what are some rly prestigious schools that are not part of the ivy league, staford, or mit that a lot of average ppl highly regard?

Lol dang was just hoppin on Michigan snark wagon! Literally do not care about OSU / Michigan. I went to a small lib arts school that played App State (aka the Boone goons). Often times for large state schools the football coach is the highest paid state employee soooOoOoo….

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psc1919@reddit

So many haters out here

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tarheel_204@reddit

App State mentioned RAHHH

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SweetandSourCaroline@reddit

Def Heels over Dook 😉

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tarheel_204@reddit

Speaking my language 🤝

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saudiaramcoshill@reddit

Didn't go there. But legitimately a top school.

Too bad they are absolute cocky frat bros about it though.

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drewcandraw@reddit

UC Berkeley.

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krkrbnsn@reddit

Roll on you bears!

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IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit

Go Bears!

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bearsnchairs@reddit

Go Bears.

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bateneco@reddit

For big schools, Johns Hopkins, CalTech, and West Point.

Smaller liberal arts schools tend to be less known overall, but among people looking for a liberal arts education, Williams, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Carleton, and Grinnell tend to be very well thought of.

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krkrbnsn@reddit

CalTech has 2400 students total. Maybe you mean UC Berkeley which has 46,000?

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ZaphodG@reddit

You normally lump Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyan together. Bates, Bowdoin, Colby. What used to be the 7 sisters. Radcliffe is now part of Harvard. Vassar is co-ed. Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard.

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Acceptable_Reality17@reddit

How are you defining “big” here?

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wobbsey@reddit

yes, i was waiting for a mention of the liberal arts colleges. they’ll never be big universities but have some clout.

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Dear-Explanation-350@reddit

Go Pioneers!

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waltzthrees@reddit

Here’s one you won’t have heard of. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. A very respected engineering school, very niche. US News & World Report ranks it No. 1 in undergraduate engineering schools. 95% of graduates land jobs in their field within six months of graduating.

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elphaba00@reddit

I wonder if no one has heard of it because, geographically speaking, it sits in the shadow of the U of I in Urbana. When everyone thinks of Illinois, they think of engineering.

I've heard of Rose Hulman. My husband got in but didn't end up going. He decided an engineering career wasn't for him.

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waltzthrees@reddit

It’s considered in the shadows of Purdue, an engineering powerhouse an hour or so away from

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BUBBAH-BAYUTH@reddit

UNC

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SeaPeanut7_@reddit

You can look here, obv filtering out the ivies MIT and stanford

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

So.. CalTech, Duke, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Cal Berkeley, NYU, USC, etc. I'd say the top 30 or so are all very prestigious and known throughout the country. 30-50 are also good but more regional.

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jcrewjr@reddit

Also the national college list. I suspect Williams (for example) isn't as prestigious as the top Universities, but it's damn prestigious anyway.

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Calm_Consequence731@reddit

Top 2 LAC is nationwide prestigious: Williams and Amherst

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jcrewjr@reddit

It's more than that, imo. But opinions can differ.

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thedoubledragon12@reddit

University of wyoming

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Random-OldGuy@reddit

U of Chicago, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, GA Tech, U of IL, U of Mich, Rose-Hulman, etc, etc

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

Foreigners have no idea not only how many top tier colleges there are here, but even how many really good to great colleges there are here. I've seen many questions that kind of insinuate it's either ivy or trash when there are literally hundreds of great colleges here. Apparently there's around 19 million students in college. Ivy league is an incredibly small fraction.

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ND7020@reddit

University of Chicago is somehow missed in this thread and is on the prestige level of anything listed.

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HalcyonHelvetica@reddit

Outside of college-educated people, most will assume you mean UIC or UIUC 9/10 times in my experience.

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Corn_Wholesaler@reddit

Also quite infamous.

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ND7020@reddit

The school of economics, absolutely! Don’t share that degree in Latin America…

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WARitter@reddit

Also the School of Social Thought. I have Loe Strauss’s paperweight.

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Agreeable-Damage9119@reddit

I'm a U of C alum (undergrad & grad). Eff the econ dept.

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OsvuldMandius@reddit

We won the Cold War! (One of my favorite school t shirts when I was there)

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Elegant_Amount8526@reddit

My son who is a Jr in High School, and has no interest in U of Chicago gets something in the mail from them at least once a week. And this has been going on since last school year. Didn’t know much about the school before this, but their admissions mailing budget must be huge!

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flp_ndrox@reddit

Lack of undergrad focus is what I would expect is the problem.

