College Rankings - A Ranking of 50 Top Colleges by Prestige

These college "prestige rankings" are anything but precise, but they should give you a rough estimate as to how colleges are considered by employers, graduate schools, and the American public. Unlike other college rankings such as those put out each year by U.S. News and World Report, this list doesn't take into account any numerical factors. It also combines universities and liberal arts colleges. The list does not reflect the results of a survey or poll, and is instead simply a subjective ranking based on the opinions and experiences of your Aplus.com Guide.

You shouldn't use this list to decide which college is best for you, or even to determine which schools provide a better education. Many times, for many reasons, a student would do best to choose a college that's not ranked as highly on this list. But if you're just starting to look at colleges and you don't have a great sense as to which schools are considered "top" colleges, this college ranking might be a good place to start.

1. Harvard
2. Princeton
3. Yale
4. Stanford
5. Dartmouth
6. MIT
7. Amherst
8. Williams
9. Columbia
10. Caltech
11. Brown
12. Duke
13. University of Pennsylvania
14. University of Chicago
15. Swarthmore
16. Northwestern University
17. Cornell University
18. Johns Hopkins
19. Berkeley
20. Bowdoin
21. Georgetown
22. Harvey Mudd
23. University of Michigan
24. Wellesley
25. Washington University of St. Louis
26. NYU
27. Notre Dame
28. Carleton
29. UCLA
30. Claremont McKenna
31. University of Virginia
32. Pomona
33. Middlebury
34. Vassar
35. Colgate
36. University of Wisconsin
37. University of North Carolina
38. William and Mary
39. Vanderbilt
40. Bates
41. Emory
42. Smith
43. Wesleyan
44. Davidson
45. Grinnell
46. Rice
47. Colby
48. University of Texas-Austin
49. University of Southern California
50. Tufts