Deciding on where to attend college doesn’t just come down to academic programs and prestige—it also depends on the cost, and whether students and their parents feel they’re getting a decent bang for their buck. WalletHub analyzed more than 850 colleges and universities across the US to see which provide the best value, looking at 30 metrics in seven main categories: student selectivity; cost and financing; faculty resources, including such factors as class sizes and student-faculty ratios; campus safety; campus experience (think gender and racial diversity, NCAA membership, and share of international students); and educational and career outcomes. Yale emerged at the top of WalletHub’s rankings, followed by MIT and Princeton. The top 10:
Best Colleges and Universities
- Yale
- MIT (No. 1 in “Student Selectivity” category)
- Princeton
- Caltech (No. 1 in “Faculty Resources,” “Career Outcomes” categories)
- Harvard
- Duke (No. 1 in “Education Outcomes” category)
- Rice University
- Northwestern
- Johns Hopkins
- Stanford
See the rest of WalletHub’s list here. (Compare WalletHub’s rankings with those from the Wall Street Journal and College Pulse.)
Read More: These Colleges Are America’s Best
