In 2008, Forbes.com began publishing an annual list, prepared by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity^[1] of "America's Best Colleges".^[2] Student satisfaction (evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com, retention rates and targeted student satisfaction surveys on Facebook) constitutes 75% of the score. Post-graduate success (self-reported salaries of alumni from PayScale, alumni appearing on the CCAP's America's Leaders List) constitutes 32.5% of the score. Student debt loads constitute 25% of the score. The graduation rate (the proportion of students who complete four-year degrees in four years) constitutes 7.5% of the score. Academic success (the proportion of students receiving nationally competitive awards) constitutes 10% of the score. Public reputation is not considered, which causes some colleges to score lower than in other lists. A three-year moving average is used to smooth out the scoring.

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.^[3]

2009 list[edit]

Rank[4]	Name	State	Cost	First-year class size
1	United States Military Academy	NY	0	1,263
2	Princeton University	NJ	49,830	1,243
3	California Institute of Technology	CA	48,990	236
4	Williams College	MA	49,530	540
5	Harvard University	MA	50,250	1,666
6	Wellesley College	MA	50,026	596
7	United States Air Force Academy	CO	0	1,286
8	Amherst College	MA	50,230	439
9	Yale University	CT	51,400	1,318
10	Stanford University	CA	51,760	1,703
11	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	MA	50,100	1,048
12	Swarthmore College	PA	50,381	372
13	Columbia University	NY	51,406	1,356
14	Centre College	KY	39,200	336
15	Haverford College	PA	51,637	327
16	Boston College	MA	52,060	2,167
17	Northwestern University	IL	52,120	2,078
18	Bowdoin College	ME	50,570	488
19	Vassar College	NY	51,370	638
20	Whitman College	WA	46,212	401
21	University of Chicago	IL	53,310	1,306
22	Kenyon College	OH	49,260	456
23	Carleton College	MN	50,000	489
24	Colby College	ME	50,120	482
25	Middlebury College	VT	52,460	576

2013 list[edit]

Rank[5]	Name	State	Cost	Total Student Population
1	Stanford University	CA	58,846	19,945
2	Pomona College	CA	57,014	1,586
3	Princeton University	NJ	54,780	7,813
4	Yale University	CT	59,320	11,875
5	Columbia University	NY	61,540	26,050
6	Swarthmore College	PA	58,481	1,545
7	United States Military Academy	NY	n/a	4,624
8	Harvard University	MA	57,050	27,392
9	Williams College	MA	59,412	2,126
10	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	MA	57,010	10,894
11	University of Pennsylvania	PA	59,600	24,832
12	Brown University	RI	58,140	8,768
13	Amherst College	MA	59,060	1,791
14	University of Chicago	IL	62,425	14,979
15	Northwestern University	IL	60,840	20,959
16	Dartmouth College	NH	61,398	6,144
17	Northwestern University	IL	60,840	20,959
18	California Institute of Technology	CA	56,382	2,231
19	Cornell University	NY	59,591	21,131
20	Bowdoin College	ME	58,200	1,778
21	Washington and Lee University	VA	56,616	2,193
22	University of California, Berkeley	CA	55,766	36,137
23	Wellesley College	MA	57,164	2,502
24	University of Notre Dame	IN	57,805	12,004
25	Tufts University	MA	58,800	10,777

2015 list[edit]

References[edit]