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DogOrDonut@reddit

Many schools are known regionally or are industry specific. Anyone in PA is going to think Penn State is a great school. Anyone in the optics field is going to be impressed with a degree from the University of Arizona or University of Rochester.

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anclwar@reddit

Living in PA for the last decade and a half, I swear Penn State is actually just a cult. There are some really great schools here, but holy hell does Penn State get hyped.

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DogOrDonut@reddit

Flagship land grant universities always have a cult following in their home state. If Penn State is a cult then Ohio State is the church of scientology lol.

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unsurewhatiteration@reddit

U of R has some pretty solid programs in the other sciences as well, and their finance MBA is internationally regarded.

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Visible-Shop-1061@reddit

They produce a lot of doctors and Phd scientists. Also highly regarded in Political Science, Physics & Astronomy, Linguistics and Anthropology. And the governor of Pennsylvania went there. And the mom from That 70's Show.

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DogOrDonut@reddit

Both RIT and UR are fantastic schools with many great programs. I live in Western NY and am very thankful for the resources they offer the region.

I chose the specific example I did because Rochester and Arizona are very much not in the same region, but both share a niche that makes them known by people in that niche all over the country.

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unsurewhatiteration@reddit

Hell, while we're on WNY might as well throw Alfred University out there. There's typically no reason for anyone to know that entire county exists, but if you want a PhD in ceramics they've got you covered.

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OldBat001@reddit

This made me laugh. I went to U of R -- University of Redlands, a small liberal arts university in Southern California. (Go Bulldogs!)

I'm going to assume you weren't referring to my alma mater.

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Winter_Whole2080@reddit

Penn State was? or still is well regarded for Logistics and Architectural Engineering… I’m sure among other things, but those are two that I am familiar with.

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DogOrDonut@reddit

I'm pretty sure they're like the top school for forensic science (or should I say they're unrivaled, ba dum tssss). They're also up there for petroleum engineering and astrophysics.

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Winter_Whole2080@reddit

Also Meteorology.. I forgot that.

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Patiod@reddit

And meteorology

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CoolWhipOfficial@reddit

Harvard of the west! 🐻⬇️

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BankManager69420@reddit

Exactly this. BYU is a fairly basic school but a broadcasting degree from there is considered super prestigious in the industry. Similarly, Oregon State is a fairly standard public university. But if you work in geology or natural sciences, it’s one of the best schools. Lots of schools are prestigious within certain industries.

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Proud_Calendar_1655@reddit

When I did a tour of U of R they basically said they’re only a step below Ivy League. (And their almost $70K/year price tag would agree)

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WrongJohnSilver@reddit

Caltech, woohoo!

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Yossarian216@reddit

I don’t know about average people, but when it comes to private schools in no particular order Cal Tech, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Washington University St Louis, Notre Dame, and USC are all either right near the Ivy League schools or like one tier down.

There are a lot of highly regarded state schools too, usually the flagship school of a state university system. Among the best of those would include, in no particular order, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio State, Virginia, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Rutgers, Maryland, and Purdue.

Both lists are incomplete as I’m sure there are schools I missed, and will change over time, and will be different across regions as well since people will often favor local schools. It’s also important to note that the “best” school often depends on major, for instance if you’re going into engineering you’re far better off at Illinois or Purdue or Carnegie Mellon than at Harvard or Yale, so prestige within specific fields doesn’t always align with the overall school prestige.

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BoukenGreen@reddit

Yep. I know in Alabama if you want a good engineering school you go to the University of Alabama in Huntsville, human medicine you go to University of Alabama in Birmingham, vet medicine you go to Auburn University.

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geekyMary@reddit

Northwestern.

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Em-Dashhh@reddit

💜

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Huskerschu@reddit

Northwestern

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Hylian_ina_halfshell@reddit

William and Mary would be an ivy league school without a made up geographical line

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Katesouthwest@reddit

Hillsdale

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OldRaj@reddit

American Samoa School of Law.

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SkokieRob@reddit

Agree with many of these but would discount all the state schools listed except UNC, Michigan, and UC Berkeley. (I recognize that will attract some hate) I would include the military academies in the “really prestigious” list.

I would add some of the liberal arts colleges such as Williams, Amherst, Oberlin, Bowdoin, and Swarthmore.

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paradisetossed7@reddit

UConn is a public ivy, I'd include it in the list. UMass as well.

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fanrva@reddit

I saw an article recently talking about the “new Ivy League” referring to schools like UVA and UNC Chapel Hill. So, I’d say those and similar.

