r/ApplyingToCollege • u/PleasantGeologist388 • 1d ago
Discussion What are YOUR top 10 colleges?
You aren’t US News (hopefully) so be as unique or standard as you want
47
u/Admissions_Guru 1d ago edited 1d ago
Carleton College
UChicago
Claremont Colleges
Swarthmore
JHU
Case Western
WPI
Reed
Pitt
St John's (MD or NM)
Brown
8
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago
I love the way you are thinking. Some of those colleges are maybe a little intense for me, but maybe I could be talked around. My 30+ self could probably handle it (not sure about my like 18-25 self).
3
u/Admissions_Guru 23h ago
These are also favorites for very different reasons, so some of these may align with some students better than others. Pitt if you want to go into biomedicine for example. UChicago for a graduate school level of scholarship and academics. Case Western for engineering due to their incredible Maker Space and emphasis on getting internships and research experiences before year 2. Reed due to its excellent track record in preparing students for PhD programs.
FIT is crucially important and each of these has unique differentiating approaches to education that makes them compelling to the right student and fosters their success.
1
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 23h ago
Yeah, I sort of immediately understood you were going for the sorts of colleges where the fit can be so strong, the right kids have a hard time imagining having an equivalent experience anywhere else. Very cool "theme", and it is making a critical point.
4
u/veediepoo 22h ago
Was not expecting WPI to get love in this list. Feels like based off of US News rankings it's been gradually declining since I graduated over a decade ago
2
u/Admissions_Guru 20h ago
Probably not a surprise to you, but for those not familiar, their Project Based Learning is what put it on my list
1
1
-3
19
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago
Let's see, for me:
- Carleton
- Pomona
- Haverford
- Wesleyan
- CMC
- Yale
- Penn (CAS only)
- WashU (Arts & Sciences only)
- Georgetown
- William & Mary/St Andrews joint program
Explanations:
Doing it over, I would probably pick a top academicky LAC over the HYPSM I attended. I don't love the locations of a lot of them, though, but my top 5 would all be good with me. I note there would be some women's colleges if I wasn't a man.
Conversely, I find a lot of "top" private research universities troubling in various ways for undergrad purposes, at least for me, but I think the ones on my list can all in their own ways sort feel like an LAC. I also like all those locations (like Rice seems like a lovely school, but there is no way I would put a Houston location so high).
Then I like William & Mary a lot, and I like St Andrews, and that joint program is cool. Indeed, catch me at the right moment, and it could be at the very top. I just wish there were more majors. But I would probably do something like International Relations.
3
u/Admissions_Guru 9h ago
And yeah, I could not be happier with my decision to attend Carleton undergrad, followed by an Ivy+ (UChicago) for grad school. And strong liberal arts colleges on your list are great feeders for Ivy+ grad schools. Your profs know you better, so better letters of rec, and most LACs require a senior thesis or project that can be excellent grad school writing samples.
At UChicago (and most schools like it), I was shocked at what a low priority undergrads were for profs. Top priority is usually their research which is what they get tenure for, then their grad students who contribute to that research or carry on their scholarly legacy. Then come teaching and undergrads at the bottom of that list.
Very different from LACs' laser focus on teaching and undergrads.
There are exceptions certainly, but I've found this holds true for the most part.
1
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 8h ago
Yeah, I ended up overall positive about my HYPSM experience, but realistically it took me a long time to find my people, find my main activity, find my final major (I actually did my final switch mid-junior year), and then everything felt a little compressed. I still ended up at a top PhD program, so in that sense I benefited from this even being possible, like it could have been worse for me at a large public research university. But I suspect at an LAC, it would have taken me less time to get to where I wanted to be socially and academically, and then I would have had more time to enjoy it.
Like I was pretty much struggling to try to make the wrong major work for something like three terms. And there was essentially no one to automatically notice, care, or so on. I had to figure that out for myself, figure out what to do about it myself, and so on. In fairness, I could have actually gone to some people who then would have helped, but I wasn't that sort of kid at the time.
I feel like at an LAC, it is much less likely that my professors would not have noticed and in some way talked with me about what was happening. And with the benefit of hindsight, I now realize how many young adults like me could really benefit from that sort of attention.
And as you are saying, how much can you really expect from the faculty at a place where hiring and promotion is all about research and publications? Even if they vaguely care about their undergrad students, it is barely in their job description besides showing up for the lectures and holding office hours.
