America's Hot Colleges

摘要

Ah, serendipity. A generation ago, when Americans spoke of the best colleges, they had a pretty good idea: the oldest ones, a few of the biggest and not much else. Even now, among the old guard, that focus often remains on the eight Ivies, a few small institutions like Amherst and some celebrated state schools like the University of California, Berkeley. But today's students, when they start looking for their own best schools to attend, often wind up discovering many that are just as good, and often just about as difficult to get into, as the famous ones. And it's sort of cool to find out that a hot school doesn't need to be one that Grandma and Grandpa have even heard of.