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notadamnprincess@reddit

They were saying that 25 years ago when I was in undergrad too. They called them “Public Ivies” and both the schools you identified, William & Mary (my alma mater), UC Berkeley, and a couple others were on the list.

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paradisetossed7@reddit

They still use the term public ivies, Here's wikipedia's list

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Longjumping_Swan_631@reddit

Rock n Roll High School

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Wespiratory@reddit

Rice, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Duke, Wellesley.

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MarcusAurelius0@reddit

RIT and U of R attract international attention.

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SeaABrooks@reddit

SMU

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DryDependent6854@reddit

Carnegie Mellon University, Wesleyan

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Suspicious-Peace9233@reddit

Northwestern, BU

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Agreeable-Damage9119@reddit

The University of Chicago - Where Fun Comes To Die

I loved my time there. But it's more highly regarded by people in the know. Average folks often think it's a state school. But I've gotten multiple jobs simply through name recognition.

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PAXICHEN@reddit

Williams College. The College of Willam & Mary. Amherst College.

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Shoshawi@reddit

University of Florida.

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Visible-Shop-1061@reddit

staford, wiliam, amhurts, bodin, uva, vanderbuilt, washyou, georgetown, dewk, northweston, elizabeth berkeley

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Visible-Shop-1061@reddit

toughts, swathmoore, haveherford, ramona, harvey firestein, rweed, oberlynn, wesleyan, kenyin, kohlgate, trinity

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Most_Routine2325@reddit

All 5 of the Claremont Colleges in Southern California. They are quietly prestigious and barely anyone knows of them. Chirp!

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LemonSlicesOnSushi@reddit

Harvey Mudd has the highest starting pay for all college graduates..higher than any Ivy League.

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Dazzling-Climate-318@reddit

The average person has no regard for Ivy League schools, typically they don’t know which schools other than Harvard and Princeton, and maybe Yale actually are Ivy League Schools. The idea of a prestigious school is laughable. Basically the classifications are broken down into hard schools for smart people, schools for rich spoiled brats, schools which you have to work hard at, party schools, regular schools and schools for dummies. The average person really doesn’t view any colleges or universities as prestigious in the U.S., or anywhere else. Actually, except for the hard schools for smart people and the ones you have to work hard at, colleges and universities are seen by the average person as bad jokes that don’t teach much of anything, don’t prepare a person for anything and are just an excuse to extend childhood by a few years. This is especially true of the party schools that have reputations for being plush opportunities for a lot of sex, drinking, partying and recreational pursuits.

I’d say the list of Prestigious Universities is very small and includes the Service Academies, MIT and Stanford.

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Worldly-Kitchen-9749@reddit

Berkeley

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MonicaBWQ@reddit

Vanderbilt

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herehear12@reddit

Depends on what you wanna learn

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Pleasant_Box4580@reddit

Baylor, CalTech, NYU

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thattogoguy@reddit

The Federal Service Academies:

The United States Military Academy (West Point, New York, for the US Army)
The United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland, for the US Navy and US Marine Corps)
The United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the US Air Force and US Space Force)
The United States Coast Guard Academy (New London, Connecticut, for the US Coast Guard)
The United States Merchant Marine Academy (King's Point, New York, for all of the services and the US Merchant Marine)

There are a lot of other schools: Vanderbilt, Georgetown, George Washington University, Tulane, Emory, Duke, Rice, Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Northwestern, Cal Tech (on the same level as MIT), Tufts, Colgate, Wake Forest, Washington and Lee, Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Brigham Young (Mormon), Villanova (Catholic), Brandeis (Jewish)...

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Hardstumpy@reddit

West Point

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Hardstumpy@reddit

Juilliard School

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Necro138@reddit

Rhode Island School of Design

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No_Vacation369@reddit

UCLA

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eyetracker@reddit

Most people haven't heard of Deep Springs College, but it's among the most prestigious community colleges, and you learn practical skills too. 26 students per year, most go on to rather famous universities.

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ubiquitous-joe@reddit

William & Mary is technically not in the Ivy League iirc, but is the second-oldest college in America after Harvard. Alumni include Thomas Jefferson.

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Top-Temporary-2963@reddit

Vanderbilt

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Appropriate_Swan_233@reddit

Univ. Of Wisconsin

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doccat8510@reddit

Hopkins, Duke, Wash U in St Louis, uChicago, Northwestern, Mayo (for medicine), Michigan, several of the UC schools, Vanderbilt

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itsjustme10@reddit

Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Pepperdine, NYU, Smith, Rice, Tulane, Duke, Reed

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IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit

UC Berkeley.

