America's Top Colleges
| Company type | Ranking list |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder | Forbes |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Annual college rankings |
| Website | www |
America's Leading Colleges is an annual ranking of U.S. higher education institutions published by Forbes, with its first edition released in 2008.
History
In the debut 2008 edition, Forbes selected Princeton University as the top institution. The following year, 2009, saw United States Military Academy at West Point claim the premier position. Williams College secured the highest rank for both 2010 and 2011, before Princeton University returned to number one in 2012.
During 2013 and again in 2016, Stanford University was recognized as the leading college, while distinguished liberal arts colleges such as Williams College and Pomona College dominated the rankings in the years between. From 2017 through 2021, Harvard University held the top ranking until University of California, Berkeley became the first public university to achieve this distinction in 2021. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) led the list in 2022, with Princeton University regaining the number one spot in 2023.
2024 rankings
The Forbes "America's Top Colleges" list for 2024 features the following institutions as the top ten:
- 1. Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey)
- 2. Stanford University (Stanford, California)
- 3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- 4. Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)
- 5. University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California)
- 6. Columbia University (New York City, New York)
- 7. University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- 8. Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- 9. Rice University (Houston, Texas)
- 10. Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
Methodology
The rankings are determined by evaluating several factors with assigned weights:
- Alumni Earnings (20%)
- Student Debt Levels (15%)
- Investment Return (15%)
- Graduation Completion Rate (15%)
- Presence on Forbes American Leaders List (15%)
- Student Retention Rate (10%)
- Academic Achievement (10%)
Misreporting
In 2013, four institutions—Bucknell University, Claremont McKenna College, Emory University, and Iona College—were omitted from the rankings for a period of two years due to inaccuracies reported in their admissions data.