What is the best college in the USA?

Question

Is it true that Yale is the best college to go to, or just the hardest to get into?

Answer 1

As a professor, and a Princeton alum (glad to see that someone answered Princeton), what an interesting question.

I also see that people added "what do you want to do" as a return question, which is what I would suggest you do.

If you are interested in engineering, the usual choice of experts is MIT (also listed by other responders).

If you are going into the liberal arts, then the usual choice of experts is an Ivy League school; Yale, Harvard, and Princeton, along with Berkeley (considered a "Public Ivy"), are usually named.

However, the best college for you is probably the one that fits your personality best. I truly enjoyed the residential colleges and eating clubs at Princeton; other people truly hated them. I had high school friends that went to Yale and loved it, and high school friends that swore up and down they would love Yale, but once they got there, they disliked it so much they transferred to another school. The universal complaint about college is that you feel stifled, like you are out of character at whatever college you dislike.

My advice to you would be to visit the colleges you are interested in, and see what life is like. If you have friends at Yale, go visit them; if your parents can visit Yale (or Princeton, or whatever other colleges you are interested in) and you can watch what life is like at those places, go do that. You will find out much more than you think, and you may save yourself a ton of headaches if you are honest with yourself about how you feel when you visit each one.

Each university has a different "personality" and if that personality doesn't match yours, you will not be very happy, regardless of what all the experts say about how great a given university is.

Good Luck with your search!

Answer 2

US News and World Reports puts out a ranking of colleges and universities each year. Harvard University is almost always ranked number one -- with Princeton, Yale, Duke, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech and University of Pennsylvania being close behind.

On the undergraduate level, University of California at Berkeley, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Wisconsin and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are the best State Universities -- pretty much in that order.

The list changes if you have a particular major in mind. MIT, Cal Tech and Berkeley are the best schools for Engineering. Harvard, Princeton and Yale are probably best for most liberal arts. Berkeley, MIT and Princeton are probably best for mathematics.

On the graduate level, things change a bit. Overall, UC at Berkeley is the strongest graduate school. This is because they are top three or four in most subjects. Yale and Harvard have the top ranked law schools. Berkeley, Cal Tech and MIT have the top ranked engineering schools (though all the Big 10 schools have great programs). Penn, Stanford and U of Chicago have the best Business Schools. MIT, Chicago, Harvard, Yale and Berkeley have the best economics departments. Berkeley and Yale have the best English Literature departents.

I'm sure that people would argue about the order -- but these programs are all up there.

Answer 3

How much can you afford?
......Some colleges aren't the best for your budget.

What type of people do you like?
......Different people go to different colleges. Some are predominantly white, others are more diverse. Some colleges are a bunch of rich children, other colleges have every student on financial aid. Some colleges are down to earth. Some colleges are male exclusive or female exclusive.

What is your intended major?
......The best college is the college that you can be successful in. If you want to major in criminal justice and there is no law program whatsoever at a school, that is not the best college. The best college will have your major.

What type of weather do you like?
......Yes, real estate. Location, location, location. Do you like snow? Do you want to have sun all the time? Do you mind hurricanes? Tornadoes? Earthquakes? Torrential rain? Do you want to travel far from home or be down the street?

Answer 4

It depends. What are you going to study? If you are going to study Anthropology, Yale isn't the best choice. Yale is a name. You are paying for that. If you need to impress people to get a job (business, law, etc.), then do that.

Personally, get into the best college you can go to and can afford (either through parents or loans).

Edit: Don't forget Georgia Tech. Great engineering school.

Answer 5

It depends on what you want to study. Most of the Ivy League colleges offer more liberal arts type majors, while someplace like MIT would be better for engineering, maths, and sciences.

It also depends on whether you're looking at undergraduate or graduate programs. I personally wouldn't want to go to a big college like Yale for undergraduate work--you never see your real professors, teaching assistants and graduate students are in charge of all your classes, and everyone is too busy doing research or whatnot to care about what happens to just another undergrad.

I go to a small university with a decent engineering program, and to me, it's the best college in the US. I wouldn't trade it for anywhere else.

Answer 6

It depends on the major. As stated earlier, Ivy leagues have name value and are great everything that really isn't science or engineering (ie Harvard). If you want to study physics especially astronomy and space physics, Berkeley would be a great choice with the Cal Tech and MIT.

Answer 7

The University of Michigan

Answer 8

Princeton is considered to be the best college in the United States. U.C. Berkeley is considered to be the best public college in the United States.

Answer 9

if you have the money you can get into any college, it all depends on who you know, the best university is University of Michigan

Answer 10

Which one is best depends on what you plan to study.
One may be the best in Science, while another may be best in the arts.