Insider’s Guide to Top 20 Schools
Below you will find insights on some of the best universities in America: the Top 20, plus a few other popular options. (Rankings are from the 2025 US News & World Report; note some schools are tied.)
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Ivy League Overview: The Pros and Cons of Each School
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#1 Princeton: Pros and Cons
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#2 MIT and #6 Caltech: Pros and Cons
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#3 Harvard: Pros and Cons
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#4 Stanford: Pros and Cons
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#5 Yale: Pros and Cons
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#6 Duke: Pros and Cons
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#6 Northwestern: Pros and Cons
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#6 Johns Hopkins: Pros and Cons
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#10 UPenn: Pros and Cons
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#11 Cornell: Pros and Cons
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#11 UChicago: Pros and Cons
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#13 Brown: Pros and Cons
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#13 Columbia: Pros and Cons
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#15 Dartmouth: Pros and Cons
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#15 UCLA and #17 UC Berkeley: Pros and Cons
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#18 Notre Dame: Pros and Cons
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#18 Rice: Pros and Cons
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#18 Vanderbilt: Pros and Cons
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#21 University of Michigan: Pros and Cons
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#21 Carnegie Mellon: Pros and Cons
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#21 Washington Univ. in St. Louis: Pros and Cons
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#24 Georgetown: Pros and Cons
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#24 UVA: Pros and Cons
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#27 USC: Pros and Cons
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#27 UNC: Pros and Cons
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#30 NYU: Pros and Cons
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#54 Northeastern: Pros and Cons