Caroline Howard, Forbes Staff
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7/24/2013 @ 9:45AM |138,708 views
America's Top Colleges 2013
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We're No. 1! We're No. 1!
Do college rankings matter? With the price of a four-year education approaching a quarter million dollars, it’s a no-brainer.
When future historians of U.S. higher education look back to when the ground really began to shake, they may well pinpoint 2013. They’ll see disruption in curriculum (towards STEM majors and away from traditional liberal arts) and delivery (from campus to online). They’ll track the problems of runaway tuition costs and student loan debt, shrinking state funding and class enrollment, and a humbling job market for most graduates. But they’ll also single out the rise of non-Ivy League, West Coast colleges.
For the first time, the FORBES Top Colleges ranking has two non-Ivies at the top: Stanford University (No. 1) and Pomona College (No. 2). It is also the first time that two California schools take the gold and silver. The best state school in America is University of California, Berkeley at No. 22. Here is what makes this shift so significant: It may splinter the grip of the East Coast Establishment colleges and open up a more diverse, accessible portfolio of best schools for students.
The rapidly changing landscape in higher education is the theme of this year’s Top Colleges. For the sixth year, FORBES has partnered exclusively with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP). What sets our calculation of 650 colleges and universities apart from other rankings is our firm belief in “output” over “input.” We’re not all that interested in what gets a student into college, like our peers who focus heavily on selectivity metrics such as high school class rank and SAT scores. Our sights are set directly on ROI: What are students getting out of college. (See CCAP’s full methodology here.)
We look at factors that directly concern today’s incoming students (and their families) who will be be footing a bill which has multiplied into the six figures: Will my classes be interesting? Is it likely I will graduate in four years? Will I incur a ton of debt getting my degree? And once I get out of school, will I get a good job and be a leader in my chosen profession? We pointedly ignore any metrics that would encourage schools to engage in wasteful spending.
Here, a quick peek at Top Colleges 2013:
Go West, young student: For the first time in the six years FORBES has produced this list, the top two schools are on the Pacific Coast. Stanford University takes the gold medal this year and silver goes to Pomona College. University of California, Berkeley leads the pack of state schools at No. 22. All have high retention rates (98%, 99% and 96%, respectively) and their graduate’s average starting salaries ($58,200, 49,200 and 52,000, respectively) outpace the $44,259 median income for 2012 college grads, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Not Harvard? Don’t count the Ivies entirely out. To the contrary. The Ivy Leagues do very, very well; all eight make the top 20. Princeton, Yale University and Columbia University take Nos. 3 to 5. Harvard is No. 8 this year, dropping from No. 6 in 2012 and 2011, while University of Pennsylvania jumps up six spots to No. 11, Brown University moves up seven to No. 12 and Dartmouth moves up nine to No. 16. But the biggest winner of all is Cornell University, which leaps from No. 51 to No. 19. For millions of students, and not just Americans, Ivy League schools continue to hold unequivocal prestige and value.
Name-brand public schools are on the rise:This year we have nine (including military schools) in the top 50. In 2012 there were eight, which was up from five in 2011. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor makes its first appearance in the top 50 at No. 30. Overall, public schools are doing better, with 23 in the top 100 and 51 in the top 250. This is the flip side to buying the Ivy League’s reputation-at-any-price. Flagship state schools offer an excellent education for much lower tuition bills than their average private counterparts. As more students are seeking to hold down debt, public colleges and universities can and will be more selective.
On-time graduation: Haverford, Pomona and Swarthmore Colleges take the lead with impressive 91% 4-year graduation rates. At the bottom end of the scale is Colorado’s Metropolitan State College (4%) and Texas Southern University (5%). Some schools, including Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., have 0% 4-year graduation rates, but it should be noted that their students work within a 5-year plan, so they can complete “co-ops,” or time off school for internships or employment. Graduating on-time translates to less college debt (or family expense) and gets students out into the world sooner.
Leaning on loans: Besides valuable degrees, the Ivies gift their students with low loan burdens. Only 9% of Yalies take out college loans for their education; Princeton is at 10% and Harvard at 11%. Ninety-nine percent of students take out loans at Salem College in North Carolina and Trinity International University in Illinois. There are zero student loans for those enrolled in Hillsdale College in Michigan (No. 196) and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut (No. 94).
Going global: Almost all colleges offer opportunities to study abroad but some schools go one or two steps further. Case-Western Reserve (No. 89), for example, is part of the Global E3, which allows engineering students at member universities to attend overseas schools at home institution tuition. College of William and Mary (No. 44) offers a joint degree program with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. New York University (No. 56), runs comprehensive campuses in Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and Singapore.
Online classrooms: Learning has gone digital, and the savviest colleges are embracing the inevitable by offering not just courses but actual degrees online. Some of the largest are Penn State (No. 93), UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts’ online education consortium with UMass Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, UMass Medical School and Arizona State University (No. 226), which enrolled over 8,000 fully online students in spring 2013.
