# Which do you think are the ten best colleges and universities in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 27, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685 "2005-09-27T16:04:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685/41 "2005-09-30T02:04:17Z")
Probably not exactly what the OP had in mind, but [Julliard](http://www.juilliard.edu/) is apparently the toughest American school to get into, accepting only 8% of applicants. ---
**Author:** ![GrahamWellington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/54ee81/32.png) [@GrahamWellington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrahamWellington)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685/42 "2005-09-30T02:58:29Z")
I should have thought to mention in my first post that one can go to [collegereviews.com](http://collegereviews.com) and check out what students have to say about the shools they’re attending. But I would guess that some of the comments are probably written by people pretending they’re going there just so they can trash them. ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685/43 "2005-10-03T01:14:11Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I’m a big fan of small, liberal-arts colleges. i think that they provide a fantastic education, and the faculty members are often excellent teachers and mentors. > > But to assert, as **Phlosphr** has, that a liberal arts college like Bowdoin, with an enrolment of less than 2000 students and essentially no graduate and post-doctoral research, belongs in the top 10 “Based on well rounded academia and research,” is patently ridiculous. > > Bowdoin might offer the best undergraduate education in the known world, but it’s not a research university, and really can’t be compared at all with institutions like Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cal-Berkeley, etc. That’s not what I was saying at all. Pomona College is a great liberal arts school, as good as Bowdoin. Just curious that he chose Bowdoin over Pomona. And I think small schools can give a lot that those larger institutions can’t. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685/44 "2005-10-03T01:29:52Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > Based on well rounded academia and research etc…etc… I’d say: > > Harvard > Yale > Princeton > Brown > Dartmouth > Stanford > Bowdoin > MIT > CIT > Oxford Bowdoin, but no Williams or Amherst? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685/45 "2005-10-03T01:55:46Z")
> [@liberty3701](#): > > That’s not what I was saying at all. Pomona College is a great liberal arts school, as good as Bowdoin. Just curious that he chose Bowdoin over Pomona. And I think small schools can give a lot that those larger institutions can’t. Which is exactly the point i made. I was merely noting that if you are going to rank colleges on a national or global scale by teaching **and research** , there’s really no way that small liberal arts colleges can compete in the latter category. ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685/46 "2005-10-03T21:37:42Z")
1. USC 2. Texas 3. Virginia Tech 4. Florida State 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Alabama 8. Tennessee 9. Miami 10. California [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-do-you-think-are-the-ten-best-colleges-and-universities-in-the-world/323685.md?page=2)