America's Best Colleges, Ranked By Forbes

Forbes.com:

Forbes' list of public and private colleges and universities ranks the best schools--from the students' point of view.

The best college in America has an 11:30 p.m. curfew. It doesn't allow alcohol in the dorms, which must be kept meticulously clean. Students have to keep their hair neat, their shoes shined, their clothes crisply pressed. They also receive a world-class education, at no cost, and incur no debt--except for a duty to their country.

Read the whole story: Forbes.com

Comments

[jasev01]

This list is ridiculous bottom line.

[AmandaBC]

Military academies better than MIT, Yale, Stanford, Harvard etc. You've got to be kidding me! But then again, republicans do live in a fantasy world...

[MajorKong]

The military academies actually do offer a very good education, especially in engineering.

[mirza]

Worthless-as these usually are

[ramal]

Sadly, most of America's colleges, probably even some of "the best " of them, are only producing what should truly be just a good high school education. I have seen many new college graduates with only the barest of writing and communication skills and only a rudimentary grasp of geography and history.

[psbintl]

This Forbes list is nothing but B S !

[COPerez]

Glad to see my alma mater at the top of this list!

Although it's really impossible to put together a truly non-biased list such as this. If you use lists like this for anything other than bragging rights, you don't know what it really means to research a school.

[ddadm09]

Nice to see the new list of America's best colleges, but I don't how accurate this is. So, I have done my homework of collecting some good articles and sites related to this topic - "200 sites to check ranking of USA universities". If you are interested check the link below
http://markthispage.blogspot.com/2009/06/where-can-i-check-ranking-of-usa.html

[ICorpsDoc]

We have had kids in the family as well as myself attend a wide range of universities. From some pretty well know schools such as MIT to lesser know but very good schools such as Oakland University. and UMBC

Hands down though the one with the best educational experience was the one who graduated from the U S Naval Academy. I still cannot get over the quality of the education he got. Including the variety of things he was exposed to.

A political sci major he had more math and more engineering courses than you can believe. Plus the extra physical and mental stuff he had to deal with. It was almost like he got a BA and 1/2 of another one.

Without a doubt for me its one of the Academies. The best that we have in this country.

If one of the grandkids had a choice between an academy and Harvard it would not be a hard choice where I would want him to go.

And this from a family full of liberal leaning dem peacenicks..

[sacto92]

This is awesome! I love seeing everybody here lose their mind because the military academies are highly ranked. I guess it doesn't quite fit the stereotype that all military members are only in the military because they have no other choice. It's also difficult for many of you to believe that the educational programs at the academies are top notch. Sure they're light on liberal arts and film appreciation programs but I guess they'll just have to do with their engineering degrees.

[zeezan]

Meow!

[OkieIntellectual]

Clearly you know little about the curriculum available at West Point. I turned down an appointment after completing the 10-month United States Military Academy Prepatory School, primarily because of a 4-day trip we took to sit in on classes and see the culture of the school. What I saw was severely outdated concepts being taught and methods being used, and a student culture that was centered more around cheap political games than the MacArthur-era ideals of "Duty, Honor, Country." I even had several seniors (one of whom had been my student-platoon leader when he came to my unit for summer training the year before) tell me that getting ahead at "The Point" was more about "who you know and who you blow" than about personal performance.

When I told the Commandant of the prep school that I was turning down my appointment, he demanded to know why. I explained to him that based on my experience on that trip and on what cadets had related to me personally, I felt that West Point was a place for politicans, not warriors. You should have seen his face turn red with rage. I knew several "ring knockers" in my army career and of all of them only one was not on a "I'm a WestPoint Officer" ego-trip & he came from the enlisted ranks.

Aside from all that though, don't fool yourself. The curriculum at West Point is very far from "top notch."

[sacto92]

Good call to turn down your appointment based on sitting in on a couple classes and talking to a couple of cadets. I'm sure they were a good reflection of a 4-yr experience. I assume you probably wanted to go there for quite some time so it's interesting that you were so easily swayed by a couple bad examples.

[ICorpsDoc]

The Military prep schools have had their fair share of kids who for one reason or another could not or did not move on.

