The Association of American Universities(AAU)

　　AAU是美加兩國包括61所主要研究性大學的一個聯盟，成立於1900年。聯盟只邀請在學術研究和研究生教育出眾的大學成為盟員。或許可以把這看作是擴大了的研究生博士後常春藤大學組織。在美國，這個群體只有7%的大學生;但是，這個組織的成員大學卻授於了52%的博士學位和雇用了67%的學者博士後。對於讀研究生和找博士後的同胞們可以參考。這裡所說的不是泛泛意義上的博士後　-　很多“博士後”實際是“博士”之後的一份不怎麼好的工作而不是真正的“博士後”。真正的“博士後”英文中有一個尾巴Fellow,　或者譯成“學者博士後”;還有一種普通的博士後，比學者博士後稍差，英文在博士後加了一個Associate。既不帶Fellow也不帶Associate的可能就是一般情況下不能通向Tenure職位的一份固定工作了。不過有些非常頂尖大學的帶名號的Instructor實際上是“學者博士後”;還有一所常春藤大學的博士後Lecturer實際上是普通的博士後。“學者博士後”主要是預備做高層次大學的教授或研究員的，通常待遇優厚，比一般大學的助理教授待遇更好只是暫時還不是Tenure(鐵飯碗)且具體工作量一般不大以利在位者專心於研究。博士生的指導者叫導師(Adviser)，指導博士後的教授叫做Mentor(中文還是譯成了導師)。有網友經常談到華人沒有Nobel獎獲得者，有志於高深研究的華人年輕同胞在取得博士學位的同時可以考慮取得“學者博士後”職位從而再上一個台階。與讀博士一樣，這中間也有一定的風險。但是在這之後做得不差的通常可直接找到一般大學Tenure的職位，做得好的則可以得到頂尖大學教授的位置。AAU的大學中包括了美國74%的Nobel獎獲得者和82%的國家三大院院士。

　　Brandeis University

　　Brown University

　　California Institute of Technology

　　Carnegie Mellon University

　　Case Western Reserve University

　　Columbia University

　　Cornell University

　　Duke University

　　Emory University

　　Georgia Institute of Technology

　　Harvard University

　　Indiana University

　　Iowa State University

　　The Johns Hopkins University

　　Massachusetts Institute of Technology

　　McGill University (Canada)

　　Michigan State University

　　New York University

　　Northwestern University

　　The Ohio State University

　　The Pennsylvania State University

　　Princeton University

　　Purdue University

　　Rice University

　　Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

　　Stanford University

　　Stony Brook University - State University of New York

　　Texas A&M University

　　Tulane University

　　The University of Arizona

　　University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

　　University of California, Berkeley

　　University of California, Davis

　　University of California, Irvine

　　University of California, Los Angeles

　　University of California, San Diego

　　University of California, Santa Barbara

　　The University of Chicago

　　University of Colorado at Boulder

　　University of Florida

　　University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

　　The University of Iowa

　　The University of Kansas

　　University of Maryland, College Park

　　University of Michigan

　　University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

　　University of Missouri-Columbia

　　The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

　　University of Oregon

　　University of Pennsylvania

　　University of Pittsburgh

　　University of Rochester

　　University of Southern California

　　The University of Texas at Austin

　　University of Toronto (Canada)

　　University of Virginia

　　University of Washington

　　The University of Wisconsin-Madison

　　Vanderbilt University

　　Washington University in St. Louis

　　Yale University

Former members

• The Catholic University of America (1900–2002) 　Departed as a result of "institutional emphases and energies" that differed from the other AAU members.[7]

• Clark University (1900–1999) 　Departed because its "goals diverged from the strong research orientation of other AAU institutions".[8][dead link]

• University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1909–2011) 　Removed from the AAU.[6] Chancellor Harvey Perlman claimed that the lack of an on-campus medical school (the Medical Center is a separate campus of the University of Nebraska system), and the AAU's disregarding of USDA-funded agricultural research in its metrics, hurt the university's performance in the association's internal ranking system.[5] In 2010 Perlman stated that had Nebraska not been part of the AAU, the Big Ten would likely not have invited it to become the athletic conference's 12th member.[2]

• Syracuse University (1966-2011) 　Voluntarily withdrew from the AAU in 2011.[9]