14.18 4.96 24 7.20 28 8.40 28.00 1.40 21.96
18 University of Notre Dame 19.00 6.65 35 10.50 13 3.90 25.00 1.25 22.30
19 University of Virginia 21.06 7.37 33 9.90 20 6.00 40.00 2.00 25.27
20 University of California-Berkeley 20.47 7.16 41 12.30 23 6.90 37.00 1.85 28.21
21 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 23.71 8.30 30 9.00 42 12.60 46.00 2.30 32.20
22 Emory University 17.86 6.25 36 10.80 61 18.30 39.00 1.95 37.30
23 Tufts University 26.50 9.28 45 13.50 40 12.00 75.00 3.75 38.53
24 Carnegie Mellon University 22.94 8.03 51 15.30 46 13.80 29.00 1.45 38.58
25 Washington University 15.94 5.58 47 14.10 62 18.60 19.00 0.95 39.23
26 University of California-Los Angeles 25.38 8.88 61 18.30 36 10.80 63.00 3.15 41.13
27 U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 26.29 9.20 90 27.00 31 9.30 50.00 2.50 48.00</p>

<hr>

<p>Notes:</p>

<p>1) Freshman class no. error updated for Grinnell College
2) Weightings re-weighted to reflect USNWR as the most widely used ranking. The adjusted weightings:
35.0% - USNWR ('91-'07) Avg Ranking
30.0% - WSJ Feeder Ranking
30.0% - Revealed Preferences Ranking
05.0% - NMS Per Capita Ranking
3) Note the “Tiering” (as denoted by font color) - determined by relative larger “drops” in the total weighted average:

  • The average total weighted rank “difference” from School A to School B (e.g. Harvard vs. Yale, Yale vs. Princeton, etc.) between successive Tier I schools averaged = 1.15
  • The Tier II average “difference” (from School A to School B) = 0.73
  • The Tier III average = 0.92
  • In other words, all of the respective Tier average “differences” (I, II, II) hovered near (or below) 1.00
  • The first “step down” difference between the last Tier I school (MIT) and the first Tier II school (Dartmouth) = 2.78 (i.e. significantly higher than the average Tier I difference of ~1)
  • The next “step down” from the last Tier II school (UPenn) to first Tier III school (Rice) = 4.51 (i.e. significantly higher than the average Tier II difference of 0.73)
  • The last “step down” from Tier III (Notre Dame) to Tier IV (Virginia) = 2.97</p>
1624

<p>I thought this thread died!</p>

1625

<p>I hoped it had died.</p>

<p>I go to Uchicago, and I pity anyone who argues against Uchicago’s prestige. You simply have no idea what we go through here on a quaterly basis.</p>

1626

<p>I have to say this thread is a survivor. Whenever I think its gone, it comes back for another 10 pages.</p>

<p>O and robertson Uchicago is obviously an extremely rigorous academically focused school. Its just not THAT prestigious for most people in comparison to the Ivies ect. </p>

<p>Did I just start it up again?</p>

1627

<p>1 Cornell
2 Cornell
3 Cornell
4 Cornell
5 Cornell
6 Cornell
7 Cornell
8 Cornell
9 Cornell
10 Cornell
11 Cornell
12 Cornell
13 Cornell
14 Cornell
15 Uhh… Harvard?</p>

1628

<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Columbia
University of Chicago
Dartmouth
University of Pennsylvania
MIT
Cornell
Brown
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
Carnegie Mellon
Duke?</p>

1629

<p>Real top 15 for prestige by equivalence class of universities (in US)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Chicago, Caltech, Princeton</p></li>
<li><p>UPenn, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, UCLA, UMich, Brown, Hopkins</p></li>
</ol>

<p>On a world scale, probably

  1. Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Chicago, Caltech, Princeton, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge
  2. Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Mich/ucla, and some other UK school (UCL maybe, perhaps ICL)</p>
1630

<p>BIGTWIX are you talking about grad schools?</p>

1631

<p>^
He included Brown, so I would assume not.</p>

<p>I really don’t understand how this thread has lasted so long. The answer seems glaringly obvious.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>First, you add all the Ivies, since they get the most love here and even have their own little subforum. That’s 8 universities.</p></li>
<li><p>Then you add Stanford and MIT since they round out the ever-popular HYPSM abbreviation. That’s 10 universities.</p></li>
<li><p>Then you add the so-called Ivy-comparables: Chicago, Duke, and Caltech. That’s 13 universities.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The remaining two spots can be up for debate. In my opinion, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, and Berkeley are the strongest contenders for those spots.</p>

<p>Thus we have:</p>

<ol>
<li>Brown University</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Columbia University</li>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>Dartmouth College</li>
<li>Duke University</li>
<li>Harvard University</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Princeton University</li>
<li>Stanford University</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Yale University</li>
<li>[insert pet college here]</li>
<li>[insert pet college here]</li>
</ol>

<p>EDIT: It seems this list lines up rather nicely with BalletGirl’s.</p>

1632

<p>Slipper, prestigious graduate schools are, by definition, prestigious overall universities. </p>

<p>BIGTWIX’s list is good, but it is missing a couple of top universities, including Dartmouth, Duke and Northwestern. Furthermore, Yale should be in group one, not group 2 and Chicago and Caltech belong to group 2, not group 1.</p>

1633

<p>Nicely done IBclass, I’d add Berkeley and Northwestern to the list.</p>

<ol>
<li>Brown University</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Columbia University</li>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>Dartmouth University</li>
<li>Duke University</li>
<li>Harvard University</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Northwestern University</li>
<li>Princeton University</li>
<li>Stanford University</li>
<li>University of California - Berkeley</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Yale University</li>
</ol>

1634

<p>ProudWolverine. Personally I’d put in Michigan over Northwestern.</p>

1635

<p>^ of course you would. :-)</p>

1636

<p>Collective opinion of ~ 2,000 academics:</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard, Stanford, MIT</li>
<li>Yale, Princeton</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Caltech, Chicago</li>
<li>Columbia, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Cornell</li>
<li>Duke, Michigan</li>
<li>Dartmouth, Brown, Northwestern, Virginia</li>
</ol>

1637

<p>Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Columbia, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Amhearst, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Chicago, Northwestern, Berkeley</p>

1638

<p>"1. Harvard, Stanford, MIT
4. Yale, Princeton
6. Berkeley
7. Caltech, Chicago
9. Columbia, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Cornell
13. Duke, Michigan
15. Dartmouth, Brown, Northwestern, Virginia "</p>

<p>^ winner!</p>

1639

<p>Once again I defer to UCB. I agree with his assessment. :-)</p>

1640

<p>definitely UCB is correct :)</p>