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Best Colleges In America Stacker

Bonisiwe Shabane
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best colleges in america stacker

The 2024-2025 school year saw a growing number of students at campuses nationwide. Undergraduate enrollment was up by 3.2% in the spring of 2025, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That increase is all the more noteworthy when you consider the current price tag for a college education—per the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of one year at a higher education institution clocks... Still, college offers a valuable return on investment for many prospective students. An analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that in recent years, college grads earned a median of $80,000 per year, while workers with only a high school diploma earned a... With this in mind, the return on investment may be more apparent at some schools than others.

Stacker compiled a list of the best colleges in America using Niche's 2026 rankings. All four-year schools in Niche's database were considered. Niche ranks colleges using various factors, including academics, admissions, finances, and student life. You can check out the full methodology here. The list includes public and private institutions, from West Coast research colleges to East Coast liberal arts schools. It also contains a fair share of sprawling state schools and religion-centric universities.

These colleges offer pioneering sciences, entrepreneurship, and even bagpipe performance programs. While some may be best known for athletic achievements, many football schools are making rapid educational advancements, producing several Rhodes scholars and collaborating with tech industry giants. Of course, some have cool perks that few others do, including an on-campus ice cream factory or proximity to the beach. While the Ivy League is considered the cream of the crop for American colleges, that's not necessarily the case with this list. Keep reading to see which school grabbed the #1 spot. Earning a college degree is an investment with far-reaching benefits.

Adults who hold degrees earn an average of $32,000 more per year than those who hold a high school diploma. This increased income can mean a big difference in quality of life, from being able to afford a home to lower instances of poverty, and even longer life expectancy. While those statistics are all good reasons to go to college, education often comes with a hefty price tag. Over the last 10 years, tuition rates for both public and private colleges have increased by more than 25 percent, and student loan debt has increased alongside them. In 2019, the average cost per year of a private college education was $48,510, while at a public college it was $21,370. As a result, many students are choosing to attend a public university, where they can potentially get less-expensive tuition and better value for their money.

Public universities, which are funded by government monies, are usually less expensive than their private counterparts, primarily because they do not have to rely solely on tuition fees to stay solvent. And while there is a long-standing assumption that a private school education is somehow "better" than a state university, state schools often provide the same types of degrees as private ones, and depending on... Stackercompiled a list of the best public colleges in America using data from Niche, which was released in 2021. Niche ranks schools based on a variety of factors including academics, admissions, cost, and student life. Niche's methodology can be found here. Take a look at some of the best public schools in the country.

These are the top ranked public and private four-year colleges in the United States as ranked by CollegeSimply. Leading the list for 2025 as the best overall college in America is Princeton University. The top rated public state college is University of Michigan. Learn how the Best Colleges rankings are calculated on our ranking methodology page. Public domain college data is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics survey for academic years 2023-2024.

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education. Some Directory Data is copyrighted material which is reproduced in this publication by permission of Peterson's Data. Copyright by Peterson's Data. All rights reserved. SAT® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this site.

ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc. and is not affiliated with this website. CollegeSimply.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the academic institutions presented on this website. Our 2025 rankings named Massachusetts Institute of Technology the best school in the United States in terms of overall quality for students working on their bachelor’s degree. With a freshman retention rate of 99%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. Those who receive a bachelor’s degree from MIT go into careers with an average salary of $143,372 during the early years of their career.

The excellent bachelor’s degree programs at University of Pennsylvania helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best schools in the United States. The student loan default rate at the school is 2.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1% The average salary of a graduate with a bachelor’s degree from... You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Chicago. It ranked #3 on our 2025 Best Colleges in the United States list. Money’s annual Best Colleges list showcases the country’s top values, based on graduation rates, cost of attendance, financial aid, alumni salaries and more. There isn’t one “best” college for every student, but our star ratings on more than 700 colleges can help you build a list of standout schools that fit your budget.

Published: June 25th, 2025 | Read the full methodology here. Notes: Prices for the 2025-2026 academic year use the most recently available data as reported to IPEDS plus an inflation measure to estimate the prices for the upcoming year. Students who get merit grants are full-time undergraduates who had no financial need and were awarded grants. Graduation rate measures degree completion within six years for both transfer students and first-time students. Early career earnings are the median earnings for both graduates and non-completers, 10 years after they first enrolled. Sources: U.S.

Department of Education, Peterson’s, Money/Witlytic calculations. Money Group, LLC Distrito T-Mobile 250 Convention Blvd San Juan, PR 00907 "… Stacker used rankings and categories from Niche’s 2021 Best Colleges in America list, as well as rankings from past Stacker college stories, to compile a list of the top schools for 50 different... These metrics range from student population (such as best HBCU) to academics (such as the best school for studying education). While there are a few repeat appearances, no single school appears more than five times. From the schools that offer the most bang for the buck to the most highly selective and ferociously competitive institutions on earth, there’s truly something for everyone when it comes to higher education in...

Keep reading to learn which schools earned top billing in the 50 categories that separate one great college or university from another, depending on which student you ask." … http://kokomoperspective.com/stock_market/news/top-college-in-america-for-50-different-rankings/collection_01de222c-c31a-5b3f-b052-0ebb114fec7d.html#2 I love how they list UCLA as the best campus and have a photo of a campus gate showing a sign: USC “Best college near the beach: Stanford University” – guess it depends on what “near the beach” means. When it comes to higher education, definitions of what constitutes a valuable collegiate experience and reasons for enrolling are as varied as the people providing the answers. For some, it’s tied to affordability and measured in terms of how many scholarships and grants are available to offset the overall cost.

For others, value is measured by the quality of the education and is determined by factors such as class sizes, faculty qualifications, and access to research opportunities. While others still measure value by post-grad career outcomes, prioritizing alumni networks, internship placements, career services, and the potential for social mobility. A tuition-to-salary comparison is generally not sufficient in assessing the value a school offers. It’s essential to consider both the immediate financial costs and benefits, as well as the quality of life and campus culture that it can offer its students. In an age where student debt is skyrocketing, reaching $1.814 trillion in 2024, many students in the U.S. are anxious about whether their degree will be worthwhile in the long run.

The average debt carried by one of the 45 million student-loan borrowers after graduation is around $42,673. As the student debt crisis grows alongside the staggering rise of college tuition, a school’s overall value matters: namely, where scholarly investments will pay off with less debt to start and a higher-paying career... Stacker used Niche’s 2026 list of the Best Value Colleges in America to report the best value college in every U.S. state. Community colleges and online colleges were not included. The methodology included student surveys, cost, post-graduate financial earnings, and a handful of other factors that capture a school’s well-rounded value.

(You can read the full methodology here.) While some colleges may lure students in with a vibrant campus life or famous professors, these details are generally not indicators of a school’s value to a student’s lifelong career prospects. Read on to see if your alma mater is the best value college in its state.

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