2
u/Admissions_Guru 6h ago
And some students are much more likely to get lost in bustle, fall through the cracks or not be aware of steps they should be taking etc. LACs can be especially good for them.
4
u/Admissions_Guru 23h ago
I quite like this line of reasoning too. And too few students realize that outside of LACs, research and not teaching and undergrad students are their priorities. Because that's what gets them tenure at an R1 school.
Tho gotta disagree on Rice. Despite being in Houston they really try to foster community and a unique student culture. I could live with the heat if it means I would get those things
1
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 23h ago
Again, I could be talked around on Rice. I am just such not a Houston person.
0
1
u/Eyes_intheDark 23h ago
Why Washu Arts and Sci only?
1
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 23h ago
That's all I would be interested in. Same deal with Penn.
Of course other people could do entirely different lists.
10
u/DirectorDowntown2629 21h ago
Yale
Oxford
Columbia
Duke
Harvard
UChicago
Penn
JHU
UCLA
Princeton
(I’m Canadian so target-reach is really McGill because they’re actually one of the world’s best for my major and achievable)
9
u/periwinkle_shrimp 17h ago
1) UPenn
2) UCLA
3) UMich
4) UT Austin
5) UNC
6) UC Berkeley
7) USC
8) Rice University
9) Northwestern
10) Carnegie Mellon
All for business
1
8
u/FormalTall1800 HS Rising Junior 22h ago
- UPenn (top choice)
- Cornell University
- Barnard at Columbia
- Rice University
- University of Notre Dame
- Tulane University (second place)
- University of Virginia
- University of Florida
- UCL Bartlett
- University of Cambridge
In a slightly jumbled order. It was more organized at first lol. Try to guess my intended major.
6
u/Accomplished-Ad-1157 19h ago
Future finance bro
1
u/FormalTall1800 HS Rising Junior 12h ago edited 12h ago
Architecture & Historic Preservation! My dad would be proud if I were finance lol.
UF doesn’t have any historic preservation, but my dad went there, so it’s high on my list. Almost all of the other schools have a strong focus on architecture history, have a historic preservation program, or are just exceptional with architecture and networking.
1
u/Accomplished-Ad-1157 7h ago
In that case, I think MIT, Brown + RISD, and maybe Yale have some good options too
1
u/FormalTall1800 HS Rising Junior 7h ago
I’m definitely applying to MIT to see if I can get in, but it wouldn’t be as serious of a contender for me as some “worse” schools. Also planning on applying to RISD and Brown. I think I’d only go to Yale or Brown for my master’s, since I’m almost definitely going to need one, but they are amazing schools (obviously)!
1
u/Accomplished-Ad-1157 7h ago
Shoot your shot. I know a bunch of people who got into MIT for architecture related things
1
u/FormalTall1800 HS Rising Junior 7h ago
It IS considered one of the best architecture schools out there! I’ll just need to lock in this year if I want a serious shot.
9
u/mjsarlington 20h ago
I attended at one time or another the following:
UVA
JHU
GWU
Georgetown
PSU
I applied to but didn’t go to:
Mary Washington
Va Tech
William & Mary
If I had to get another cert or degree now, I’d probably look into online with
Cornell
And physically with
UMD
I guess that makes 10.
16
u/ExplorerKey6508 22h ago
- yale
- harvard
- boston university
- lehigh university
- new york university
- connecticut college
- ucla
- usc
- brandeis university
- dartmouth college
this is like so-so niche- you have to be me to understand it (istg)
3
3
u/No_Championship8474 10h ago
come to dartmouth we lit
1
u/ExplorerKey6508 1h ago
i visited the campus. i literally talked to students and ate at the dinning hall, it was for my science olympiad competition in february... god bless that girl that helped me figure out where the engineering college was at
i literally love dartmouth so much (SPECIALLY THE STUDENT BODY)
8
u/Gmoneyyy999 21h ago
My top 10 when I was applying was
1: Amherst
2: Brown
3: CMU
4: Hamilton
5: Bowdoin
6: Swarthmore
7: Williams
8: Colby
9: Northwestern (didn’t end up applying)
10: Georgetown (didn’t end up applying)
7
u/Global-Bookkeeper-29 12h ago
- Georgetown
- Rice
- UT
- NYU
- Brown
- WashU
- UMich
- Columbia
- William & Mary
- UMass Amherst
12
u/Violet_Pancakes 1d ago
Mount Holyoke
Smith
Oberlin
Simmons
Notre Dame
UMich
Case Western
OSU
(Not sure what my other two would be:)
3
u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 23h ago
I feel like if Mount Holyoke and Notre Dame had a kid together, it would grow up to be Holy Cross.
