The 25 Schools Stocked With Jocks

In addition to being named by Newsweek as the 24th most desirable school in the country and the third most desirable large school, Cornell University ranks 25th for brainiacs. This well-rounded package also comes in at No. 11 for athletes and No. 20 for gay-friendliness.

The school has more than 20,000 students, nearly 14,000 of them undergraduates. To be counted among the 21 percent of accepted applicants, you’ll need an average 33 on the ACT and 1500 on the SAT. Notable alumni include one U.S. senator, two fortune 100 CEOs and eight billionaires, as ranked by Forbes.

About 9 percent of students play on one of 30 varsity sports teams at this Ithaca, New York–based school. The school also has about 90 intramural sports.

Co-founder Ezra Cornell’s mission to establish in 1865 an institution “where any person can find instruction in any study” is maintained today with a diverse student body that is 49 percent white, 16 percent Asian, 5 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic. The school is among the best for women in science, counting among its graduates five “women of NASA” and six eminent female physicists.

Tuition and fees neared $38,000 for the 2009–2010 academic year, according to the U.S. Department of Education.