Nerdiest US Colleges

While some colleges are known for their sports teams or ability to party, others make time to observe Pi Day (3/14, of course), run scientific studies on campus graffiti, design campus-wide (literally) Rube Goldberg machines, and pump up their students by playing Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries during finals week. Check out these schools the Huffington Post found where it’s cool to let your nerd flag fly:

• MIT: A school synonymous with brainiacs, this tech institute has churned out 31 astronauts and 76 Nobel laureates. For the past two years, prospective students have found out whether they’ve been accepted on ... yes, Pi Day.
• California Institute of Technology: It has a storied rivalry with MIT and was ranked second in a list of best world universities in 2010 and first for engineering and technology.
• University of Chicago: Legend has it that the school president has resorted to begging students to go out and have some fun. Also: One ultra-achieving student analyzed each piece of graffiti on campus to conclude that 63% of its students are more likely to be happy than sad. We don’t really know how she did it, but it’s impressive.
• Harvey Mudd College: A student-built Rube Goldberg machine once spanned eight dorms. More importantly, graduates of the California school can expect to pull home $126,000, tops in a Payscale.com survey.

Click to read the full list. (More Massachusetts Institute of Technology stories.)