Benchmark Peer Universities
Benchmark universities are a comparison group of which we would like to compare ourselves. The characteristics of these schools are those SMU aspires to compare favorably with.

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY Waltham, Massachusetts	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Evanston, Illinois
BROWN UNIVERSITY Providence, Rhode Island	TULANE UNIVERSITY New Orleans, Louisiana
CARNEGIE MELLON   UNIVERSITY Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Notre Dame, Indiana
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE Dartmouth, New Hampshire	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Los Angeles, California
DUKE UNIVERSITY Durham, North Carolina	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY Nashville, Tennessee
EMORY UNIVERSITY Atlanta, Georgia	WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Operational Peer Universities
These universities are those defined as operationally comparative.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Washington, D.C.	LEHIGH UNIVERSITY Lehigh, Pennsylvania
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Waco, Texas	MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY Milwaukee, Wisconsin
BOSTON COLLEGE Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts	PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY Malibu, California
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Washington, D.C.	TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY Fort Worth, Texas
DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	UNIVERSITY OF DENVER Denver, Colorado
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY Bronx, New York	UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO San Diego, California