MOOCs are multiplying: The best known massive online open courses (MOOCs) were birthed in our top colleges: edX out of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 9); Coursera and Udacity out of Stanford. Now, voila, there’s a stampede of other schools signing up. University of Chicago (No. 14) and the State University of New York system recently signed up with Coursera. San Jose State University (No. 272) aligned with Udacity, to mixed results. EdX has Wellesley (No. 23) and Rice University (No. 33), among many others, on board.
Who’s Up, Who’s Down: It’s a top-model slender difference, but for the first time Princeton lands at No. 3 after long holding the No. 1 or No. 2 spot. Williams College, who has reigned as the top liberal arts college since 2008 — not to mention No. 1 in 2010 and 2011 — drops to No. 9 this year. The biggest mover-shaker was Morehouse College, the only all-male historically black college in the U.S., who jumped 235 spots to No. 285. CUNY, City College rose from No. 369 in 2012 to No. 137 this year. On the other hand, Wisconsin Lutheran College dropped to No. 537 from No. 216 and Thomas Aquinas College is now at No. 415 from No. 111 last year. Of the schools with religious affiliations that moved up, Brigham Young, sponsored by of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went from No. 93 to No. 75. Pepperdine University, led by the Churches of Christ, is now at No. 100 from No. 109 in 2012.
Who’s Up, Who’s Down: It’s a top-model slender difference, but for the first time Princeton lands at No. 3 after long holding the No. 1 or No. 2 spot. Williams College, who has reigned as the top liberal arts college since 2008 — not to mention No. 1 in 2010 and 2011 — drops to No. 9 this year. The biggest mover-shaker was Morehouse College, the only all-male historically black college in the U.S., who jumped 235 spots to No. 285. CUNY, City College rose from No. 369 in 2012 to No. 137 this year. On the other hand, Wisconsin Lutheran College dropped to No. 537 from No. 216 and Thomas Aquinas College is now at No. 415 from No. 111 last year. Of the schools with religious affiliations that moved up, Brigham Young, sponsored by of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went from No. 93 to No. 75. Pepperdine University, led by the Churches of Christ, is now at No. 100 from No. 109 in 2012.
New American Leaders: The real change agent here — felt throughout the list — is our switch from using “Who’s Who” to a newly compiled list of America’s Leaders to determine post-grad success. It’s a far more inclusive catalog that relies on many of FORBES’ franchises (Power Women, 30 Under 30, Midas List) as well as prizewinners in the arts, sciences and more. The end result is a less clubby and more democratic list of people — and colleges — who matter most.
Schools of deception: This year FORBES instituted a new penalty to schools that have falsified data to the U.S. Department of Education, which we depend upon for our calculations. In the past two years, four schools have admitted to lying: Bucknell University, Claremont-McKenna College, Emory University and Iona College. They are being removed from our rankings for two years.
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What’s the difference between This ranking and U.S news ranking? I go to Texas Tech and i can see a 15-20 rank difference between the two rankings. I can understand how one may add or subtract a factor. but a full 300 rank difference for TTU? I don’t see how that can happen? Also, our mascot is a Red Raider. Not a bobcat. Can you please fix that.
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At what point are the schools on the “America’s Top Colleges 2013″ no longer among the top? No. 50? No. 100? No. 650? And why that point?
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- AuthorThere are about 1400 colleges and universities in the U.S. — more if you count community colleges. Which means the 650 on our list are “top” half (46%) of schools. As far as tipping point from top to not-top, I think we can agree on top 100.
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Does that mean that Forbes considers No. 650 on the list better than all of the 750 four-year schools not on the list?
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For the most part, college is the accumulation of personal debt to become under employed in a nation with zero real future growth potential.What does a student become once their formal indoctrination can be carried on no longer? A burst bubble. Another useless cog, in a nation who lives in an unworkable model of socialist/communist design based on welfare mentality. Who’s said design’s only opposition is barbaric, mythological theocracy.There are no real jobs in America. We don’t do that here anymore.
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College isn’t for people who wants to be employed. That’s for technical schools in local areas. College is for leaders who wants to learn more, see more and hear more and become a leader of our society.Problem isn’t with number of jobs in America, it’s with people who think no-name college with $30K tuition is their ticket to american dream.
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Simply terrible news about Bucknell. As a graduate, I found that PA, NJ, MD employers, customers and other persons interested find the University to be highly regarded. Not so much anymore :(
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$250,000 would buy 3 semi trucks at $80,000 a piece, each truck could net $5,000 per month, that would give you close to $200,000 a year gross income. Why on earth would you waste such amount of money to go to school to learn an outdated career?
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I was extremely surprised by this too. If MIT and Caltech are in the top 20 and Pomona is in the top 5, why not Harvey Mudd? So I checked the methodology on http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/uploads/2013_Component_Rankings.pdfThe biggest reason why is because Harvey Mudd is underrepresented in the “American Leaders Rank” list. It ranked 242, compared to 31 from Pomona. It also did significantly worse in the Federal Student Debt Ranking than Pomona. Lastly, its predicted vs actual graduation rate really hurts it, even if it is a small factor of the ranking.
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- AuthorThanks for digging into this Muhammad!
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