| *** Disclaimer to those who have gripes with the choices made for this list of the 50 Elite Colleges/Universities ***
For better or for worse, the goal of this quiz is to identify name/prestige. This is a list of the 50 biggest "name-brand" schools which are generally the most respected schools by the college-educated portion of our population, and in academia. The goal of this list is to pick the 50 schools with the best reputations.
US News and World Report's rankings attempt to identify the best institutions to receive an education. For example, based on their own criteria (endowment, student:professor ratio, # TA's teaching upper level courses, student contentment, graduation rate, etc) they choose Grinnell College (43% acceptance rate) as the #14th liberal arts college, ranked ahead of such schools as Naval Academy (13% acceptance) and Colgate (23%).
This quiz/list is not a reflection of US News' rankings. It is simply an attempt to designate the 50 colleges/universities that are generally regarded as the most "name-brand" schools with widely-known/elite-status reputations. Hence, although US News ranks Grinnell College over Colgate and Navy, it failed to make this list because it is not as revered or well-known for academic prestige by the general public as others, such as Navy and Colgate, which did make the list. |
College Towns 
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Top U.S. Universities
