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.
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).
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 | School | Average SAT |
| 1 | Georgia Institute of Technology | 1385 |
| 2 | University of California-Berkeley | 1375 |
| 3 | College of William and Mary | 1365 |
| 4 | United States Air Force Academy | 1360 |
| 5 | University of Virginia | 1355 |
| 6 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 1340 |
| 6 | Colorado School of Mines | 1340 |
| 8 | University of California-Los Angeles | 1320 |
| 9 | University of Maryland-College Park | 1310 |
| 10 | University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | 1305 |
| 11 | Ohio State University-Columbus | 1300 |
| 12 | Binghamton University-SUNY | 1294 |
| 13 | University of California-San Diego | 1290 |
| 14 | University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign | 1285 |
| 14 | New College of Florida | 1285 |
| 16 | United States Military Academy (3) | 1283 |
| 17 | United States Naval Academy | 1280 |
| 18 | United States Coast Guard Academy (3) | 1275 |
| 19 | University of Pittsburgh | 1270 |
| 20 | SUNY-Geneseo | 1269 |
| 21 | United States Merchant Marine Academy | 1267 |
| 22 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 1265 |
| 22 | University of Florida | 1265 |
| 22 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 1265 |
| 22 | Missouri University of Science & Technology | 1265 |
| 26 | University of Texas-Austin | 1260 |
| 26 | University of Texas-Dallas | 1260 |
| 28 | University of California-Santa Barbara | 1250 |
| 28 | Stony Brook University-SUNY | 1250 |
| 30 | Clemson University | 1245 |
| 30 | Miami University-Oxford | 1245 |
| 30 | Truman State University | 1245 |
| 33 | University of Georgia | 1240 |
| 34 | North Carolina State University-Raleigh | 1235 |
| 34 | College of New Jersey | 1235 |
| 36 | University of Washington | 1230 |
| 36 | University of Connecticut | 1230 |
| 36 | CUNY-Baruch College | 1230 |
| 39 | Florida State University | 1225 |
| 39 | Auburn University | 1225 |
| 39 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (3) | 1225 |
| 42 | Virginia Tech | 1220 |
| 43 | University of California-Davis | 1210 |
| 43 | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick | 1210 |
| 43 | University of Massachusetts-Amherst | 1210 |
| 43 | University of Maryland-Baltimore County | 1210 |
| 47 | University of Colorado-Boulder | 1205 |
| 47 | University of Tennessee | 1205 |
| 47 | University of South Carolina | 1205 |
| 47 | Michigan Technological University | 1205 |
| 51 | Purdue University-West Lafayette | 1200 |
| 52 | University of Delaware | 1195 |
| 52 | University of North Carolina-Asheville | 1195 |
| 54 | St. Mary's College of Maryland (3) | 1190 |
| 54 | University of North Carolina-Wilmington | 1190 |
| 56 | University of Vermont | 1185 |
| 56 | University of Alabama | 1185 |
| 56 | University of Oklahoma | 1185 |
| 56 | University of Alabama-Huntsville | 1185 |
| 56 | New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | 1185 |
| 61 | Texas A&M University-College Station | 1180 |
| 61 | University of Central Florida | 1180 |
| 63 | Pennsylvania State University-University Park | 1175 |
| 63 | Indiana University-Bloomington | 1175 |
| 65 | SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | 1170 |
| 65 | University of South Florida | 1170 |
| 65 | CUNY-Hunter College | 1170 |
| 68 | University of California-Irvine | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Iowa | 1165 |
| 68 | Michigan State University (3) | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Missouri | 1165 |
| 68 | Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Arkansas | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Minnesota-Morris (3) | 1165 |
| 75 | College of Charleston (3) | 1160 |
| 75 | Christopher Newport University (2) | 1160 |
| 77 | University at Buffalo-SUNY | 1155 |
| 77 | Salisbury University (9) | 1155 |
| 77 | University of North Florida | 1155 |
| 80 | George Mason University (2) | 1150 |
| 80 | Florida International University | 1150 |
| 80 | Virginia Military Institute | 1150 |
| 83 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln | 1145 |
| 83 | Iowa State University | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Kansas | 1145 |
| 83 | Arizona State University-Tempe (2) | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Cincinnati | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Kentucky | 1145 |
| 83 | Oklahoma State University | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Alabama-Birmingham | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Louisville (3) | 1145 |
| 83 | James Madison University | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Wisconsin-La Crosse | 1145 |
| 94 | University of California-Santa Cruz | 1140 |
| 94 | New Jersey Institute of Technology | 1140 |
| 94 | University of Houston | 1140 |
| 94 | Georgia College & State University | 1140 |
| 98 | Appalachian State University | 1135 |
| 99 | University of Massachusetts-Lowell | 1130 |
| 100 | Colorado State University | 1125 |
| 100 | University of Wyoming | 1125 |
| 100 | SUNY-New Paltz | 1125 |
| 100 | CUNY-Queens College | 1125 |
| 100 | University of Michigan-Dearborn | 1125 |
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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