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The rise and fall of top U.S. private colleges in popularity

Everyone would have his or her own favorite colleges. In a sense, there is no best school, but only fittest school (for individual). However, popularity of the schools does shift as the culture, technology, economy and demography shift over time.

The following is my personal impression and observation and I’m basically viewing the sky from the bottom of the well. No offense to anyone who might be a huge fan of specific schools. I do try to capture whatever my true impression is – right or wrong.

Overall popularity and reputation wise, the ones having "WOW" or "bomb" name tag effect are probably H-bomb and M-bomb, and to a lesser extent, S, P, Y and Caltech.

— (Not in particular order) —

Stanford: becoming the #1 school in popularity as measured by the acceptance rate. This is reflected in its ever expanding application pool. Great weather, beautiful campus, in the heart of Silicon Valley – recently a sought-after place for quick multi-millionaire (better chance than the Street). Lowest acceptance rate only attracts more best of best students. The bottom line: everybody seems to feel that he/she can be happy or will succeed in Stanford. The popularity gap with Harvard is only going to be widening. Don’t even mention that the long-awaited Pacific Century is finally materializing. It’s COOL. Like its motto: the wind of freedom blows.

Harvard: still the king of the hill worldwide. However, increasingly more people feel its static and somewhat aloof culture. Well, that’s what elite is all about. Isn’t it? Application pool this year slightly decreased. Contrary to Stanford, quite some smart kids don’t see themselves at home at Harvard.

MIT: Ride the tech gold-digging wave. The “super-smart kid" image does not hurt, either. Every year, it gets harder to get into MIT. Admission now completely does away with the more number-centered approach it used a decade ago.

Yale: extremely well-rounded school (except for engineering). Contrary to many people’s impression, Yale actually has a very large and solid science program. Students are closely bounded and they are generally very happy. Opens door to many opportunities. Application pool rose this year.

Princeton: very elite culture. Well, the name carries “prince…”.Does not offer top professional schools (Business, Medical, Law), but are exceptionally strong in almost all fields it offers. A top Wall Street feeder. Very intellectual students with solid technical skills. Has one of the best politics/government study schools in the world.

Caltech: It’s often perceived as a geek-land and it is hugely proud of it. The “techers” are super smart kids – on equal ground with MIT kids (if not more), only more theoretically focused (i.e., more “bookish”). They are really the scientists of the scientists. Tiny student body. Intimately wired with JPL. Without JPL, Caltech won’t be Caltech as it is today and vice versa. Admission is still relatively more objective, number and tangible fact based than many peer schools.

Columbia: it likes to label itself as “Columbia University in the City of New York”. Of course NYC is a major pull. Very intellectual culture. Columbia has steadily been rising in popularity in US News ranking. It used to be a 10^th-ish school (for a few years it didn’t even make top 10), but now, it seems to be a fixture in top 5 in USNWR ranking. Application pool slightly declined this year.

UPenn: The average people probably view UPenn lower than UPenn views itself. However, UPenn is in fact a very strong and well-rounded top brass. Wharton is of course its strongest wing. The school is more profession-centered and career-focused than many peers. Students really learn practical skills. Application pool had a HUGE increase (14%!) this year.

Brown: the 6^th ranked ivy is still one of the hardest to get into among America’s top colleges and also one of the happiest campuses around. “Design your own curriculum” is what Brown is all about. Brown and Princeton are the only two ivies do not have professional law and business schools (Brown has an OKish medical school). Sort of a little brother for P, though not as intellectually intense.

Duke: Used to be ranked as high as top 5 in USNWR for a while, but has been declining in ranking this decade. #8-10 is probably the right spot for it. It’s one of the youngest top colleges and it has a campus almost as big as Stanford’s, only with denser forest. Duke is strong in many fields, but still a cut below the top ivies. Duke is one of the only 2 among top ~10 schools that still offer merit scholarship (the other is Chicago) – only to be embarrassed that a good percentage of full merit offers were turned down as the students prefer to attend HYPSM, even at their own cost (poorer kids get free-ride anyway). Happy student body.

Chicago: Once had one of the worse undergraduate admission records among top schools, with over 30% acceptance rate while the top ivies had ~10% (and its yield hovered around ~30% for quite some time – a well known backup school for top kids). Even the same town brother– Northwestern often did much better. Its graduate schools are very strong though – on par with top ivies. Since 2006, the school has been playing admission cards and sending out tons of love letters (and T-shirts) to high school kids. It did the trick: by 2012, acceptance rate dropped to ~13%, and in 2013, 8.8%, while applications almost tripled since 2006. However, the tide is finally turning. This year, despite its huge love-letter mailing, the application pool unexpectedly dropped by almost 10% (from 30,340 to 27,500). Keep in mind that UChicago extended application deadline the longest among all top schools. Some at school now blamed the Common App technical issue for the decline. OK – technical issue was felt the same way by all 500+ schools using the CA, right?

Cornell: long been regarded as the "back-door" to Ivy League, it enjoys a very strong academic reputation worldwide. Quite a few programs are very top in the world. But just too many students and that somewhat dilutes the "concentration of gold". Cornell has better reputation in the world than in the U.S.

Dartmouth: “the fastest declining ivy”? Application pool declined 14% this year alone! Some are now blaming sexual assault incident reports on campus for the decline. However, there could be deeper root issues. Dartmouth was a shortcut to Wall Street and the Street is no longer the same since 2008.

Sure, the money on the Street is still good money, it just smells a bit stale and not as scented as it used to be, as more and more FRESH & COOL monies grow in Sand Hill* (a.k.a. the ATM for Stanford’s would-be entrepreneurs).

There are many other very strong private schools in the U.S., such as Northwestern, Hopkins, Washington U, Rice, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon …, but the above 13 probably represent the most popular and sought-after. Northwestern, in particular, probably should have been included in the most popular list.

There are quite a few top liberal arts colleges worth considering as well.

In the end, it is a lot more important to focus on what a kid really does at a college than what particular school he/she ends up with. The top 200+ colleges, including the public ones, have big enough platform for anyone to succeed – if you put your heart into it and work hard and smart.

*: Sand Hill Road is a Silicon Valley street dotted with many venture capital firms.