Besides GCC, the list of 64 most competitive colleges and universities includes Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Notre Dame, Vassar and Yale universities.

Six other Pennsylvania institutions -- including Carnegie Mellon University, Haverford College, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania -- are also on the list.

According to Barron's, even superior students find a great deal of competition when applying to these schools. In general, the schools require high school rank in the top 10 to 20 percent of the class and A to B+ grade point averages. Also, many of these colleges usually admit fewer than one-third of those who apply.

The 25th edition of the publication features in-depth profiles of more than 1,650 schools and contains Barron's ratings, a list of college majors, admission requirements, financial aid information, student-faculty ratios, details on athletics, extracurriculars and campus life, as well as contact information for prospective students.

Barron's also included GCC on its 2001 Most Competitive list. Barron's developed the study in 1999 and publishes results every two years.