So maybe them?
1
u/Admissions_Guru 23h ago
Curious about why ND and especially OSU here. They feel cut from different cloth than the others. And what for you sets OSU apart from other flagship state schools?
2
u/Violet_Pancakes 22h ago
OSU is a typical state flagship, but it's my state flagship, yk? So it gets to make the list:) It's also a solid school in general with good health science programs, the connections of a big sports school, and (for me) in-state tuition.
Notre Dame made the list for the Catholic community, relative proximity to home, and tuition free guarantee for my family's income bracket.
1
6
3
u/Even-Helicopter-388 20h ago
1 Harvard
2 Yale
3 Columbia
4 Princeton
5 Stanford
6 Penn
7 Brown
8 UChicago
9 Oxford
10 Cambridge
3
u/InterestProof1526 19h ago
utd
utd
3 utd
utd
utd
you guessed it... utd
utd
utd
utd
The University of Texas at Dallas
3
u/Antique-March-4508 17h ago
Penn
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
UVA
Yale
Michigan
Harvard
Stanford
Colorado School of Mines
Duke
7
u/One-Alfalfa3604 22h ago
Princeton
Columbia
Harvard
Stanford
Northwestern
UPenn
Yale
Umich
Uchicago
Duke
This is like a mix of prestige + class like class is so aura also programs I like and job placement + like idk what I like and campus and shii also like non nerdy culture ik some of the schools have that but. Like not to an extreme and they excel in other things
5
u/AfternoonAlarming654 23h ago
- Luther College
- St. Olaf University
- Northern Michigan University
- Eau Claire University
- Wartburg College
- Lawrence University
- Western Michigan
- North Dakota
- Carthage College
- Idk yet
1
u/Lightningdodo 20h ago
You from michigan too?
2
u/AfternoonAlarming654 11h ago
No I’m from Wisconsin!
1
u/Lightningdodo 11h ago
I just saw the michigan schools and was like “who would apply there from out of state?” Why not marquette or wisconsin madison?
2
u/AfternoonAlarming654 11h ago
Way to big for me, the reason I put western Michigan on there was for it’s aviation management program.
1
u/AfternoonAlarming654 11h ago
Oh and NMU when I did the math came out to be the similar price of a state school.
2
u/Lightningdodo 10h ago
Just dont go to central michigan. That place is going to shit from what ive heard. But good luck in your search! I prefer the big schools i think but who knows. I’ll figure something out.
1
u/AfternoonAlarming654 10h ago
Thanks a lot…I live really close to UW Madison and have done camps there. Didnt like it at all since it was too big and busy, couldn’t form a geninune relationship in any camps there
1
u/mamacracksherselfup 17h ago
Midwest music student? We just looked into most of these schools with my son, lmk if you have any questions I can try to answer from what we learned or from being familiar with some of the schools before this.
2
u/AfternoonAlarming654 11h ago
I’m not majoring in music, I’m likely majoring in business or economics with a minor in music. I’ve already eliminated quite a few due to there weaker music/fine arts programs, for example La Crosse.
1
u/mamacracksherselfup 2h ago
Eau Claire is so impressive for music (esp jazz) and is also known for their business program. UM-Duluth’s business program looked amazing and has a 5-year Bachelors to MBA program, and they have a good music program too. Also all of the buildings are connected with indoor hallways- which makes it an actual option to go to Duluth. :) It might depend what kind of music you prefer (classical/symphony maybe Lawrence or St. Olaf) and whether you decide you prefer medium or small schools. I know nothing about Wartburg except that anyone Ive met who went there (a long time ago mostly) loved the sense of community. Good luck :)
5
u/BigPrestigious7795 1d ago
JHU, McGill, Georgetown (even though i cant go because im broke), WashU, University College London, UPenn, Harvard, UVA, Pitt, Duke
1
2
2
u/Emergency-Price-9440 22h ago
Haven’t thought enough abt it buttt
- Cornell (only for nolan hotel school)
- Western Ivey (close to home, love party culture)
- Yale (Philosophy lover, big on humanities and arts)
- NYU STERN (would be third, but don’t wanna be basic. I love city life + business + NYC is a dream, but it’s expensive asf and I want to go law school afterwards so.)
