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.

Contents

History

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

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

Methodology

Misreporting

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occidental College</span> Private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California

Occidental College is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanford University</span> Private university in Stanford, California, US

Stanford University is a private research university in Stanford, California. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford, the eighth governor of and then-incumbent senator from California, and his wife, Jane, in memory of their only child, Leland Jr. The university admitted its first students in 1891, opening as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. It struggled financially after Leland's death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, university provost Frederick Terman inspired an entrepreneurial culture in order to build a self-sufficient local industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California</span> Public university system in California

The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, the system is composed of its ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, along with numerous research centers and academic abroad centers. The system is the state's land-grant university. Major publications generally rank most UC campuses as being among the best universities in the world. In 1900, UC was one of the founders of the Association of American Universities and since the 1970s seven of its campuses, in addition to Berkeley, have been admitted to the association. Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego are considered Public Ivies, making California the state with the most universities in the nation to hold the title. UC campuses have large numbers of distinguished faculty in almost every academic discipline, with UC faculty and researchers having won 71 Nobel Prizes as of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California, Berkeley</span> Public university in Berkeley, California

The University of California, Berkeley is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, it is the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the University of California system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Williams College</span> Private liberal arts college in US

Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War in 1755.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California, Los Angeles</span> Public research university in California, U.S.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University</span> Public university system in California, US

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swarthmore College</span> College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, US

Swarthmore College is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as a college under the Religious Society of Friends. By 1906, Swarthmore had dropped its religious affiliation and officially became non-sectarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claremont Colleges</span> College consortium in Claremont, California

The Claremont Colleges are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges —Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College (CMC), Harvey Mudd College, and Pitzer College—and two graduate schools—Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and Keck Graduate Institute (KGI). All the members except KGI have adjoining campuses, together covering roughly 1 sq mi (2.6 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomona College</span> Liberal arts college in Claremont, California

Pomona College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium of adjacent, affiliated institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo</span> Public university in San Luis Obispo, California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scripps College</span> Womens college in Claremont, California

Scripps College is a private liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1926, a year after the consortium's formation. Journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps provided its initial endowment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitzer College</span> Private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, United States

Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. One of the Claremont Colleges, the college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is known for its social justice culture and experimental pedagogical approach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Polytechnic University, Pomona</span> Public university in Pomona, California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research university</span> University committed to research as a central part of its mission

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cal Poly Pomona academics</span>

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<i>U.S. News & World Report</i> Best Colleges Ranking Annual ranking of American colleges and universities

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Gerald "Jerry" Martin AckermanOAL was an American art historian and educator. Ackerman was Professor of Art History Emeritus at Pomona College. He was a leading authority on the art of Jean-Léon Gérôme and Charles Bargue.

References

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  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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 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.