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Ghost_Pulaski1910@reddit

NESCAC - Tufts, Colby, Middlebury, Williams, etc.

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dgmilo8085@reddit

CAL Berkley

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1biggeek@reddit

Cooper Union.

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wobbsey@reddit

cooper union is THE most impressive to me. amazing.

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hunkerd0wn@reddit

Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgia tech, Rice, Duke, Michigan, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and Chicago just off the top of my head.

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lionhearted318@reddit

A lot lol. Can you pinpoint a specific region, vibe, or academic field you're interested in?

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meewwooww@reddit

RPI and RIT

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hurtingheart4me@reddit

Vanderbilt

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SpecialMud6084@reddit

Rice

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Extension-Scarcity41@reddit

UVA

Caltech

Berkeley

Wellesley

Smith

John's Hopkins

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KaiSaya117@reddit

Highly regard? Hahaha!! That is funny

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cool_weed_dad@reddit

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is one of the best art schools in the country and very hard to get into.

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TrappedInHyperspace@reddit

MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and maybe Chicago are the schools with a prestige comparable to the Ivy League. There are many other schools with stellar reputations, but these universities and the Ivies share the top of most rankings.

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Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit

Off the dome William and Mary, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Texas, cal, UCLA, duke, vandy, uva, Miami, Chicago, wake Forest, Georgia tech, cal tech

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PA_MallowPrincess_98@reddit

In my area of Pennsylvania, Susquehanna University is a prestigious Liberal Arts institution. I went there and whenever I told people about going there, their eyebrows raise because it’s a great school and many people drop out or transfer because their academics are difficult compared to other schools in the area.

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justwatchingsports@reddit

In 90% or so of the country, people rate their local flagship school very highly. National audiences might not care, but places like Berkeley, UCLA, Texas, Florida, Washington, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Wisconsin etc. absolutely mean something to their local community

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PlentyPossibility505@reddit

I’m pretty sure the majority of Nebraskans believe the university of NE is one of the best schools in the nation.

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TheNerdofLife@reddit

Johns Hopkins, UF, Duke, UNC, UC Berkeley, and NYU come to mind

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trapezoid-@reddit

ucla, cal, umich, uva, jhu, caltech, rice

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Chance_Novel_9133@reddit

Kenyon College is known for the Kenyon Review and its English lit and creative writing programs. (Or at least it was when I was there.)

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juliefromva@reddit

William and Mary

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wcpm88@reddit

Tribe pride baby (wife and mom are alums)

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DOMSdeluise@reddit

hark upon the mfin gale

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notadamnprincess@reddit

Nice! (And now the song is stuck in my head🤦‍♀️)

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AdAltruistic8526@reddit

Oh no, William and Mary won’t do

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juliefromva@reddit

lol sorry you were rejected Jersey boy 🫶

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Providence451@reddit

Rice.

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Icy_Consideration409@reddit

Go Owls.

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bobbichocolatthe2nd@reddit

Vanderbilt Duke

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pigeontheoneandonly@reddit

There are also a lot of schools that are kind of one trick ponies but very well known in their fields. For example Rose Hulman is probably the best undergraduate School of engineering in the country, but outside of that nobody's ever heard of it.

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QuarterNote44@reddit

Washington U in St Louis

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La_Rata_de_Pizza@reddit

Devry, Southern New Hampshire, Liberty, Grand Canyon

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ucbiker@reddit

Johns Hopkins

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YoungKeys@reddit

I used to smoke pot with Johnny Hopkins

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RickMoneyRS@reddit

It was me, Johnny Hopkins, and Sloan Kettering, and we were blazing that shit up all day.

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cn45@reddit

reed college

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Inspi@reddit

With the spelling and capitalization in your post, don't worry about it. You've got no chance of going to any of them.

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marticcrn@reddit

University of Pennsylvania. New York University. Georgia Tech. University of California Berkeley. University of Chicago. Northwestern.

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SusanLFlores@reddit

University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Tufts, Notre Dame, William & Mary, and several others.

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zedazeni@reddit

Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) for STEM, Washington University (St Louis) for medical/law

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TrailGordo@reddit

Pepperdine. Mist of the others I thought of are already mentioned. Probably USC, too.

And lots of schools have a few highly regarded programs that rank higher than the school does overall because of special research facilities or connections to certain industries. UT Knoxville, for example, is notable for criminal forensics because of the Body Farm and nuclear research because of their connections to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other nuclear industry-related government programs and contractors.

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Oceanbreeze871@reddit

Yup. San Jose state and Missouri are two of the est journalism schools. Syracuse for broadcast media.

