<p>Not counting the USnews report what are the greatest 3 schools in the nation?</p>
<p>Harvard, MIT, Yale or Cal Tech</p>
<p>I think its Harvard, Stanford, Yale</p>
<p>It really depends on what you mean by great! But to me, a school is only as good as its student body. Excluding MIT and Cal-Tech (because they attract a very particular, specific type of student, but nonetheless do great work), I think the three best schools are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton because they attract the best students, some of the greatest world scholars, and the most diverse student bodies while still maintaining a high standard of admission. Are they the best for everyone? Certainly not. Specific concerns come into play–Swarthmore may be better than Princeton for one, Wharton better than Yale for another, UChicago better than Harvard for another. But on the whole, the best students in the country prefer those three schools.</p>
<p>Great for what? Seriously, I wouldn’t expect a list of top schools to look the same for two different students: each student has his own priorities.</p>
<p>if you are into music, Julliard comes to mind…</p>
<p>The BEST school in the nation, in my opinion, is the one that both suits YOU in terms of academic challenge and social fit and that also ACCEPTS you. </p>
<p>Therefore the “best” school in the nation will be different for every individual and discussions like this are really pointless.</p>
<p>LOL. Where’d everybody go? Carolyn, my dear, that is what we call a “thread ending post”.</p>
<p>Plus many of us ex-parents-of-would-be-admittees-or-admittees-turned-into-first-year-students have left for greener pastures now!</p>
<p>One the best schools in the nation for turning a good student into a sharp critical thinker who can also think outside the box is Swarthmore. That’s my son’s opinion - he goes there.</p>
<p>How about the School of Hard Knocks!</p>
<p>Faber College</p>
<p>Do i have to be more specific for these parents. In your opinion which are the three best colleges…???</p>
<p>Could you please be more specific about what “nation” you are talking about?</p>
<p>HYP or AWS, depending on which way you look at it.</p>
<p>oneunknown, by “three best colleges” do you mean 1) colleges or 2) colleges and universities or 3) separate colleges within a university setting i.e. Wharton and SEAS at PENN? I’m sure carolyn, tokenadult and others will be happy to help as soon as the specifics of the question are ironed out.</p>
<p>I’d need much more information than that to answer this question — as I said above, the BEST college depends on the individual. So, let us know what you are interested in studying, whether you have a geographic preference, what size school you are talking about, whether you need financial aid or want merit money, the type of stats we’re talking about, etc. etc. etc. I personally am tired of playing the “three best schools in the nation” game here on CC — as I said above, the only “BEST” schools that count are the ones that fit you as an individual and where you can get accepted. There are over 3500 4 year schools in the country, I’d say you can get an excellent education at 200 of them and a very decent education at about 2000 of them.</p>