The worst ones on the top 10 list, in my experience, have very "upper class" reputations that aren't necessarily justified by their academic standards. For exa

The worst ones on the top 10 list, in my experience, have very "upper class" reputations that aren't necessarily justified by their academic standards. For example, at Trinity College, only 43% of students were top 10% in high school, and the median SAT scores are in the 600-700 range per-test, while the estimated total annual cost is $68,940 [0]. Compare to nearby Yale, where 97% of students are in the top 10% and the middle range of SAT scores is 700-800 (i.e., the top 25% of SAT scores are perfect), while the annual cost is $68,950 [1]. I haven't looked at the rest, but I'm guessing (by repuation) that for a lot of those schools, "elite" is more about class and networks than academic ability. [0]: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/trinity-college https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search... [1] https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/yale-university https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search...