The Association of American Universities(AAU)

　　AAU是美加两国包括61所主要研究性大学的一个联盟，成立于1900年。联盟只邀请在学术研究和研究生教育出众的大学成为盟员。或许可以把这看作是扩大了的研究生博士后常春藤大学组织。在美国，这个群体只有7%的大学生;但是，这个组织的成员大学却授于了52%的博士学位和雇用了67%的学者博士后。对于读研究生和找博士后的同胞们可以参考。这里所说的不是泛泛意义上的博士后　-　很多“博士后”实际是“博士”之后的一份不怎么好的工作而不是真正的“博士后”。真正的“博士后”英文中有一个尾巴Fellow,　或者译成“学者博士后”;还有一种普通的博士后，比学者博士后稍差，英文在博士后加了一个Associate。既不带Fellow也不带Associate的可能就是一般情况下不能通向Tenure职位的一份固定工作了。不过有些非常顶尖大学的带名号的Instructor实际上是“学者博士后”;还有一所常春藤大学的博士后Lecturer实际上是普通的博士后。“学者博士后”主要是预备做高层次大学的教授或研究员的，通常待遇优厚，比一般大学的助理教授待遇更好只是暂时还不是Tenure(铁饭碗)且具体工作量一般不大以利在位者专心于研究。博士生的指导者叫导师(Adviser)，指导博士后的教授叫做Mentor(中文还是译成了导师)。有网友经常谈到华人没有Nobel奖获得者，有志于高深研究的华人年轻同胞在取得博士学位的同时可以考虑取得“学者博士后”职位从而再上一个台阶。与读博士一样，这中间也有一定的风险。但是在这之后做得不差的通常可直接找到一般大学Tenure的职位，做得好的则可以得到顶尖大学教授的位置。AAU的大学中包括了美国74%的Nobel奖获得者和82%的国家三大院院士。

　　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]