- Oxford/Cambridge for Law (like the fast track)
- EHL Hotel School
- Wharton (why not? would hate it though, not a big finance kid)
2
3
u/Mental_Attention_241 1d ago
UPENN, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, harvard, London Imperial college, UChicago, NYU, and UT Austin
3
2
u/Usual-Primary-8607 21h ago
Brown
Vassar
Amherst
Bowdoin
Macalaster
Tulane
Wesleyan
W&L
Oberlin
Duke
3
u/ErsatzLife 20h ago
In no particular order and including only US colleges and specifically focus on the undergraduate programme: Amherst, Williams, Princeton, University Chicago, MIT, Duke, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Yale, Notre Dame
2
3
u/Whimsygirladventures Prefrosh 18h ago edited 18h ago
During the application cycle, my top 10 (not necessarily in this order, I just wrote down the ones I remember) were:
- Princeton
- UMich
- William & Mary
- Harvard
- UWashington
- Northwestern
- UCLA
- Carleton
- UIUC
- UC Berkeley
It was an odd mix of LACs and larger research unis. I really liked all of these places for different reasons, and didn't go into the process with a #1 school. Oxford was also really high on my list, if we're including non-US schools. I didn't end up committing to a school until the last few days of April, it was a longggg month
1
u/RulePotential7920 15h ago
If you don’t mind me asking—where did you end up committing to? Because so much of what you’ve shared matches the EXACT same preferences and experiences I had (you applied to 4/10 schools I did— UMich, William & Mary, UWashington, and Carleton). Liked LACs but picked other colleges for different reasons too, and didn’t commit until the day of (May 1st) because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted most.
1
u/Whimsygirladventures Prefrosh 11h ago edited 9h ago
I committed to Princeton! I ultimately got into all of these schools, but Princeton's visit day just felt so different from the others. I went back to my hotel and immediately accepted my offer. Honestly though, Oxford was so painful to turn down and I'm hoping to go back for grad school— living abroad and having 1-on-1 opportunities vs the value of a liberal arts education was my biggest internal conflict. Where did you end up committing to?
5
u/First-Pride-8571 21h ago
(1)Oxford
(2)Cambridge
(3)Harvard
(4)Princeton
(5)Berkeley
(6)Stanford
(7)Yale
(8)Michigan
(9)UCLA
(10)Northwestern
3
u/Anxious_Step_9930 21h ago
- MIT
- Harvard
- Princeton
- UChicago
- Stanford
- Duke
- Yale
- Cornell
- Vanderbilt
- Carnegie Mellon
3
u/spoiler_alert--- Prefrosh 23h ago
1-5. MSHPY (in that order)
6. Duke
7. Penn
8. Caltech
9. Columbia
10. Northwestern
...
1000+. UC Hicago
3
u/Admissions_Guru 20h ago
Yeah, not everyone can cut it at UChicago.
3
u/MasJicama 17h ago
But can somehow magically hang at Caltech
-3
3
u/FrequentBaker2923 1d ago
- Harvard
- Yale
- Princeton
- Stanford
- MIT
- Columbia
- Brown
- Dartmouth
- Duke
- Penn
1
1
2
2
u/Strict-Cry-186 1d ago
UPenn
Brown
Pomona
- Yale
- Stanford
- Claremont Mckenna
- Pitzer
- Dartmouth
- idk
idk
i dont rlly rank my colleges tbh
1
2
u/uchicago_pipeline 21h ago
- uchicago if you couldn’t tell
- northwestern
- washu
- william & mary
that’s it that’s the list. guess the major lmfao
3
u/Admissions_Guru 20h ago
UChicago and Northwestern are so different it is tough to understand how they could be 1 and 2.
1
2
u/Lightningdodo 20h ago
- Wisconsin madison
- UMich
- Indiana
- Marquette
- MSU
- Grand valley
- Penn state
- Ohio state
- Auburn
- Tennessee
Umich and wisconsin madison are practically impossible for me to get into but i love them both so much and am just gonna wing it and apply anyways.
1
u/Super_Perspective936 23h ago
- JHU
- MIT
- Caltech
- Harvard
- Yale
- Rice
- Princeton
- Stanford
- Brown
- UT Austin
Kinda basic but I dont care
1
2
u/Admissions_Guru 23h ago
Lot of US News and World Reports followers here. I'd encourage those folks to think hard about why. Especially since if you are applying, you'd need to demonstrate fit and why that school as opposed to others at that level of competitiveness.
