Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Pomona College Ranks No. 1 on Forbes' Eighth Annual Ranking of America's Top Colleges

  • 07/29/15

NEW YORK, NY – Pomona College tops Forbes’ 2015 8th annual rankings of America’s Top Colleges (p. 75 of the August 17, 2015 issue of Forbes magazine). The rankings are featured online at www.forbes.com/top-colleges. The debate about whether U.S. higher education is worth the price is over when it comes to these outstanding colleges. Forbes rates schools on an ROI scale with points for low debt, high graduation rates, student satisfaction and career success; letter grades are used for fiscal soundness, and there is also a ranking of alumni giving.

Pomona College moved Williams College out of first place and into the No. 2 spot on this year’s rankings. Stanford University moved down to No. 3 from 2nd place last year, followed by Princeton University (No. 4) and Yale University at No. 5. The three highest ranking public schools are University of California, Berkeley (No. 35), University of Virginia (No. 36), and the College of William & Mary (No. 39). Wellesley College (No. 26) was ranked the best all-women’s college.

Notable trends in the Top 10 schools:

  • The Top 10 fall into two geographic locations: they are on the East or West Coast.
  • They all have very low student/faculty ratio with the highest at 11:1; the lowest at 6:1.
  • They have high retention rates. Stanford and Yale have the highest, with only 1 percent leaving/transferring to another school.
  • They have high four-year graduation rates. 84 percent or more graduate in four years.
  • They are all old schools. Pomona College is the newest, founded in 1887.

Background:

  • 18 million undergraduate students will pay an estimated total $18,943 on college tuition and costs ($42,429 for private schools).
  • An average newly minted grad with student loan debt will have to pay back approximately $35,000; overall national student debt has escalated to an all-time high of $1.2 trillion.

Forbes.com’s coverage includes a complete ranking of 650 colleges, Best Value Colleges, Best Public Colleges, Best Private Colleges and related online features and videos. The Top 10 colleges are:

RANK

 NAME/STATE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Featured

  • T&T Construction Management Group Completes Pasco High School Expansion

    Pasco High School in Dade City, Fla., recently announced that it has completed an expansion project in partnership with T&T Construction Management Group, Inc., Harvard Jolly Architecture, and Williams Company.

  • UCNJ Launches $30M Modernization of Physical Education Center

    The Union College of Union County (UCNJ) in Cranford, N.J., recently broke ground on a new $30-million modernization project for its Physical Education Center (PECK), according to a news release. The college partnered with DIGroup Architecture for the project’s design, transitioning the existing 42,000-square-foot structure into a campus hub for student athletics and campus life.

  • Texas State University Completes Stadium Renovations

    Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, recently announced that it has completed a series of additions and renovations to its football stadium, according to a news release. Formerly known as the Bobcat Stadium End Zone Complex, the Johnny and Nathali Weisman Football Performance Center is an 85,000-square-foot expansion featuring hospitality spaces, banquet spaces, exterior concourses, and upgrades to the field house.

  • DLR Group Appoints New K–12 Education Practice Leader

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has named its new global K–12 Education leader, Senior Principal Carmen Wyckoff, AIA, LEED AP, according to a news release. Her teams have members in all 36 of the firm’s offices in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Europe, and Asia.

Digital Edition