If you're looking for exclusivity, academic excellence, and exposure to the brainiest students in the US, you may want to check out the universities below.
We recently ranked the smartest colleges in America, and private institutions dominated the top of the list. Only 17 public schools broke into the top 100. Here, we take a closer look at the highest-ranked private schools in terms of sheer student brainpower.
In order to determine a school's overall smarts, Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program researcher, analyzed the average standardized test scores that schools report to US News. (Those that did not report scores are not included.)
These tests are often criticized, but research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability and give a reasonable snapshot of the brainpower level of that school.
ACT scores were translated into SAT scores (math + verbal) using this concordance table, so that all schools could be compared using one metric. Then, an average of the 25th and 75th percentile was computed (see a full description of the methodology and limitations here).
On the following ranking, a (2) next to the school's name indicates that some or all students aren't required to supply scores; a (3) indicates that the school did not supply all students it has scores for, or did not tell US News if it had; a (4) indicates that the data is from a previous year, rather than from the most recent year; and a (9) indicates that the school may not require scores from all applicants and that it may not have submitted data for all students.
Here are the smartest private colleges in America:
| Smarts Rank | School |
Average SAT |
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | 1545 |
| 2 | University of Chicago | 1515 |
| 3 | Princeton University | 1505 |
| 3 | Harvard University | 1505 |
| 3 | Yale University | 1505 |
| 6 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 1500 |
| 7 | Columbia University | 1485 |
| 8 | Harvey Mudd College | 1480 |
| 9 | Stanford University | 1475 |
| 10 | Northwestern University | 1470 |
| 11 | Dartmouth College | 1460 |
| 11 | Washington University in St. Louis | 1460 |
| 11 | University of Notre Dame | 1460 |
| 11 | Vanderbilt University | 1460 |
| 11 | Rice University | 1460 |
| 11 | Pomona College | 1460 |
| 17 | Duke University | 1455 |
| 18 | University of Pennsylvania | 1450 |
| 19 | Tufts University | 1445 |
| 20 | Amherst College | 1440 |
| 20 | Swarthmore College | 1440 |
| 22 | Brown University (3) | 1435 |
| 22 | Carnegie Mellon University | 1435 |
| 22 | Williams College | 1435 |
| 22 | Bowdoin College (2) | 1435 |
| 26 | Johns Hopkins University | 1430 |
| 26 | Carleton College | 1430 |
| 28 | Cornell University | 1420 |
| 29 | Georgetown University | 1410 |
| 29 | Wellesley College | 1410 |
| 29 | Claremont McKenna College | 1410 |
| 32 | Haverford College | 1400 |
| 32 | Washington and Lee University | 1400 |
| 32 | Wesleyan University | 1400 |
| 35 | Vassar College | 1395 |
| 36 | Northeastern University | 1390 |
| 37 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 1389 |
| 38 | Middlebury College | 1385 |
| 38 | Hamilton College | 1385 |
| 40 | University of Southern California | 1380 |
| 41 | Case Western Reserve University | 1375 |
| 41 | Reed College (9) | 1375 |
| 41 | Bard College at Simon's Rock (2) | 1375 |
| 44 | Scripps College | 1367 |
| 45 | Emory University | 1365 |
| 46 | Oberlin College | 1363 |
| 47 | Boston College | 1360 |
| 47 | New York University | 1360 |
| 47 | Tulane University (3) | 1360 |
| 47 | Colgate University | 1360 |
| 51 | Cooper Union | 1355 |
| 52 | University of Rochester (2) | 1350 |
| 52 | Brandeis University | 1350 |
| 52 | Macalester College | 1350 |
| 55 | Colby College (2) | 1345 |
| 55 | Bates College (2) | 1345 |
| 57 | Grinnell College | 1340 |
| 57 | Bryn Mawr College | 1340 |
| 57 | Barnard College | 1340 |
| 60 | Davidson College (3) | 1335 |
| 60 | Smith College (2) | 1335 |
| 62 | Wake Forest University (2) | 1325 |
| 62 | University of Miami | 1325 |
| 62 | Colorado College (2) | 1325 |
| 62 | Mount Holyoke College (2) | 1325 |
| 62 | Connecticut College (2) | 1325 |
| 67 | Whitman College | 1321 |
| 68 | Kenyon College | 1320 |
| 68 | Wheaton College | 1320 |
| 70 | Lehigh University | 1315 |
| 70 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2) | 1315 |
| 70 | Franklin and Marshall College (2) | 1315 |
| 73 | University of Richmond | 1310 |
| 73 | Union College (NY) (2) | 1310 |
| 75 | College of the Holy Cross (2) | 1305 |
| 75 | Pitzer College (2) | 1305 |
| 75 | Occidental College | 1305 |
| 75 | Hendrix College | 1305 |
| 75 | St. John's College (NM) (2) | 1305 |
| 75 | Villanova University | 1305 |
| 81 | Southern Methodist University | 1300 |
| 81 | Stevens Institute of Technology | 1300 |
| 81 | Bucknell University | 1300 |
| 81 | Denison University (2) | 1300 |
| 81 | Rhodes College | 1300 |
| 81 | Hillsdale College | 1300 |
| 87 | George Washington University | 1295 |
| 88 | Boston University | 1290 |
| 89 | Brigham Young University-Provo | 1285 |
| 89 | University of Tulsa | 1285 |
| 89 | Centre College | 1285 |
| 89 | Gettysburg College (2) | 1285 |
| 89 | St. Olaf College | 1285 |
| 89 | Lawrence University (2) | 1285 |
| 89 | Santa Clara University | 1285 |
| 96 | Bennington College (2) | 1280 |
| 97 | Dickinson College (2) | 1278 |
| 98 | Lafayette College | 1275 |
| 98 | Bard College (2) | 1275 |
| 98 | St. John's College (2) | 1275 |
| 98 | Lewis & Clark College (2) | 1275 |