Forbes College Rankings: Which Schools Made The Top 12? (PHOTOS)

Forbes has released a list of the best colleges in America -- and their findings may surprise you.

Brown University, typically regarded as a top 20 school, falls at No. 45. Wesleyan University ranks higher than the oft-laureled University of Chicago. And the best college in America is not Harvard or Princeton, but tiny liberal arts school Williams.

Forbes based their rankings on research by the Center for College Affordability & Productivity. According to a report on their methodology, the Center used 11 factors to determine the rankings, and the largest being graduate success rate. They also looked at average graduate salary, student satisfaction and graduation rate.

View the Forbes' top 12 schools in America below -- and see their full list of 610 colleges here.

What do you think? Do you take issue with these rankings? Or do you think they're valid? Join the discussion below.

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Williams College

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Comments

[Beth Morrison]

11:20 PM on 08/30/2010

I originally wanted to log in to comment that I couldn't understand why Claremont McKenna would
be picked over Pomona, but then I felt compelled to respond to Blueballs. The Claremont schools in general are top schools, especially Pomona, Harvey Mudd, and Claremont McKenna. I am sure that many people who get in the schools you mentioned could not get in these schools. They are like the Williams and the Amhersts of the western part of the country. I invite you to go to their websites and look at their SAT scores, etc.

[pinkogirl]

08:45 PM on 08/29/2010

i love the way we here in the US always rank our colleges instead of doing something about the increasingly low percentage of our people who graduate from college. College costs too much! And most of the top 20 schools on this list are sitting on hundreds of millions --in some cases billions-- of dollars in endowments that they are not dipping into to make college more affordable. A Harvard education should be FREE! The school has more than enough in its endowment to pay the tuition of every undergraduate it admits for years to come. But instead it pays its financial adviser millions to sit on the money. Never mind the inflation in high education that is completely out of whack with the rest of the economy. Colleges care about these polls and getting "the right kids" in few care about graduating anyone in four years.

[Tim Scholl]

03:22 PM on 08/24/2010

Gee! What a shocking report! What could be the correlation between the most expensive schools and 'success' later in life? Why doesn't Forbes do a 'schools for the dumb rich' survey? That would certainly be more useful for the spawn of many of their readers.

[UberBubbleTea]

06:57 PM on 08/16/2010

Forbes ... Seriously???

[Y2KCockroach]

06:52 PM on 08/15/2010

Um, by whatever metric one chooses in establishing national rankings of colleges, there is just no way on Gawd's green earth that the US Military Academy rates ahead of MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale.

Sorry, but this list is bogus.

[Oonagh]

08:51 PM on 08/16/2010

You are right this is bogus..

[fem56]

04:31 PM on 08/15/2010

I would like to think the state college I went to was just as good as these world class institutions but it was not. There were some outstanding professors and some outstanding students. I do think the most important factor is what you put into your education and some of these students are hugely successful now. That said, I fully know the calibar of the students, the drive and talent and passion, the opportunities, the challenges of the programs at these world class institutions, are simply not in the same league. Thank goodness for these fabulous institutions. That doesn't mean I am an inferior person. Going to a state college was simply what was expected. Still there is no way that I am as well educated but I sure enjoyed my college experience.

[gw2212]

10:48 PM on 08/14/2010

Does the hostility toward good schools that are expressed in these comments come from ignorance and lack of reading more about the subject, or does it come from resentment about not being able to get in? If anyone actually took the time to read about these schools and see how superior the education you get is (smaller classes, more qualified faculty, better student/teacher ratio, better facilities, teachers that actually care and know you, I could go on but you get the point), you would not criticize them but laude them as great places where good students who are diligent in their studies can get a fantastic education.

[mad madmad]

12:09 AM on 08/15/2010

I completely agree with the above post.

Compare learning about "XYZ law" from XYZ vs someone in a community college.
Please visit the Physics department at Princeton whenever you get a chance. The walls have a bunch of pictures (10+) of ex-students, professors etc who won the Nobel in Physics. If this is not inspiring, then I don't know what else is (People magazine perhaps?) !

Moreover, if you major in engineering and/or the hard sciences (grad school), then the education is FREE! The name of the school counts (A LOT) to get your foot in the door, as far as a job is concerned.

