If you're a high school student deciding where to apply for college, you've probably done some research. Even so, there are schools that may have escaped your notice such as MCPHS University, LIU Brooklyn, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Babson College.
They got the highest score, 100, on a recent evaluation by the Brookings Institution. That puts them right up there with Harvard.
Brookings tries to calculate the "value added" by each school, distinguishing the student characteristics that foster success from the benefit provided by the school.
The Wall Street Journal's list puts Stanford at No. 1, followed by MIT and Columbia. U.S. News gives the top spot to Princeton, with Harvard and the University of Chicago just below.
Britain's Economist lists its top three schools as Washington and Lee, Babson, and Villanova. Among those in the top 10 are Bentley, Otis College of Art and Design, Lehigh and Alderson Broaddus.
All this should come as solace to young people who don't get in, or can't afford, the school they most desire.
Editorial on 10/31/2016