U.S. News: Best Values - Liberal Arts Colleges (2009)

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Amherst College

Williams College

Pomona College

Wellesley College

Grinnell College

Swarthmore College

Middlebury College

Smith College

Macalester College

Claremont McKenna College

Colgate University

Wabash College

Carleton College

Bowdoin College

Lyon College

Agnes Scott College

Centre College

Hamilton College

Vassar College

Haverford College

Harvey Mudd College

Mount Holyoke College

Trinity College

Wesleyan University

Bryn Mawr College

Cornell College

University of Richmond

DePauw University

Oberlin College

Wofford College

Transylvania University

Thomas Aquinas College

Reed College

Austin College

Barnard College

Occidental College

Beloit College

Washington and Lee University

Colorado College

Bates College

Source: U.S. News

Methodology:

These rankings were based on three variables:

 

1. Ratio of quality to price: A school’s overall score in the America’s Best Colleges 2009 edition of the rankings was divided by the 2007-2008 academic year net cost to a student receiving the average need-based scholarship or grant. The higher the ratio of a school’s America’s Best Colleges 2009 edition rank to the discounted total cost less the average 2007-2008 academic year need-based scholarship or grant, the better the value. Total cost equals the sum of 2007-2008 academic year tuition, room and board, fees, books, and other expenses, including transportation.

 

2. Percentage of all undergraduates receiving need-based scholarships or grants during the 2007-2008 academic year.

 

3. Average discount: percentage of a school’s 2007-2008 total costs (tuition, room and board, fees, books, and other expenses) covered by the 2007-2008 academic year average need-based scholarship or grant to undergraduates.

 

Note: In the case of public institutions, 2007-2008 out-of-state tuition and percentage of out-of-state students receiving need-based scholarship or grants were used in all calculations.

 

Only those schools ranked in, or near, the top half of their America’s Best Colleges categories were considered. The schools’ overall Best Values ranks were determined by first standardizing the scores achieved by every school in each of the three above variables and weighting those scores. The ratio of quality to price accounted for 60 percent of the overall score; the percentage of all undergraduates receiving need-based grants accounted for 25 percent; and the average discount accounted for 15 percent. The school with the highest total weighted points became No. 1 in its category. The other schools were then ranked in descending order. Schools with the same rank are tied.

U.S. News: Best Colleges - Liberal Arts Rankings (2009)

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Amherst College

Williams College

Swarthmore College

Wellesley College

Middlebury College

Bowdoin College

Pomona College

Carleton College

Davidson College

Haverford College

Claremont McKenna College

Vassar College

Wesleyan University

Grinnell College

Harvey Mudd College

United States Military Academy

Washington and Lee University

Colgate University

Smith College

Hamilton College

Oberlin College

United States Naval Academy

Bryn Mawr College

Colby College

Bates College

Macalester College

Barnard College

Mount Holyoke College

Scripps College

Bucknell University

Colorado College

Kenyon College

Trinity College

University of Richmond

College of the Holy Cross

Lafayette College

Bard College

Furman University

Occidental College

Whitman College

Sewanee–University of the South

Connecticut College

Franklin and Marshall College

Union College

Centre College

Dickinson College

Skidmore College

St. Olaf College

DePauw University

Gettysburg College

Pitzer College

Rhodes College

Denison University

Reed College

Wabash College

Lawrence University

Wheaton College

St. Lawrence University

Wheaton College

Agnes Scott College

Beloit College

Illinois Wesleyan University

Kalamazoo College

Thomas Aquinas College

Willamette University

Wofford College

Earlham College

Berea College

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Southwestern University

Austin College

Drew University

Lewis and Clark College

Muhlenberg College

St. John’s University

Virginia Military Institute

College of Wooster

Hendrix College

Spelman College

Transylvania University

Birmingham-Southern College

University of Puget Sound

Ursinus College

College of St. Benedict

Millsaps College

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Sweet Briar College

Augustana College

Cornell College

Gustavus Adolphus College

Hope College

Knox College

Luther College

Allegheny College

Lake Forest College

New College of Florida

Washington College

Coe College

Hampden-Sydney College

Hanover College

Hillsdale College

Hollins University

Juniata College

Albion College

Bennington College

Hampshire College

Presbyterian College

St. Mary’s College

St. Michael’s College

Washington and Jefferson College

Goucher College

Lyon College

Ohio Wesleyan University

Westmont College

Calvin College

Stonehill College

Susquehanna University

Berry College

Linfield College

Randolph College

Siena College

Central College

St. John’s College

Westminster College

Source: U.S. News

Methodology:

The U.S. News rankings system rests on two pillars. It relies on quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and it’s based on our nonpartisan view of what matters in education.

 

How does the methodology work? First, schools are categorized by mission, derived from the basic Carnegie classification, and, in some cases, by region.

 

The national universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and Ph.D. programs, and emphasize faculty research. The liberal arts colleges focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education. They award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the arts and sciences. The universities-master’s offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master’s degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. The baccalaureate colleges focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. The baccalaureate colleges include institutions where at least 10 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded are bachelor’s degrees. The universities-master’s and baccalaureate colleges categories are further subdivided by geography—North, South, Midwest, and West.

 

Next, we gather data from each college for up to 15 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects our judgment about how much a measure matters. Finally, the colleges in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score.

 

Schools are unranked and listed separately for America’s Best Colleges 2009 if they have indicated that they don’t use the SAT or ACT in admission decisions for first-time, first-year, degree-seeking applicants (or, in a few cases, if they didn’t receive enough responses on the peer assessment survey to allow us to use their peer score as part of the overall ranking). Other schools were unranked for the following reasons: a total enrollment of fewer than 200 students; a vast proportion of nontraditional students; no first-year students (these are sometimes called upper-division schools). We did not rank private, for-profit universities; nor did we rank a few specialized schools in arts, business, or engineering.

 

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U.S. News: Best Values - National Universities (2009)

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U.S. News: Best Colleges - National Universities (2009)

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U.S. News: Best Colleges - National Universities (2008)

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1. Princeton University  
2. Harvard University  
3. Yale University  
4. Stanford University  
5. University of Pennsylvania  
5. California Institute of Technology  
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology  
8. Duke University  
9. Columbia University  
9. University of Chicago  
11. Dartmouth College  
12. Washington University in St. Louis   Read more»

U.S. News: Best Colleges (1991)

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1. Harvard University  
2. Stanford University  
3. Yale University  
4. Princeton University  
5. California Institute of Technology  
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology  
7. Duke University  
8. Dartmouth College  
9. Cornell University  
10. Columbia University  
11. University of Chicago  
12. Brown University   Read more»