College Choice Releases 2016 Rankings of National Liberal Arts Colleges and National Research Universities: Unique college rankings are based exclusively on factors entering freshmen said most important to college decision
RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- College Choice (http://www.collegechoice.net) has published its 2016 rankings of liberal arts colleges and national research universities. They are the only college rankings based exclusively on factors actual college students said were most important to their college decision. According to the most recent annual CIRP Freshmen Survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, these factors include academic reputation, financial aid offerings, overall cost, and success of graduates in the post-college job market.
The ranking of national research universities can be viewed at http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/best-research-universities-2016/.
The ranking of national liberal arts universities can be viewed at http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/best-liberal-arts-colleges-2016/.
"Every college ranking involves decisions about what factors to measure and how much weight to give them," said Jeremy Alder, Managing Editor of College Choice. "It made sense to us to focus on the factors actual college freshmen said were most important to them when they chose their school."
Yale University replaced Harvard University at the top of the national research universities ranking. Harvard took the second spot, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which retained its third place ranking. Ranked national research universities include (in alphabetical order):
Boston College, Boston, MA
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Brown University, Providence, RI
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Columbia University, New York, NY
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Duke University, Durham, NC
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
New York University, New York, NY
Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Purdue University--West Lafayette, West Lafayette, IN
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Rice University, Houston, TX
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
Texas A&M University--College Station, College Station, TX
Tufts University, Medford, MA
University of California --Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
University of California--Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
University of California--Davis, Davis, CA
University of California--Irvine, Irvine, CA
University of California--San Diego, San Diego, CA
University of California--Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Yale University, New Haven, CT
In the national liberal arts colleges category, Amherst College replaced Williams College at number one this year. Williams took the second spot, followed by Pomona College. National liberal arts colleges making the ranking include (in alphabetical order):
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Barnard College, New York, NY
Bates College, Lewiston, ME
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
Colby College, Waterville, ME
Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
Connecticut College, New London, CT
Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Denison University, Granville, OH
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Furman University, Greenville, SC
Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Haverford College, Haverford, PA
Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
Lafayette College, Easton, PA
Lawrence University, Appleton, WI
Macalester College, St Paul, MN
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Pomona College, Claremont, CA
Reed College, Portland, OR
Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Smith College, Northampton, MA
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Trinity College, Hartford, CT
Union College, Schenectady, NY
University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
Both rankings take into account each school's academic reputation, average amount of scholarship and grant aid per student, overall net cost, and the average starting salary for graduates. Each factor was weighted equally. Data was derived from several publicly available sources, including the National Center for Education Statistics, Payscale.com, and U.S. News & World Report.
College Choice is an independent online publication dedicated to helping students and their families find the right college. The site publishes data-driven rankings and reviews that make finding the best colleges for different interests easier and more fun, as well as resources to help students get into, pay for, and thrive at the school of their choice.
Contact:
Jeremy Alder
Managing Editor, College Choice
www.collegechoice.net
(919) 745-8594
Email
SOURCE College Choice
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