Most of them will have good reasons why they diid so well after the fact.

The reasons matter not. They are just a group that did not move on.

I sat in on some classes. What a joke. Just someone who did not complete the trip.

[MajorKong]

As long as you don't mind spending 4 years of your life marching to class and eating your meals sitting at attention.

[ianrmcdonald]

Huffington Post needs to stop publishing Forbes lists, period.

25% of these ratings are based on evaluations of Rate My Professors.com.

This is utter nonsense. In a world of real research, people would lose their jobs for publishing this kind of crap. Anyone making decisions based on a list like this deserves the lifetime of misery that awaits them.

Here is the complete list of "criteria":

1. Listings of Alumni in the 2008 edition of Who's Who in America (12.5%)
2. Salaries of Alumni from PayScale.com (12.5%)
3. Student Evaluations from Ratemyprofessors.com (25%)
4. Four-Year Graduation Rates (16.66%)
5. Students Receiving Nationally Competitive Awards (8.33%)
6. Faculty Receiving Awards for Scholarship and Creative Pursuits (5%)
7. Four-year Debt Load for Typical Student Borrowers (20%)

[andresfusion]

WOW this list is BS! if you really want an accurate comparison look for:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-search

[Sandmanj]

This list only lists Universities. To schools like Smith College and Oberlin College have been omitted.

[naschkatze]

Still, there is quite a discrepancy between the Forbes and USA Today rankings.

[psbintl]

Absolutely!

The Forbes rating is bogus!

[palindrom]

Having read the rankings, the methodologies, and all the comments, and being a college professor myself, I think the Forbes rankings are very, very weird and mostly wrong. Unfortunately, people pay attention to these things. The US News and World Report's rankings correspond more closely to reality, but they're also skewed -- any one-dimensional ranking fails to capture the idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses of various schools. Parents and prospective students should take all rankings with a very large grain of salt -- think about what kind of school will be best for YOU. Also, remember you can get a great education at a mediocre school, or a terrible education at the best school in the world. One of the best things you can do is to defer college until you're ready to engage it seriously.

About costs: At most good schools the tuition figure is the "sticker price", and a large proportion of students get financial aid. My own school maintains "need-blind admissions", i.e., if you can get in, they'll work with you to make it possible for you to attend. There are families for whom $50k per year is basically loose change, and they're subsidizing the rest.

[tokenconservative]

This is the dumbest cost-benefit analysis if that's what it truly is, seeing as Dartmouth grads have the highest median mid-career salary - I kind of laughed when I saw it at 99, because that's when you know a list is notoriously unreliable. The biggest laugh was Duke's ranking though - I'm not sure if Forbes actually thinks this list is legitimate, but I got to tell you no one I ever met would believe it.

[Ametista]

Owing SIX YEARS of your life is "debt free"??? Whew, glad we understand that now. I think I'll just keep writing my monthly check to Nelnet whilst NOT getting my arse shot off in Iraq, thanks.

[MajorKong]

After going through pilot training my Air Force commitment was seven years and I think it's something like ten years now.

I've never regretted it, but make sure it's really what you want to do before you sign those papers.

[AbeMartin]

The U.S. Service Academies are not really comparable to any other 4-year institutions. The student body studies virtually the same curriculum and that narrow curriculum is designed to produce officers who are capable of providing the leadership in the various branches.

This "study" is also highly skewed toward those institutions which are private have been able to build enormous endowments which shield them from the vagaries of the economy. The faculties of all of the schools, even those which did not make the "cut" to the super-cool, even Steve Forbes is impressed, varsity, are remarkably consistent.

What is lacking in this highly subjective listing is the recognition that faculty, even at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Schools, Community Colleges, Religion affiliated schools have the academic backgrounds as the elite schools and while they may not be able to engage in significant research and publication because of heavy teaching loads, care deeply about the educational opportunities of their students. Also lacking is any acknowledgment that the aspirations of students and their families are identical to the privileged few who are able to attend the elite schools.

What is needed in higher is a recognition that even the lowliest colleges and universities in the rankings (there are another 2,000+ 4-year institutions not deemed "noteworthy" need the funds to satisfy their missions.