1. Princeton University

2. Harvard University

3. Yale University

4. California Institute of Technology

4. Stanford University

4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology

7. University of Pennsylvania

8. Duke University

9. Dartmouth College

9. Columbia University

9. University of Chicago

You Might want to go to public university if Princeton or Yale cost too much. Here’s a list op top public university.

1. University of California at Berkeley

Berkeley has the strongest academic reputation among all schools in the prestigious University of California system. This architecturally diverse school near San Francisco boasts a number of Nobel Prize winners and other famous graduates and faculty.

With its well-known reputation for political activism, Berkeley is also one of the nation’s most liberal schools. Berkeley served as a focal point for 1960s college campus radicalism.

2. University of Michigan

Academically, the University of Michigan is probably the Midwest’s strongest state school, although it receives plenty of competition from several of its Big Ten brethren.

Located in the idyllic large campus town of Ann Arbor, Michigan offers its students a top-notch education across a wide range of fields. Some of Michigan’s most interesting programs are the Honors College and its undergraduate business college. Admission is much more difficult for those from out of state.

3. University of California at Los Angeles

Despite its glitzy Los Angeles location–UCLA is situated between Bel Air and Beverly Hills–this university is easily among the strongest in the United States. Famous for fields as wide-ranging as Film and Engineering, UCLA offers a powerful and world-renowned education to California’s top high school graduates.

4. University of Virginia

The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who considered it one of his most impressive accomplishments. Indeed, 200 years later, the University remains one of the most prestigious public schools in the country.

UVA consistently ranks near the top of all colleges in the production of Rhodes Scholars and other top academic achievers. Its diverse student body includes everyone from rural Virginans to top value-seeking scholars from throughout the country.

5. University of Wisconsin

After Michigan (although many would argue even that), the University of Wisconsin offers probably the academically strongest public education of any state school in the Midwest. Despite its enormous size and freezing cold winters, The University of Wisconsin offers a tremendous education with nearly unparalleled breadth of resources and course offerings. Not suprisingly, Wisconsin has an unusually high proportion of students who are drawn in from other states.

6. University of North Carolina

The University of North Carolina is located in Chapel Hill, and sometimes finds itself in the shadow its basketball-obsessed neighbor–Duke. But while Duke is a private university, UNC is public with a reputation that nearly matches that of its rival.

It is perhaps UNC’s reputation as one of the South’s top public universities (and best values) that makes it so difficult for out-of-state applicants to gain admissions. Famously, it can seem impossible to get one of UNC’s out-of-state slots.

You can buy a U.S. news magazine that tells you top 100 colleges at every section (medical, engineering, etc.)

For more information go to

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreview…

or

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/choosing…

There’s no real way to rank colleges, but this is a place you can start. ^

Harvard U, Yale U, Princeton U, Cornell U, Columbia U, Dartmouth C, Duke U, and Brown U are the 8 Ivy League schools, generally considered the best on the east coast.

For science/tech schools MIT and Caltech (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology) attract some of the best students.

In the south there’s Emory U and Rice U, and in the west Stanford U and the UC system, or the University of California system is very good. This includes UCLA (Los Angeles) and UC Berkeley. Also, look at U Chicago and U Michigan.

Of course, these are just some of the big ones: there are a lot of smaller, awesome liberal arts colleges out there.

Thing is, that information is kinda fun to search out. For one thing you can decide if other things like location or cost or student aid are important to you, and focus your search there. If nothing but ratings are important to start with, then the various publications are what you want and the opinions are those of people who specialize in pulling that data together. (But don’t be surprised if you do study one of the publications, you find yourselfed mesmerized by all the info they contain).

But since you asked — A few Private Schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cal Tech, Standford, Washington U. at St. Louis, Mo. and some Public Schools: University of California System, e.g. Berkeley, William and Mary, U. Virgnia and U. North Carolina. And bunches more found in the publications listed by way of “Most Competitive” (the above being examples,) “Highly Competitive”, “Very Competitive”, “Competitive” etc. until you get to the school that finally let me in.

You are very welcome. Enjoy your search.

Any school in the top 50 or 60 of their National University list, or near the top of the regional university lists, or near the top of their Liberal Arts colleges list, is a highly respectable school.

Just search online for US News college rankings and it will show up immediately.

NYU, UNC, Duke, UCLA, and Stanford are prob the next tier

then its Penn State, Ohio State, Miami (FL), Michigan, Texas, and Boston College

Phoenix University

DeVry