Latest Rankings Revealed in 2020 “Best Colleges”

The 2020 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” – often viewed as the bible to the college industry – is about to hit the newsstands.  New Jersey’s Princeton University is still in first place (for the 9th consecutive year) as the “Best National University.”  It’s followed by Harvard, in second place, and a three-way tie for third place among Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and Yale.  Other universities in the top 10 include University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Duke and Johns Hopkins, which tied for 10th place. 

This issue marks the 35th annual edition of the guidebook which rates colleges on a wide range of criteria.  For example, each school is rated on its average freshmen retention rate.  This is the percent of freshmen that return to the college for their sophomore year, indicating a level of happiness or satisfaction with their college. The top 25 national universities typically enjoy first-year student retention rates of 97% to 99%.

Another category lists the percent of classes with fewer than 20 students, and another lists the percent of classes with 50 or more students.  A popular New Jersey college with small classes is The College of New Jersey which seldom, if ever, hosts a class in excess of 50 students.  

A key component in choosing a college should be the availability of a student’s chosen major, or field of study.  Here, too, the rankings can provide valuable information.  For example, U.S. News not only ranks the best undergraduate engineering programs in general, but also ranks them by their specialties.  The highest ranked university for chemical engineering (M.I.T.) is not the top ranked for civil engineering (University of California - Berkeley) or for biomedical engineering (Johns Hopkins).

The top ranked schools on U.S. News and World Report’s list all have something in common: they graduate the vast majority of students within six years, helping students minimize the cost of a college education. Nationwide, just 41% of first-time college students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, and 59% earn it within six years, according to statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Students in the market for a college education should seek all of the pertinent information available in making what is likely to be a very expensive decision that will profoundly affect the rest of their lives.

Susan Alaimo is the founder of SAT Smart. For the past 25 years, SAT Smart’s Ivy League educated tutors have prepared students for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, Subject Tests, AP courses, and all high school subjects. Visit www.SATsmart.com or call 908-369-5362.