America's Top Colleges

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America's Top Colleges is an annual Forbes ranking of colleges and universities in the United States, first published in 2008.

History[edit]

Forbes rated Princeton University the country's best college in its inaugural (2008) list.[1] The United States Military Academy at West Point took the top honor the following year.[2] Williams College was ranked first both in 2010 and 2011, and Princeton returned to the top spot in 2012.[3][4][5]

In 2013 and 2016, Stanford University occupied the No. 1 spot, with elite liberal arts schools Williams College and Pomona College topping the rankings in the intervening years.[6][7][8][9][10][11] The magazine ranked Harvard University as America's best college from 2017 until 2021, when the University of California, Berkeley topped the list, becoming the first public school to ever do so.[12][13] They would be replaced by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2022 and Princeton University would return again to the top spot in 2023.

2023 rankings[edit]

As of 2023,[14] the top ten colleges, according to "America's Top Colleges" are:

  • "Alumni Salary": 20%[15]
  • "Debt": 15%[15]
  • "Return On investment": 15%[15]
  • "Graduation Rate": 15%[15]
  • "Forbes American Leaders List": 15%[15]
  • "Retention Rate": 10%[15]
  • "Academic Success": 10%[15]

Misreporting[edit]

Starting in 2013, four schools that had admitted to misreporting admissions data were removed from the list for two years. The four removed colleges were Bucknell University, Claremont McKenna College, Emory University, and Iona College.[16]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "America's Best Colleges 2008". Forbes. August 13, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  2. ^ "America's Best Colleges 2009". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  3. ^ Noer, Michael (August 3, 2011). "America's Top Colleges". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  4. ^ Goldstein, Rachel (August 5, 2011). "Williams College Takes Top Spot in Forbes' University Rankings". Time. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  5. ^ "Forbes Publishes Rankings of America's Top Colleges: Princeton University is No. 1". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  6. ^ Howard, Caroline. "America's Top Colleges 2013". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  7. ^ Howard, Caroline. "America's Top Colleges 2014". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  8. ^ Howard, Caroline (July 29, 2015). "America's Top Colleges Ranking 2015". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  9. ^ Bravo, Kristina (July 30, 2015). "Pomona College is No. 1 on Forbes list of best in US". Southern California Public Radio. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  10. ^ Rand, Jory (July 30, 2015). "Forbes ranks Pomona College as top college in US". ABC7 Los Angeles. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  11. ^ Howard, Caroline. "America's Top Colleges 2016". Forbes. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  12. ^ "Forbes America's Top Colleges List 2021". Forbes. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  13. ^ SFGATE, Amy Graff (September 8, 2021). "SF Bay Area college is the first public university to top Forbes list". SFGATE. Retrieved September 9, 2021.}
  14. ^ "America"s Top Colleges", Forbes, 2023}
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Kreznar, Christian (September 8, 2021). "The nuts-and-bolts underlying our annual list of the best schools". Forbes. Archived from the original on June 5, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
  16. ^ "'Forbes' Boots 4 Colleges From Its Rankings". Inside Higher Ed. July 25, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2014.