Caltech is a private university in Pasadena. Founded as a preparatory and vocational school, Caltech’s curriculum has a strong emphasis on engineering, science and math. It has six academic divisions and 27 majors. Nearly 95% of undergraduate students participate in research.

Columbia University is an Ivy League institution in New York City. Founded in 1754, it is the oldest college in New York State and the fifth oldest in the country. It has 16 schools and nearly 150 areas of undergraduate, graduate, pre-professional, doctorate and interdisciplinary study.

Cornell University in Ithaca, NY is the easiest of the eight Ivy League colleges to get into but Cornell students maintain that it’s the toughest place to stay enrolled. It’s also the only Ivy that is a private institution operating several public colleges.

Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH is the smallest of the eight Ivy League schools. Founded in 1769 to teach Native Americans, as well as Europeans, it established one of the first Native American programs in the nation.

Duke University, a private research university in Durham, is known for combining the top-tier academics of an Ivy League institution with the excellent sports teams and campus spirit of a large state school.

Founded in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest higher education institution in the country. Located in Cambridge, MA, Harvard has carried on a gold-standard tradition of quality academics and prestige for nearly four centuries.

Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins University is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland. It takes its name from its first benefactor, the American abolitionist, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Johns Hopkins.

The MIT, in Cambridge, MA is a magnet for highly competitive, engaged, brainy students. Since its founding, in 1861, it has produced numerous scientific advances, from radar to 3D printing to decoding the human genome.

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, IL. Its first classes began in the fall of 1855 with two faculty members and 10 students. Today it is considered one of the Midwest’s most elite schools, with a more pre-professional approach than its nearby rival University of Chicago.

Princeton University in Princeton, NJ, was founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the U.S., one of just nine colleges established before the American Revolution, and one of eight schools in the Ivy League.

Stanford University is a private research university in Stanford, near Palo Alto. Founded in 1891, Stanford’s nearly unmatched selectivity and prestige make it a sunnier alternative to its older Ivy League cousins on the East Coast. Stanford’s proximity to Silicon Valley gives its student body an entrepreneurial bent.

Berkeley is regarded as one of the most prestigious state universities in the US. Part of the University of California System, it was founded in 1868. Berkeley’s creation stemmed from a vision in the state constitution of a university that would “contribute even more than California’s gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations”.

UCLA offers opportunities for inquiry, discovery, and education – and yet is a close community that provides a sense of belonging.The campus is home to world-renowned faculty who teach in 230 undergraduate and graduate majors, with more than two dozen academic programmes ranked among the top 20 in their disciplines.

The University of Chicago is an urban research university that has driven new ways of thinking since 1890. Our commitment to free and open inquiry draws inspired scholars to our global campuses, where ideas are born that challenge and change the world.