25 New Ivies

Reed College
Portland, Ore.
Who is the ideal Reed student? "Reed is for independent-minded, intellectually passionate students, people who care about ideas, people who challenge conventions," says Paul Marthers, dean of admission. Reed ranks in the top three of U.S. schools for the percentage of graduates who earn Ph.D.s, and it has produced 31 Rhodes scholars. The required curriculum includes a Great Books core: Virgil, Homer, Aristotle, Plato, selections of the New Testament and Greek and Roman plays. About a third of students major in science and math, a third in social sciences and a third in arts and humanities. Students must produce a thesis, which is then bound and put in Reed's library.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, N.Y.
Applications to RPI were up 23 percent in 2005—a reflection of the school's reputation as an educator of scientists and engineers. The class of 2010 is 29 percent female. Students like the school's state-of-the-art facilities, including the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. RPI also operates a co-op program that lets students work at companies like IBM. Hockey is big on campus; RPI has a Division I team that's won two national championships. Skiing is also popular; the campus is just 45 minutes from the Adirondacks and the Catskills.

Rice University
Houston, Texas
Although Rice is located just three miles from downtown Houston, the 300-acre campus is pastoral. The private university's nine residential colleges were inspired by Oxford and give students an opportunity to belong to a more intimate group. Each college has a "faculty master" selected by students, other masters and the president. The emphasis on student-faculty interaction is echoed in the classroom, where the median class size is 15. Many students like the fact that Rice has Division I sports, including a top baseball team. About 40 percent of students double-major, often pairing economics with engineering or political science. Overlap schools: Stanford, Harvard, MIT and Duke.

University of Rochester
Rochester, N.Y.
Over the past decade, this small, private university has dramatically changed its curriculum. "We threw out general education," says Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions. Students now pick all their courses. As a research institution, Rochester is particularly strong in science and engineering, but liberal arts are also popular, along with music and nursing. About 70 percent of humanities students study overseas, and about 80 percent go to grad school. Most students live on campus, which is some distance from downtown Rochester. Overlap schools: Cornell, Brown, Tufts, NYU and Northwestern.

Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Consider the location: a picturesque small city (with good restaurants) that's three hours from New York, Boston and Montreal. That's great for students who don't want to study in an urban area, yet want access to big cities. Skidmore offers a broad curriculum, with traditional majors in the liberal arts and sciences, but also in subjects like management and business. The college is strong as well in individual and performing arts. Saratoga Springs has the oldest Thoroughbred racetrack in the United States. It's the permanent summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The school runs its own programs in London, Spain, Paris, India and Beijing, and is affiliated with many other overseas programs. Overlap schools: Vassar, Connecticut College, Wesleyan and NYU.

Tufts University
Medford, Mass.
Applications to this medium-size university in a Boston suburb have increased 80 percent in the last decade. Lee Coffin, director of undergraduate admissions, says the school's mission is why. "We're using the intellect to make a difference in the world," he says. "Look at the liberal arts. Look at the engineering fields. How do you take these disciplines and interpret them broadly?" Students are expected to take what they learn and find real-world applications. That would mean, say, that a civil-engineering major would volunteer to help rebuild New Orleans. It's not surprising that international relations is the school's most popular major, followed by economics, political science, psychology and child development. More than 40 percent of students study abroad. Tufts stresses foreign languages, with full majors in Latin, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. Overlap schools: Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Cornell.