What Are The T50 or The Top 50 US Colleges?

There is no universally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes the T50, but this list will suffice for practically everyone. We are excluding liberal arts colleges because they should not be compared to research universities. Each linked school name below opens our guide to that school's supplemental essays.

Cosmic students have been admitted to every one of the top 30 schools on this list. To learn which of these schools fit you and what it will take to get in, book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our admissions experts.

1. Harvard University

2. Yale University

3. Princeton University

4. Stanford University

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

6. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

7. Columbia University

8. University of Pennsylvania

9. Dartmouth College

10. Brown University

11. Cornell University

12. Duke University

13. Vanderbilt University

14. University of Chicago

15. Johns Hopkins University

16. Northwestern University

17. University of Southern California

18. Rice University

19. Georgetown University

20. New York University

21. Washington University in St. Louis

22. University of Notre Dame

23. Carnegie Mellon University

24. Emory University

25. Tufts University

26. University of Michigan

27. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

28. University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

29. Georgia Institute of Technology

30. Tulane University

31. Boston College

32. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill)

33. University of Virginia (UVA)

34. University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)

35. University of California, Irvine

36. University of Rochester

37. University of California, San Diego

38. University of California, Santa Barbara

39. University of Miami

40. University of Florida

41. Florida State University

42. Boston University

43. Brandeis University

44. University of California, Davis

45. University of Washington

46. Northeastern University

47. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

48. Purdue University

49. University of Wisconsin–Madison

50. University of Maryland

If You Are Applying This Year

Most early decision and early action deadlines fall on or around November 1, and most regular decision deadlines fall in January. At this stage, your essays are the part of your application you can still improve the most. Essays that ask why you want to attend a school work best when they name specific programs, professors, and opportunities there and connect each one to your own experiences. Your personal statement should show what you would add to the incoming class. Common App Essays That Work and Read This Before Writing That Sob Story show how to do that. For help with your essays, your college list, or where to apply early, book a free consultation, and we will show you what to focus on first.

If You Are in 9th, 10th, or 11th Grade

Which of these schools are within reach for you depends on what you do before senior year. For the schools at the top of this list, that means taking the most rigorous courses available to you while keeping your unweighted GPA at or near 4.0. It also means building activities that produce evidence of what you can do, such as research, competition results, and original projects. The Only 3 Extracurriculars You Need to Get Into an Ivy League School covers the activities that do the most for applicants to these schools. Acceptance to a selective summer research program, such as the Research Science Institute at MIT, is a credential admissions officers recognize on sight. Most of these programs close their applications over the winter. To get an expert's read on where you stand and what to do next, book a free consultation.

Book a Free Consultation

Cosmic was founded by Dr. Daniel Berkowitz, who holds a PhD in theoretical physics from Yale. Of the students who follow their Cosmic consultant's recommendations, 96% are admitted to at least one of their top three preferred colleges. See every school our students were admitted to last cycle. In a free 30-minute consultation for you or your child, one of our admissions experts will give you advice you can act on right away.