Harvard University Cambridge, MA Acceptance Rate: 5.8% SAT/ACT 25th Percentile: SAT 2120; ACT 32 SAT/ACT 75th Percentile: SAT 2390; ACT 35 Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. 35 years after Harvard undergraduates held a vote on their preferred school color, Crimson was officially named the College's color in 1910. Harvard was ranked the 2nd Best National University in 2015.Read more
Yale University New Haven, CT Acceptance Rate: 7.1% SAT/ACT 25th Percentile: SAT 2120; ACT 31 SAT/ACT 75th Percentile: SAT 2380; ACT 35 Yale University was founded in 1701 by colonial clergymen in New Haven, and was the third college established in British North America. Yale became a true university in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when it added graduate and professional schools. Read more
Princeton University Princeton, NJ Acceptance Rate: 7.4% SAT/ACT 25th Percentile: SAT 2120; ACT 31 SAT/ACT 75th Percentile: SAT 2390; ACT 35 Rated the #1 National University in 2015 by U.S. News & World Report, Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey for its first 150 years. While its charter was issued to members of the Presbyterian Church, the College accepted all students, regardless of their religious affiliation. Read more
Columbia University New York, NY Acceptance Rate: 7.4% SAT/ACT 25th Percentile: SAT 2100; ACT 32 SAT/ACT 75th Percentile: SAT 2360; ACT 35 Columbia, located in New York City and founded in 1754, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York. Its mission statement notes that the University "seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis." Read more
Stanford University Stanford, CA Acceptance Rate: 5.7% SAT/ACT 25th Percentile: SAT 2080; ACT 31 SAT/ACT 75th Percentile: SAT 2350; ACT 34 In 1891, former California Governor Leland Stanford founded Stanford University in honor of his only son, who died of typhoid fever in 1884. Unlike other universities of the time, Stanford was open to both men and women. Some of the largest Silicon Valley companies, such as Google, Yahoo, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett-Packard Company all have strong ties to the West Coast Ivy. Read more
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Acceptance Rate: 8.2% SAT/ACT 25th Percentile: SAT 2090; ACT 32 SAT/ACT 75th Percentile: SAT 2350; ACT 35 One of the world's most prestigious science and research universities, MIT was established in 1861 to meet the demands of the quickly industrializing United States. To do so, MIT originally specialized in engineering and the physical sciences. Over the years, however, it began to encompass the social and natural sciences, as well.Read more