The 104 Smartest Public Colleges In America

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Does your school make the cut? AP Photo/John Raoux

If you want to be surrounded with some of the smartest students in the US and get the most bang for your buck, you may want to consider one of the following universities.

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From our recent list of the smartest colleges in America, we pulled out the top 100 public schools. These colleges offer brainpower and affordability, since the average annual cost of attending an in-state public school is $8,500, according to US News & World Report. Compare that to the average private school cost of $30,500 — a difference of $22,000 a year.

In order to determine a school’s overall smarts, Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program researcher, analyzed the average standardized test scores that schools report to US News. (Those that did not report scores are not included.)

These tests are often criticized, but research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability and give a reasonable snapshot of the brainpower level of that school.

ACT scores were translated into SAT scores (math + verbal) using this concordance table, so that all schools could be compared using one metric. Then, an average of the 25th and 75th percentile was computed (see a full description of the methodology and limitations here).

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On the following ranking, a (2) next to the school's name indicates that some or all students aren't required to supply scores; a (3) indicates that the school did not supply all students it has scores for, or did not tell US News if it had; a (4) indicates that the data is from a previous year, rather than from the most recent year; and a (9) indicates that the school may not require scores from all applicants and that it may not have submitted data for all students.

Here are the smartest public colleges in America:

Smarts Rank                        SchoolAverage    SAT
1Georgia Institute of Technology1385
2University of California-Berkeley1375
3College of William and Mary1365
4United States Air Force Academy1360
5University of Virginia1355
6University of Michigan-Ann Arbor1340
6Colorado School of Mines1340
8University of California-Los Angeles1320
9University of Maryland-College Park1310
10University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill1305
11Ohio State University-Columbus1300
12Binghamton University-SUNY1294
13University of California-San Diego1290
14University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign1285
14New College of Florida1285
16United States Military Academy (3)1283
17United States Naval Academy1280
18United States Coast Guard Academy (3)1275
19University of Pittsburgh1270
20SUNY-Geneseo1269
21United States Merchant Marine Academy1267
22University of Wisconsin-Madison1265
22University of Florida1265
22University of Minnesota-Twin Cities1265
22Missouri University of Science & Technology1265
26University of Texas-Austin1260
26University of Texas-Dallas1260
28University of California-Santa Barbara1250
28Stony Brook University-SUNY1250
30Clemson University1245
30Miami University-Oxford1245
30Truman State University1245
33University of Georgia1240
34North Carolina State University-Raleigh1235
34College of New Jersey1235
36University of Washington1230
36University of Connecticut1230
36CUNY-Baruch College1230
39Florida State University1225
39Auburn University1225
39California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (3)1225
42Virginia Tech1220
43University of California-Davis1210
43Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick1210
43University of Massachusetts-Amherst1210
43University of Maryland-Baltimore County1210
47University of Colorado-Boulder1205
47University of Tennessee1205
47University of South Carolina1205
47Michigan Technological University1205
51Purdue University-West Lafayette1200
52University of Delaware1195
52University of North Carolina-Asheville1195
54St. Mary's College of Maryland (3)1190
54University of North Carolina-Wilmington1190
56University of Vermont1185
56University of Alabama1185
56University of Oklahoma1185
56University of Alabama-Huntsville1185
56New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology1185
61Texas A&M University-College Station1180
61University of Central Florida1180
63Pennsylvania State University-University Park1175
63Indiana University-Bloomington1175
65SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry1170
65University of South Florida1170
65CUNY-Hunter College1170
68University of California-Irvine1165
68University of Iowa1165
68Michigan State University (3)1165
68University of Missouri1165
68Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge1165
68University of Arkansas1165
68University of Minnesota-Morris (3)1165
75College of Charleston (3)1160
75Christopher Newport University (2)1160
77University at Buffalo-SUNY1155
77Salisbury University (9)1155
77University of North Florida1155
80George Mason University (2)1150
80Florida International University1150
80Virginia Military Institute1150
83University of Nebraska-Lincoln1145
83Iowa State University1145
83University of Kansas1145
83Arizona State University-Tempe (2)1145
83University of Cincinnati1145
83University of Kentucky1145
83Oklahoma State University1145
83University of Alabama-Birmingham1145
83University of Louisville (3)1145
83James Madison University1145
83University of Wisconsin-La Crosse1145
94University of California-Santa Cruz1140
94New Jersey Institute of Technology1140
94University of Houston1140
94Georgia College & State University1140
98Appalachian State University1135
99University of Massachusetts-Lowell1130
100Colorado State University1125
100University of Wyoming1125
100SUNY-New Paltz1125
100CUNY-Queens College1125
100University of Michigan-Dearborn1125

 

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly included the University of San Diego, a private institution. The list has been reranked and updated with a new total of 104 schools, due to the five-way tie for No. 100. 


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