These are America's top colleges of 2024, according to Forbes ranking

By Daniel Miller
Published  September 6, 2024 11:22am EDT
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FILE-Students walk through a college campus. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

The Brief

    • Princeton University earned the number one spot for the second year in a row in the top colleges in America.
    • Forbes released its annual rankings of the top 500 schools in the nation.
    • The American business magazine based their list on multiple categories like graduation rates and academic success.

null - There are qualities that can make a college standout among other institutions of higher learning, from academic success to career opportunities for students after they graduate. 

Some of these characteristics were evaluated by Forbes to rank their top 500 colleges in the nation for 2024. 

This year's list featured Princeton University, who ranked first for the second year in a row, and six HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) earned spots in the top 500, up from three in 2023.

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Here is the list of top colleges in the U.S. this year. 

The top 20 U.S. colleges of 2024 

  1. Princeton University
  2. Stanford University
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  4. Yale University
  5. University of California, Berkeley
  6. Columbia University
  7. University of Pennsylvania
  8. Harvard University
  9. Rice University
  10. Cornell University
  11. Northwestern University
  12. Johns Hopkins University
  13. University of California, Los Angeles
  14. University of Chicago
  15. Vanderbilt University
  16. Dartmouth College
  17. Williams College
  18. Brown University
  19. Claremont McKenna College
  20. Duke University

Forbes created its rankings of top colleges using key metrics, including the school’s graduation rates, academic success, retention rates, and alumni salary. The team also used data from two education databases (the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and College Scorecard). 

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The team then assembled a list of thousands of U.S. colleges based on their Carnegie Classification, which is a higher education structure that classifies schools based on degrees and specialized programs (like engineering, business and art) offered by the colleges.

To see the complete list of top colleges, click here. 

The Source 

  • Information for this story was provided by Forbes, which used several metrics to build its list, including the school’s graduation rates, academic success, and retention rates. The American business magazine also collected data from two education databases (the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and College Scorecard).