America's best colleges 2012: The top 14

If you are aspiring to study in the United States, here's where you must lay your bet on.

Earlier this week, Huffington Post compiled a list of the best universities in the US.

The list comprised leading institutes that were rated best for their proficiencies in administration, student resources and respective professional courses in various education surveys published through 2012.

Want to know which colleges offer the best courses in medicine, law and liberal arts? Do you know which college has the best retention rate?

In the following pages, we bring you the 14 best institutes to study in the United States.

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This private research institute was rated the world's best university according to the US News & World Report.

Established in 1961, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to date, has been associated with 78 Nobel laureates, 52 National Medal of Science recipients, 45 Rhodes Scholars, and 38 MacArthur Fellows.

It enrolled 4,384 undergraduates and 6,510 graduate students across its programmes for the academic year 2011-12. 

Located in Chicago, Illinois, this graduate business school was rated the best business school in the US according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The second oldest business school in the country, it was established in the year 1898.

It is also the first institute to offer an Executive MBA programme and PhD programme in business.

This public research university was ranked the best public university in the US according to the US News & World Report.

Although it offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programmes, it is best known for its research programmes.

In 2009, it spent over $652.4 million in research and development activities.

The US News & World Report rated this American private Ivy League research university the best school for fine arts in 2012.

The Yale School of Art offers courses in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, and sculpture.

In fact, it was the first school to offer a graduate programme in graphic design in the United States.

The US News & World Report ranked it at Number 20 among national universities, but according to CollegeDegree.com, an online resource website, Emory University is the best college for aspiring writers.

Students applying to this university can consider pursuing courses in performing arts (dance, theatre, or music) or in film studies, art history, visual arts, or creative writing.

Its distinguished faculty includes Booker prize-winning novelist Salman Rushdie, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey.

The graduate medical school of Harvard University is the best school to study medicine.

And we are referring to the US News & World Report of 2012 here.

With over 5000 faculty members affiliated to various leading medical organisations, attending 1500 students, the Harvard medical school offers courses in medical education, research, and clinical care.

Started in 1961, the Chronicle of Higher Education lauded this institute's efforts in the field of education rating it the fastest growing college in the US as of 2012.

It currently caters to 4,600 students across 33 doctoral and seven master's programmes.

Incepted in 1791, this private institute is one of the oldest universities in this list.

The US News & World Report published in 2012 revealed that it offers the best liberal arts courses in the country.

The college currently comprises 24 departments offering 33 majors, and two master's degree programs in art history and development economics.

One of the most selective schools in the country is also the best for law, stated the US News & World Report.

What distinguishes this law school from other schools is that Yale Law School is one of the few institutes that allow first-year students to represent clients.

In other schools, only second and third students are offered this opportunity.

Among Yale's notable alumni include former Presidents of the country Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.

If you desire a professional training ground for a career in theatre in the US, look no further.

Princeton Review has rated Purchase College as the best for theatre pursuants.

At the graduate level, it offers courses in arts (BA), science (BS) and fine arts (BFA).

Its courses in music (MusB), arts (MA), fine arts (MFA) at the post graduate level are also equally popular.

Most of the times, good faculty is a major deciding factor for admission.

Going by the results of Princeton Review, the Sarah Lawrence College has the best professors in the country.

The current faculty of the college comprises Chinese historian and philosopher Ellen Neskar, fine art photographer Joel Sternfeld, poet Suzanne Gardinier, novelists Melvin Jules Bukiet and William Melvin Kelley, film historians Gilberto Perez and Malcolm Turvey, mathematician Dan King, chemist Colin Abernethy, biologist Drew Cressman, puppet-theatre artist Dan Hurlin, dancer/choreographer Sara Rudner and economist Franklin Delano Roosevelt, III among others.

According to the Princeton Review, Elon University is currently the best run college in the US today.

The institute is known to send the maximum number of undergraduate students to study abroad than any other school in the nation.

The official university website claims that it has a high Freshman retention rate (at 90 per cent) while 84 per cent of its students complete an internship prior to graduation.

Besides its popularity for medical courses, the Harvard University is also home to the best and biggest libraries in the world.

The Princeton Review in 2012 revealed that it has the best libraries and collection of books in the entire US.

One of the oldest institutions of higher education, the university is home to 80 individual libraries that stock about 15 million volumes of books across genres, which according to the American Library Association, makes it the largest academic library in the United States, and also one of the largest in the world.

The institute was always known to receive a record number of applications annually.

Until recently, the Princeton Review claimed that it offers the best career services as well.

The University is known to offer significant internship opportunities to its students

Its co-op/ internship programme started in 1909 is one of the oldest in the nation.