The United States does not have that great of a high school and junior high school education system. In 2011, the U.S. ranked at bottom among developed nations in science and math tests. In fact, it ranked below Jordan. Even in the current data, the country is only at numbers 25, 12 and 20 in terms of math, reading and science skills, respectively, among high school students.
However, it's not all that bad. At least in the U.S., students are praised when they do well and rewarded if they perform over what is expected. In Asian countries, although civilized, there's a confusion on what to do with students who over-perform. While some get praised and rewarded, others get penalized for making the rest of the class look bad.
But perhaps the biggest key to the United States staying afloat, intellectually, is the college education system, which compensates immensely for the holes that high school and junior high school left behind.
"By the time they hit college, then... that's when they begin to accelerate," said Michio Kaku, a physicist working on the "String Theory," in an interview.
Recognizing the importance of the college education system and the role that top colleges play in enhancing some of the best minds that not only create jobs but entire industries, as well as providing students with proper university options, numerous organizations have released their rankings of the top 10 colleges in the country.
According to the U.S. News, a recognized source for U.S. University Rankings, Princeton takes the top spot; Harvard is seated second while Yale falls on the third spot. Columbia University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago are tied for fourth place. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania all follow behind in descending order from spots 7 to 9. California Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University are tied for the last spot.
U.S. News bases its rankings on several key factors: tuitions and fees, total number of enrollees, acceptance rate as of Fall 2014, average freshman retention rate, 6-year graduation rate, classes with fewer than 20 students and the SAT/ACT scores.
The released data reflects that Yale, Columbia and the University of Chicago have the highest freshman retention rate, at 99 percent, among schools that are in the top 10 list.
Harvard recorded the highest graduation rate at 98 percent. Interestingly enough, the institution also has the lowest acceptance rate at 6 percent.
Furthermore, another interesting fact reflected on the sheets released by U.S. News is that the University of Columbia has the highest number of enrollees, 24,221, with a 7 percent acceptance rate despite having the highest tuition and fees, $51,008 dollars.
Another organization that released its top 10 universities ranking is College Factual. Contrary to U.S. News' rankings, College Factual has Yale University at the top spot, University of Pennsylvania places second and Duke University gets the bronze. Stanford and Harvard take the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Princeton University, Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Notre Dame and Dartmouth College follow behind in a descending order from slots 4 to 10.
On College Factual's list, Columbia University, University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins are not on the top 10. They were replaced by Duke University, Brown University, University of Notre Dame and Dartmouth College.
College Factual based their rating on these factors: math and reading SAT score, freshman retention, graduation rate, full-Time teachers, student loan default rate and starting career income boost.
The same ten institutions were on College Factual's top 10 list for 2015, which was released las year, but the rankings have changed. In the previous list, University of Pennsylvania took the top spot and Yale trailed behind it. Duke maintained its grip on the third spot.
"The two factors that seem to cause the shuffling comes down to time to completion among graduating classes - with each school just slightly over four years - but slight improvements getting to a rate of four years," said Bill Phelan, CEO of College factual in an interview.
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