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The 104 Smartest Public Colleges In America

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