UC Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara have world class oceanography and related programs. Sonoma state you can learn the business of vineyards.

Some state schools in the southwest have incredible agricultural programs with working cattle farms.

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Sonoma_Cyclist@reddit

i'm in CA so my list has regional bias but I'd throw out there: USC, Cal Berkely, Any of the Claremont Colleges

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neBular_cipHer@reddit

Duke

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Oceanbreeze871@reddit

Washington University in St Louis.

Duke

The entire university of California system esp Berkeley and UCLA.

Carnegie Mellon

Johnson Hopkins

We also have done very prestigious vocational schools. For things like design, media, film, music, Advertising, automotive design, industrial design etc there are some super prestigious art and design schools that produce lots of kids with grewt job prospects (fine art is only a very small part of what those schools are known for.)

Art Center College of Design, Rhode Island School of design, Pratt, Parsons, Cranbrook, Maryland institute of design, Minneapolis college of art and design, art institute of Chicago, American film institute, Juilliard, Berkeley school of music etc

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JustAnotherDay1977@reddit

Vanderbilt

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Kajeke@reddit

Forbes recently published a list of 20 public and private “New Ivies”. Many have already been mentioned here, a few not.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2025/03/26/the-new-ivies-2025-20-great-colleges-employers-love/

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himtnboy@reddit

The military academies

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old-town-guy@reddit

University of Chicago. University of Virginia. Duke University. Georgetown University. CalTech.

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Important_Hurry_950@reddit

My daughter went to Davidson College in NC. It’s not easy to get into.

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Trilliam_West@reddit

There's a bunch. CalTech, Johns Hopkins, RPI, a bunch of state flagships...

It might be easier to look at say R1 universities (broadly) or AAU schools (more narrowly) when trying to determine prestigious schools.

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PseudonymousJim@reddit

UW Madison

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TeamTurnus@reddit

Regionally probally though I dont think they have the same national reputation as the example schools (this is often true for good state schools ime)

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No-Conversation1940@reddit

UW-Madison is very high on the research expenditures list, 6th of all American univerisities IIRC.

Outside of that, in my non-research master's degree program, the employers are in Wisconsin, Chicago, the Twin Cities, or there are a few in/around New York City.

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TeamTurnus@reddit

Yup, good school, no argument there, mostly just responding to the 'lots of average people' since ime its mostly highly regarded regionally vs nationally

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merp_mcderp9459@reddit

Yep, though some state schools (UMich, Berkely, UVA, UNC Chapel Hill) are exceptions to that rule

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HoyAIAG@reddit

Case Western Reserve

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Tudorrosewiththorns@reddit

UGA and GA Tech.

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Expat111@reddit

UGA? Fir football but not for academics.

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Tudorrosewiththorns@reddit

That have excellent business and Law schools. Also veterinary. I can't tell you how many people I know whose pets are only alive because of UGA.

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merp_mcderp9459@reddit

Depends on where you're drawing the line for prestigious. The Ivies + the schools that OP mentioned are all top 20 nationally, UGA is #46. So prestigious compared to the overall pool of American universities, but not prestigious compared to that group

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Expat111@reddit

Dude. Sorry but UGA is nowhere near Ivy League status and I attended UGA (lived in Russell Hall). Comparing UGA in any way to a Duke or Georgetown is laughable.

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Tudorrosewiththorns@reddit

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_College_of_Business

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trumpet575@reddit

You're half right

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brownbag5443@reddit

See the Little Ivies.

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NittanyOrange@reddit

Penn State and Syracuse.

I don't care what any responses say.

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manhattanabe@reddit

Wash U, northwestern.

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PhilTheThrill1808@reddit

Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory, Rice.

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like_shae_buttah@reddit

Duke

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JakeVonFurth@reddit

To my knowledge a lot of schools are known within their fields.

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merp_mcderp9459@reddit

Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, UMich, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, CalTech

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Efficient_Face8433@reddit

DUKE

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QuarterObvious@reddit

Georgia Tech

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semasswood@reddit

U. Mass

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BroCanWeGetLROTNOG@reddit

So many liberal arts colleges, like Swarthmore + Claremont schools, that nobody talks about

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Hefty-Club-1259@reddit

Schools that nobody talks about are probably not schools that average people highly regard.

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BroCanWeGetLROTNOG@reddit

Did you read the question? These are prestigious but not well known by many.

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Hefty-Club-1259@reddit

The question asked for prestigious schools that a lot of average people highly regard. If they're not well know how would a lot of average people highly regard them?

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