Elite College Admissions Intel

Founded in 1764, Brown University was the first university in the United States to codify in its charter that religious affiliation would have no bearing on admissions, even though the fledgling university maintained ties to the Baptist Church. It was named after its first benefactors, the Brown family of Providence. Their economic ties to the Atlantic slave trade were detailed in 2003 by the “Slavery and Justice” report commissioned by then President Ruth Simmons, the first African American president of an Ivy League school. Brown has since been at the forefront of contending with its own history, setting the tone for the rest of the Ivy League.

The California Institute of Technology does not beat around the bush with what it demands from its students. The academics are stringent, the workload is high, and the admissions process is famously competitive. However, as their admissions website puts it, “the payoff? You’ll change the world.

With some of the most competitive admissions in the Ivy League and a centuries-long reputation for academic excellence, Columbia University is indisputably one of the best institutions of higher education in the United States. Columbia’s factsheet is formidable: it is a founding member of the Association of American Universities, it administers the Pulitzer Prize, and it can lay claim to seven Founding Fathers as alumni.

Situated in Ithaca, New York with a magnificent view of the Cayuga Lakes, the scenic Cornell University campus is the home of seven undergraduate colleges. The Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Art and Planning, and the School of Hotel Administration comprise the private sector of Cornell University.

Dartmouth College, also known as “The College on the Hill” was founded by a Puritan minister, Eleazar Wheelock, in 1769. One of the eight member institutions of the Ivy League, Dartmouth is the smallest school in the Ancient Eight. As Secretary of State and Dartmouth alumnus Daniel Webster famously once said in the landmark Dartmouth College v. Woodward case, “It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!” And love it they do. As do prospective students…even if the Dartmouth College admissions numbers are getting lower and lower.

Duke University is known for many things: its gorgeous campus, designed in the Gothic style primarily by Julian Abele, its spirited student body who quite literally camp out for varsity sports games, its formidable roster of alumni such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Richard Nixon, and its Nobel prize-winning faculty who regularly rank as some of the most cited and well-funded in the world. Duke challenges prospective students with a highly competitive application process, but rewards those who are admitted with a Southern college lifestyle in sunny Durham, North Carolina with all of the trappings of an elite research university.

Johns Hopkins University has forged a legacy of academic excellence in the fields of medicine, engineering, public health, and international relations. With over $3 billion in annual research and development expenditures, the university has had the highest levels of federal funding for any American university since 1979, as evaluated by the National Science Foundation. Roughly 5,300 undergraduates and 25,000 postgraduates are enrolled primarily at campuses in Baltimore, Maryland, but also at auxiliary campuses in Washington, DC, China, and Italy.

It is almost a cliche at this point to put Harvard on a pedestal, venerating it as the most prestigious university in the world and as an admissions Holy Grail. Harvard’s esteem derives from a legacy of excellence in higher education that has gone unparalleled for generations. Between the eight U.S. presidents, 188 billionaires, and 49 Nobel Laureates who can call themselves Harvard alumni, many would probably agree that they were mystified by this Harvard mythology prior to arriving on campus. The crowning jewel of the Ivy League, Harvard has a renown that is ubiquitous with American culture itself.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a world-renowned reputation for innovation in the fields of science and technology, boasting an elite cache of alumni such as former chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin, formidable faculty such as linguistics expert Noam Chomsky and machine learning pioneer Daniela Rus, and as fans of Good Will Hunting will note, one mathematically-gifted janitor who looks a whole lot like Matt Damon.

Northwestern University brings every facet of an elite college experience to the table: an outstanding academic reputation, an active student social life bolstered by the allure of the Chicago cityscape, and a longstanding history of producing incredibly successful alumni in all major fields. While admission to the private R1 university in Evanston, Illinois is competitive, those who are admitted go on to find a diverse variety of research, entrepreneurial, artistic, and pre-professional opportunities at their disposal.

While some Ivy League colleges have a medical, law or business school, and other Ivies have all three, if you’ve ever wondered why Princeton does not have any, it’s because the focus is on the undergraduate education. And while Princeton does have an engineering school, the university’s commitment is to the liberal arts education. Perhaps this is why Princeton students so love their school and why Princeton University admissions is getting that admission rate to drop year after year.

What do Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Snapchat all have in common? Aside from being multi-billion dollar businesses, they were all founded by Stanford students. Entrepreneurship is a core tenet of Stanford’s culture. After all, this culture was responsible for the creation of Silicon Valley, not the other way around. Students from around the world are drawn to the R1 research university not only for its stellar academic reputation and educational resources but for this unparalleled focus on start-ups, research, and innovation.

The University of Chicago is widely considered to have the most rigorous liberal arts curriculum in the nation. Nestled into the Hyde Park Neighborhood of its namesake midwestern metropolis in Illinois, UChicago has forged an impeccable reputation for its commitment to academic excellence, its history of establishing entire schools of thought (ever heard of the Chicago school?), as well as its extensive itinerary of successful alumni, which includes several heads of state, world-renowned writers and thinkers, and a significant number of CEOs and billionaires.

The University of Pennsylvania, one of the eight Ivy League colleges, is a private institution in spite of its name. Located in Philadelphia, PA, an historic, vibrant, cultural, and diverse city, Penn is the fifth oldest post-secondary institution in the United States. Approximately 10,600 undergraduates attend Penn.

Vanderbilt University sits in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee on a lush campus known for its beauty and architectural variety. The private research university consistently ranks at the top of lists for student quality of life and happiness, administrative efficiency, and academics. Its student body of 7,100 undergraduates and 6,700 postgraduates is composed of some of the strongest students in the nation, while alumni include former Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren, and the “Father of Modern Anesthesia,” James Tayloe Gwathmey.

Founded in 1701, Yale College, with some of the most beautiful architecture in the world ranging from Gothic to Georgian to Colonial to Modern, has one gorgeous campus — and the Yale University admissions department maintains its standing as one of the most selective universities in the nation. There are approximately 5,300 undergraduates and another 6,000 graduate students at Yale.