These are America's top colleges of 2024, according to Forbes ranking
FILE-Students walk through a college campus. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
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
- Princeton University
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Yale University
- University of California, Berkeley
- Columbia University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Harvard University
- Rice University
- Cornell University
- Northwestern University
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of Chicago
- Vanderbilt University
- Dartmouth College
- Williams College
- Brown University
- Claremont McKenna College
- 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.