2009 Best Colleges Published by U.S. News and World Report

For the first time in more than a decade, Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. holds the number one spot in the U.S. News and World Report 2009 issue of Best Colleges. It’s a prestigious position that’s annually held by Princeton, now sitting at number two, followed by Yale. Harvard has caught much attention in recent months, as its now being driven by a new female president, Drew Gilpin Faust, and made an unprecedented Ivy League move to open financial aid packages to students whose families earn less than $180,000 per year. The $35 billion endowment at Harvard helped it gain its first place position as well.
How does that factor in to the scores? U.S. News and World Report is 25% reputation, per a survey sent to college officials, and 75% quantitative data. The criterion includes financial aid resources, graduation/retention rates, financial resources, new student acceptance rates and alumni giving; recently they started looking at the ratio of lower income students enrolled at the school.
The rest of the Top 25 List
Tied for 4th- MIT, Stanford
6. University of Pennsylvania
7. California Institute of Technology
8. Columbia
9. Duke
10. University of Chicago
11. Dartmouth
Tied for 12. Northwestern University and Washington University
14. Cornell
15. John Hopkins University
16. Brown University
17. Rice University
Tied for 18. Emory University, University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt
21. University of California at Berkeley
22. Carnegie Mellon University
Tied for 23. Georgetown and University of Virginia
25. UCLA
Best Liberal Arts Colleges
1. Amherst College
2. Williams College
3. Swarthmore College
4. Wellesley College
5. Middlebury College
Best Undergrad Business Programs
1. University of Pennsylvania
2. MIT
3. University of California at Berkeley
3. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
5. NYU
(University of Texas- Austin tied for 6)
Best Undergrad Engineering Programs
1. MIT
2. Stanford University
2. University of California at Berkeley
4. California Institute of Technology
4. Georgia Institute of Technology
4. University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign
Best Historically Black Colleges
1. Spellman College
2. Howard University
3. Morehouse College
4. Hampton University
5. Fisk University
The U.S. News and World Report 2009 Best Colleges list also includes several sub-lists, with topics such as:
– Most Students in a Fraternity (#1 Clearwater Christian College)
– Most Students Who Study Abroad (#1 Lee University)
– Highest Acceptance Rate (#1 Bellevue University)
– Lowest Acceptance Rate (#1 Curtis Institute of Music)
– Highest Graduation Rate (#1 St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing)
– Most Students Living on Campus (#1 Salem International University)
The list is very informative as it breaks out additional information regarding enrollment and tuition for each college or university. Further information is available for purchase from U.S. News for about $15.