  The spectra of quantum dots of different geometry (``quantum ring'',
``quantum cylinder'', ``spherical square-well'' and ``parabolic confinement'')
are studied. The stochastic variational method on correlated Gaussian basis
functions and a large scale shell-model approach have been used to investigate
these ``artificial'' atoms and their properties in magnetic field. Accurate
numerical results are presented for $N$=2-8 electron systems.