For the record, I went to a state school on a 100% scholarship etc...and am dong very well career wise; but I still wish I had gone to one of the Ivy schools instead :)

[Tanner Baldus]

09:25 AM on 08/15/2010

dude this is the crap that makes we "ignorant" one wanna smack you upside the head.
These schools do not give a superior education, lets look at your criteria for what makes a superior education:
smaller classes- see it thought that too at first but its really what you put into it you can do just as well in small classes as you can large one. Now sure there's the whole individual attention thing but guess what? just because your in small class doesn't mean they're gonna give it to ya, you have to seek it out. just as you would. . . wait for it IN A LARGE CLASS. And i hate to break it to ya for the gen eds you are going to be taking ur first 2 years the classes are going to be at least 30-60 people and honestly everything beyond from 30-200 doesn't make that much of a difference.

more qualified profs: while nobel prizes do make you good in your field it doesn't make you a good teacher also the more "qualified" a prof is the less liley hes going to spend more time teaching you. I mean when the guys out curing cancer hes not going to care too much about teaching you the Krebs cycle.

[Gnarly]

07:04 PM on 08/14/2010

most of these schools are based on who you know and how much money you can throw at it. not impressed with this list. it's a sustained network of the wealthy class.

[gw2212]

10:43 PM on 08/14/2010

As a student who went to an "elite" private high school, I can tell you that most of the conceptions people have about "snobby prep schools" and "wealthy class circles" is false. Many students at my school can hardly afford the airfare from their hometowns across the country to get to school. My school gives hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to students who aren't rich, priveleged, or elite; they simply want to learn and have an academic, athletic, or artistic gift. Do we have students from "old money"? Of course. But they are a huge minority in a school filled with many local students getting financial aid. Based on the "wealthy network" schools that people at my high school get into, their student bodies aren't filled with the wealthy either. Don't judge just because you haven't experienced it. If you actually try in high school and push yourself, you can get into any school whether you have $1 or $1 million.

[TheWorldBlowsUpTommorow]

12:15 PM on 08/15/2010

Not really. It isn't true that people who get into elite colleges don't deserve it with regards to academic performance, but the overwhelming majority of students in elite colleges do come from rich households. This is an indisputable fact.

I can give you the average household incomes of students from Harvard; it is over 100k.

[TheWorldBlowsUpTommorow]

12:44 PM on 08/15/2010

"Airfare"?

That's hilarious. Listen. There are kids that can't even afford to get to schools across the block, much less on an airplane. Private high schools are usually full of rich students unless specificed otherwise.

[cookerman45]

12:08 AM on 08/14/2010

not one community college among them.......puzzling to say the least.

[mad madmad]

12:09 AM on 08/15/2010

Are you joking? I hope so!

[cookerman45]

12:14 AM on 08/15/2010

YES!

[blueballs]

01:46 PM on 08/13/2010

Had to chuckle at Claremont. Yep, when *I* think of quality education on the West Coast, I don't think of Cal, UCLA, or Cal Tech. Nope. It's Claremont.

Whew.

[SangZe]

10:42 AM on 08/13/2010

Another stupid meaningless ranking. If you want a good education in the U.S., you can get it at almost any college or university, but you cannot get it with money alone. If you are wise, you will seek out a mentor and learn from him or her both inside and outside of the classroom. If you pay attention, you will find that what you bring into the classroom is as important and valuable as what your professor brings.

[Frog of War]

09:23 AM on 08/13/2010

"You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library" -- Good Will Hunting

[kmdippenger]

12:00 PM on 08/13/2010

A great line in a great movie!

[Panther2000]

07:36 AM on 08/13/2010

Outside of the Air Force Academy nothing was outside of the Northeast or the West Coast. And we wonder there is so much disconnect between these areas and the rest of the country. The "Old Boys and Girls " network is alive, well and thriving. The rest of us....

[PresidentRobertBooth]

07:17 AM on 08/13/2010

What?

You mean Brigham Young, Liberty and Regent Universities aren't the best???


I for one, am shocked.

[nationalhealth]

08:40 AM on 08/13/2010

Liberty was second last lol

[bubbuh]

05:39 AM on 08/13/2010

Just remember. Rankings like this are a sham There is no objective way to measure the ability of colleges and universities to teach students because colleges and universities don't teach. Students learn.. Some professors teach and inspire The best a college or university can do is provide a comfortable, safe and "learning ready" environment.

For instance having beer and dancing handy, but not too handy is a useful educational aid.