The Minerva Project is an online elite university founded by Ben Nelson. A smart businessman decided to launch an online institution of higher education that could compete with the most top-tier universities in the world. The cost of tuition in it is far lower than that of the Ivy League. Nelson's project was a success. It admitted several hundred students. However, the university is not for everybody as only the brightest minds can hope to get admitted. In 2015 it had nearly 11,000 applications, but only 220 were chosen.

Stanford University is also one of the world's prestigious institutions. It had an unprecedented acceptance rate of 4.69%. However, the Minerva's was only 1.9%. Stanford University is one of the world's leading research and teaching universities. Children of the richest people on earth dream of studying there, but it admits only the smartest applicants.

Harvard University is the third top-ranked university worldwide. The oldest institution of higher education in the United States accepted only 5.2% of applicants last year. Its alumni include 8 US presidents and 75 Nobel Prize winners.

Columbia University is another prestigious institution, into which it is extremely hard to get. It has a 6.04% acceptance rate. A few presidents attended Columbia University, including Barack Obama. Moreover, it produced 97 Nobel Prize winners, famous judges, over two-dozen Oscar winners, and 26 heads of state.

Yale University is the fifth best university in the world with a 6.03% acceptance rate.

Harvard, Yale and Princeton are commonly known as the “Big Three". Out of these, Yale is the easiest to get into, provided that an applicant is talented and smart indeed.