I’m not a professional statistician or education expert, so this system is not perfect. The factors considered in scoring: freshman retention, graduation rate, % of classes with fewer than 20 students, % of classes with more than 50 students, % of students in graduation in the top tenth of their high school class, and % of alumni donations. Meanwhile some schools considered elite will be, often because they are surrounded by bigger names, particularly in the Northeast (especially Pennsylvania and New York) and the Midwest (especially Indiana ) or because they're powerhouse liberal arts colleges in states where most top students attend public universities (schools such as Hendrix, Sewanee, Millsaps, and Furman). Some institutions famous for being "safety schools", like George Washington University, actually won't be here because of the strength of their freshman class.
Few public flagship universities will be on this list because they draw high numbers of in-state honors students, especially in Western and Southern states. You will definitely still find a large number of A students at most of these schools. This is a list of top schools whose freshman class is comprised of less than 50% of the top tenth of their high schools.