It’s that time of year ago. College students across the country are headed to campus for the fall semester which means the U.S. News & World Report is releasing their rankings of the “Best Colleges in America.” The National Universities rankings include schools which “offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and doctoral programs.”
Once again, it is Princeton University in New Jersey that earns the top spot in the rankings.
Princeton — which was founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey — is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the country and is one of nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The Ivy League school has produced 65 Nobel laureates, 15 Field Medalists, and 13 Turing Award laureates.
Checking in behind Princeton is Harvard, a mainstay on the U.S. News & World Report rankings, while Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale University are tied for third.
The rankings are based off of average ACT/SET scores, student-faculty ratios, graduation rates, college visits, interviews, “application requirements, tuition and financial aid, student body characteristics and figures on post-graduate employment,” as outlined by the U.S. News & World Report methodology.
A look at the top 15 colleges in America can be seen below. For the full and comprehensive rankings, visit the U.S. News & World Report official website.
U.S. News & World Report Top 15 Colleges in America
how we feel about students coming back to campus 
| #Princetagram by @princeton_odus1. Princeton University
2. Harvard University
3. Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University (tie)
6. Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania (tie)
9. Northwestern University
10. Duke University and Johns Hopkins University (tie)
12. California Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College (tie)
14. Brown University
15. University of Notre Dame and Vanderbilt University (tie)