（寫於1/2024）
非權威一家之言，觀眾請勿對號入座
For reference only
T1: Harvard (#1 in US and #1 in the world overall)
#0: Stanford (the biggest rivalry of Harvard in the 21th century).
T3: Harvard/Stanford/MIT (Generally world's top 3 or 5 across almost all rankings)
T5: HYPSM (routinely among the world's top 10; absolutely top 5 in US with a wide margin with other schools)
T6: There is no such thing as T6. undergraduate academics-wise, Caltech has the T6 caliber. Student rep/selectivity, Columbia may be a good T6. But really, there is no T6. If you consider overall university, including graduate school, then the T6 could be HYPSM + UC Berkeley.
T10: US News annual ranking top 10. May have a few ties.
Ivy: 8 schools everybody knows
3 Big Ivies (or Top Ivies): H/Y/P. The east coast noble.
HYPS: the 4 comprehensive universities in T5. MIT is still largely STEM focused.
Mid-ivy: generally refers to Columbia & Penn.
Mid-ivy equivalent: Often refers to UChicago, Duke, Caltech; and to a less extent, Northwestern and JHU. UC Berkeley undergraduate academics is often regarded as comparable to mid-ivy equivalent level.
Small-ivy (or "Lower Ivies"): Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell. But often people combine the 3 with Columbia and Penn and refer all 5 as lower ivies (The difference among them are much smaller than their gap with HYP).
Ivy + SM: 10 schools, including 8 ivies, Stanford, MIT
IvyPlus: typically12 schools, including 8 Ivies + Stanford, MIT, UChicago, Duke (Caltech is not included not because of its rep, but for the size and narrow specialty)
T15: The 8 Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UChicago, Duke, Northwestern, JHU. Sometimes the T15 are also referred to as IvyPlus.
These 15 schools represent the best of best and most reputable in US undergraduate education for national universities. Their rep and prestige is very stable. (Some top LACs are pretty close to the quality of lower T15).
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Vandy, Rice, Washinton U would come very close to the lower T15.
T18: T15 + Rice, Vandy, Washington U
T20: T18 + several schools. Possible candidates are Emory, Notre Dame, Georgetown, or top public ivies
T25: T20 + top public ivies, CMU, USC (NYU is close. US News ranks NYU #25 now)
Top public ivies: UC Berkeley, Michigan, UCLA, UVA, UNC, UT
Fast rising universities in US: NYU, UT, USC, CMU, Northeastern (and UCLA and UW to some extent; UF is fast rising in US News ranking, but not fast rising in rep or job placements)
Big 4 in CS: MIT, CMU, Stanford, UC Berkeley
Best 4 colleges for startup: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley
6 "Global Super Brands": 4 US schools (Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley) + 2 UK (Oxford, Cambridge)
Best undergraduate colleges for business career: All ivies (including Penn-Wharton), Stanford, MIT, Duke, UChicago, UC Berkeley, UT, UVA, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU, Georgetown, Notre Dame...
(JHU, Caltech are not big feeders to top business jobs)
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There are too many great universities in the US.
Even T50, T100 schools in the US would be considered very high quality in the world.
Finally， for most families, T1 should be the school your kid actually went to.