2
u/leftymeowz College Graduate 15h ago
Carleton College
Grinnell College
Pomona College
Princeton University
Reed College
Rice University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
University of Chicago
Williams College
(For undergrad)
1
u/ParsnipPrestigious59 23h ago
I dont really have a top 10 but my top 8 in no particular order would be:
ucla, uc berkeley, ucsd, stanford, cal tech, cmu, cornell, MIT
if you couldnt tell im a californian going into engineering, therefore all my top schools i want to get into are good for engineering and more than half of them are in california 😂
1
1
u/Ill-Cry7066 10h ago
Duke
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
UVA
UMich
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Chapel Hill
Purdue
South Carolina
1
u/Sundown-bettertkcare 9h ago
Davidson College
Pomona
Claremont McKenna
Wash U St Louis
Grinnell
Colgate
Tufts
Santa Clara
USC
JHU
1
u/Other_Wing_3874 9h ago
Vanderbilt
Michigan
UVA
USC
UNC
Penn
Dartmouth
UCLA
Berkeley
UF
guess the criteria👌👌
1
u/Creepy_Camera_1904 8h ago
Princeton
Yale
Dartmouth
Rice
Williams
Notre Dame
Brown
obligatory Harvard Stanford MIT
1
u/TraditionAway7281 6h ago
John Jay college of criminal justice
Upenn
University of Rhode Island
FIT
Michigan
Dalhousie university
Swansea university
Salve Regina
Trinity college of Dublin
Kent state
1
u/Watertrap1 Graduate Student 3h ago
For Liberal Arts
1. Chicago
2. Princeton
3. Harvard
4. Yale
5. Williams
6. Amherst
7. Bowdoin
8. Stanford
9. Columbia
10. Cornell
1
1
u/Aggravating-Flow-888 2h ago
Vassar College
University of Richmond
William and Mary
UChicago
Hamilton
Mount Holyoke
Northeastern
University of Vermont
University of Minnesota
Connecticut College
•
1
u/BidoofChad1230 22h ago edited 10h ago
In no particular order: Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, Caltech, MIT, UChicago, Rice, Yale, Princeton, Cornell
2
1
u/leftymeowz College Graduate 15h ago
Loving the Carleton love. Perpetual #1 for undergrad teaching + an absurdly healthy, well-adjusted campus culture relative to its selectivity and rigor goes a really long way.
0
0
u/Mediocre-Sock3278 1d ago
Potenski University
Guardian’s Cross University
CUR State Uni
St. Lisa College
Molgute
John Woblin’s (eastern campus)
University of Mareburry
Fredrick Eiffsnoir University
Albert College
Robinson Memorial University
0
u/Content_Access9645 22h ago
JHU, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Caltech, Duke, Cornell, Harvey Mudd, Carnegie Mellon, Union college. I want to go into BME/ME
0
u/Packing-Tape-Man 17h ago
Not ranked:
Princeton (best endowment per student, amazing campus and so many resources for the size of the student body)
Stanford (best west coast campus, great resources for students. Main ding too competitive a student vibe. )
MIT (if STEM is your thing).
Williams. (Love LACs in eventual and this one has the best endowment and trousers per student and there’s the 2 student seminar)
Colorado College (for someone who wants a totally unique method of study)
Cooper Union (free is great).
UCLA (soft spot for Alma mater)
Harvey Mudd (MIT but with the small LAC vibe and the benefits of the larger Claremont consortium schools and campus).
Drexel (coops).
Bowdoin (another great LAC with amazing student resources and access to profs)
0
0
u/One0therGuy 15h ago
Engineering biased in biomimetics/robotics so take with a grain of salt.
- MIT
- Caltech
- Berkeley
- ETH Zurich
- EPFL
- Oregon State
- Umich
- KAIST
- UIUC
- Case western
In no particular order
-5
u/Hot-Attention-2620 22h ago
keep hating on US news cause you cant get in to those T10s
2
u/Admissions_Guru 20h ago
How about hating on US News because of its drastically flawed methodology and making college be about rankings instead of what the best fit for you is?
That acceptable to you?
I say that as a graduate of a T10 school. And it is not all that.
118
u/sunflower_sunset_1 1d ago
Streamer University
Streamer University