The 10 Best Colleges in the U.S., According to Forbes
There are a lot of college ranking lists out there, but from U.S. News and World Report's Best Colleges to the Princeton Review’s list of the Best 380 Colleges, each one has its own way of deciding which schools come out on top.
The newest list from Forbes of the top 660 schools across the U.S. uses a methodology emphasizing “output” over “input,” or in other words, what students get out of their education. Factors of student “output” include Post-Graduate Success (32.5%), Student Debt (25%), Student Satisfaction (25%), Graduation Rate (7.5%), and Academic Success (10%).
Here are the top 10 schools on the Forbes ninth annual list, released this week.
Getty Images1/111. Stanford University
Surrounded by Silicon Valley’s top companies like Google, Cisco, Intel, and Facebook, Stanford offers students the opportunity to jump into the tech world while still a student. Alums include investor Larry Page, Chelsea Clinton, and Carly Fiorina. The school admits 5% of applicants.
LightRocket via Getty Images2/112. Williams College
Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, is the top liberal-arts school in the country. It has a tiny student body, 61% of whom receive financial aid. Because the student-to-faculty ratio is so low, most students receive specialized attention from their professors through the school’s unique tutorial system. Williams ranks third on the list of Grateful Graduates, which tracks which schools’ students feel they receive a positive return on their investment.
Getty Images3/113. Princeton University
Princeton tops the Grateful Grads list and consistently tops other college rankings each year. With alums like U.S. presidents James Madison and Woodrow Wilson, First Lady Michelle Obama, and HP CEO Meg Whitman, students have some major footsteps to follow. According to the ranking, the campus’s 10-library system is home to over 7 million books, 6 million microforms, and a collection of rare books, prints and archives, contributing to students’ academic success.
4/114. Harvard University
The oldest academic institution in the United States, Harvard has a long and storied legacy of producing some of the world’s most powerful change-makers. Alums include presidents Barack Obama, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Adams; tech wizards Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; and actress Natalie Portman. But while the school is very traditional in some ways, it’s pioneering new models of higher education. According to the ranking, “The university is experimenting with new educational models in experiential learning and online platforms, such as edX, cofounded in 2012 with nearby MIT.”
Getty Images5/115. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
One of the most prestigious engineering schools in the country, MIT offers financial aid to a whopping 89% of students and is need-blind when admitting prospective undergrads. Faculty and alumni include 85 Nobel laureates, 58 National Medal of Science winners, 45 MacArthur Fellows, and 29 National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners.
Getty Images6/116. Yale University
There are 81 majors at Yale, and 95% of undergraduate science majors work on original research with faculty. The New Haven, Connecticut, campus is home to museums like the Center for British Art, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Alumni include Hillary Clinton, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power.
Pomona College7/117. Pomona College
Located in Claremont, California, Pomona is the founding member of The Claremont Colleges, a group of five liberal arts schools near Los Angeles. The group also includes Claremont-McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps. Pomona boasts 220 student groups that participate in a myriad of campus traditions like Ski-Beach Day and Mufti, a secret society that plasters the campus in puns.
LightRocket via Getty Images8/118. Brown University
At Brown, students don’t have to necessarily choose a major; instead, they can choose a more specialized “concentration.” The school is known for being the artsiest of the Ivies, perhaps because of its proximity to the Rhode Island School of Design. Forbes says: “Student satisfaction is evident in its 98% retention rate and 96% graduation rate.” Alums include Emma Watson, John F. Kennedy, Jr. and John Krasinski.
ASSOCIATED PRESS9/119. Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University, located in Middletown, Connecticut, distinguishes itself as a magnet for creative, easygoing students, according to Forbes. There’s a strong arts presence, and a music scene that works to bring emerging and established groups on campus. A quarter of the student body plays a varsity sport.
Swarthmore College/Ian Bradshaw10/1110. Swarthmore College
According to the ranking, “Swarthmore is a member of the Tri-College Consortium with Bryn Mawr and Haverford, and students can cross-register for courses at the nearby University of Pennsylvania.” The school is modeled after Oxford University, and invites over 100 visiting scholars per school year. Swarthmore produces the third-highest number of Ph.D. students in the nation, and nearly 20% of students go on to pursue graduate studies.
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