Top America’s Best Colleges Ranking in 2011 by Forbes

Rank Name State Cost Total Student Population
1 Williams College MA 49,530 2,072
2 Princeton University NJ 49,830 7,330
3 Amherst College MA 50,230 1,697
4 United States Military Academy NY 0 4,553
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA 50,100 10,299
6 Stanford University CA 51,760 17,833
7 Swarthmore College PA 50,381 1,490
8 Harvard University MA 50,250 26,496
9 Claremont McKenna College CA 50,990 1,212
10 Yale University CT 51,400 10,192
11 United States Air Force Academy CO 0 4,537
12 Wellesley College MA 50,026 2,498
13 Columbia University NY 51,406 23,196
14 Haverford College PA 51,637 1,169
15 Wesleyan University CT 51,935 3,149
16 Whitman College WA 46,212 1,458
17 Pomona College CA 49,745 1,532
18 Northwestern University IL 52,120 19,291
19 California Institute of Technology CA 48,990 2,126
20 University of Chicago IL 53,310 14,788
21 Carleton College MN 50,000 1,983
22 Harvey Mudd College CA 50,073 738
23 Vassar College NY 51,370 2,389
24 Centre College KY 39,200 1,197
25 Rice University TX 43,586 5,357
26 Middlebury College VT 52,460 2,455
27 Boston College MA 52,060 14,836
28 Colgate University NY 51,090 2,844
29 United States Naval Academy MD 1,000 4,488
30 Dartmouth College NH 50,547 5,848
31 Colby College ME 50,120 1,847
32 Kenyon College OH 49,260 1,644
33 University of Notre Dame IN 49,030 11,731
34 Tufts University MA 51,400 10,030
35 Smith College MA 50,588 3,101
36 University of Pennsylvania PA 51,299 24,107
37 Washington and Lee University VA 49,268 2,155
38 Bryn Mawr College PA 50,060 1,745
39 College of the Holy Cross MA 49,102 2,898
40 Bowdoin College ME 50,570 1,723
41 Duke University NC 50,925 14,060
42 Wabash College IN 37,750 911
43 Vanderbilt University TN 52,303 12,093
44 University of Virginia VA 40,709 24,541
45 Brown University RI 50,560 8,318
46 College of William and Mary VA 39,886 7,892
47 Rhodes College TN 43,680 1,678
48 Davidson College NC 45,725 1,668
49 Union College NY 50,060 2,240
50 Lawrence University WI 42,301 1,496
51 Colorado College CO 48,000 2,026
52 Georgetown University DC 54,200 15,318
53 Emory University GA 49,708 12,755
54 Bates College ME 51,400 1,776
55 Macalester College MN 46,730 1,900
56 Bucknell University PA 50,250 3,759
57 Brandeis University MA 50,148 5,327
58 Wofford College SC 40,835 1,429
59 Wheaton College IL 50,130 2,915
60 Virginia Military Institute VA 36,573 1,428
61 Lafayette College PA 49,188 2,382
62 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill NC 33,091 28,567
63 Barnard College NY 51,976 2,359
64 DePauw University IN 42,175 2,298
65 University of California-Berkeley CA 47,194 35,396
66 Oberlin College OH 50,658 2,864
67 Dickinson College PA 50,334 2,388
68 Principia College IL 33,075 519
69 Reed College OR 49,960 1,471
70 Cornell University NY 50,384 20,273
71 University of California-Los Angeles CA 45,152 38,220
72 Wake Forest University NC 49,820 6,862
73 Kalamazoo College MI 40,416 1,389
74 Hamilton College NY 50,210 1,872
75 Knox College IL 38,433 1,379
76 Washington University-St. Louis MO 52,464 13,339
77 Denison University OH 45,980 2,200
78 Grinnell College IA 46,400 1,678
79 Mount Holyoke College MA 51,516 2,241
80 Skidmore College NY 51,501 2,777
81 Westmont College CA 47,786 1,340
82 Juniata College PA 40,550 1,526
83 Connecticut College CT 51,685 1,852
84 University of Richmond VA 49,090 4,249
85 St. Mary’s College of California CA NA NA
86 Occidental College CA 50,409 1,868
87 Sweet Briar College VA 39,971 828
88 Johns Hopkins University MD 51,478 19,758
89 St. Mary’s College of Maryland MD 36,494 2,068
90 Furman University SC 47,040 2,977
91 Drew University NJ 52,106 2,581
92 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI 44,761 41,028
93 University of Florida FL 32,093 51,474
94 Cooper Union NY 51,755 972
95 Wells College NY 40,280 579
96 Trinity College CT 50,645 2,504
97 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign IL 38,364 43,246
98 Gustavus Adolphus College MN 39,760 2,503
99 Franklin and Marshall College PA 50,100 2,164
100 Washington & Jefferson College PA 41,684 1,519
101 Ursinus College PA 48,310 1,680
102 Hendrix College AR 37,758 1,350
103 Randolph-Macon College VA 39,465 1,201
104 Salem College NC 35,610 939
105 United States Coast Guard Academy CT 4,600 975
106 Hillsdale College MI NA NA
107 University of Washington WA 35,555 39,675
108 Carnegie Mellon University PA 51,960 10,875
109 Southern Methodist University TX 47,375 10,965
110 Ithaca College NY 44,368 6,448
111 St. Olaf College MN 44,000 3,073
112 University of Southern California CA 51,881 33,747
113 Westminster College MO 27,070 1,000
114 Villanova University PA 49,470 10,274
115 Santa Clara University CA 50,556 8,758
116 Thomas Aquinas College CA 31,845 340
117 University of California-Irvine CA 44,454 26,984
118 Scripps College CA 51,250 972
119 Nebraska Wesleyan University NE 30,982 2,086
120 New College of Florida FL 34,966 785
121 Xavier University OH 39,130 6,584
122 Luther College IA 39,550 2,423
123 Gettysburg College PA 47,830 2,480
124 College of Wooster OH 43,920 1,884
125 Beloit College WI 39,736 1,388
126 Southwestern University TX 38,540 1,270
127 Allegheny College PA 42,500 2,125
128 Wesleyan College GA 27,300 739
129 Saint Michael’s College VT 42,000 2,460
130 Loyola University in Maryland MD 48,410 6,080
131 Rockhurst University MO 36,278 3,086
132 Muhlenberg College PA 46,000 2,492
133 University of Rochester NY 50,550 9,735
134 George Fox University OR 36,640 3,383
135 Millsaps College MS 36,054 1,118
136 Brigham Young University UT 15,330 34,244
137 Agnes Scott College GA 40,910 832
138 University of Texas at Austin TX 41,140 49,984
139 University of California-San Diego CA 44,371 27,520
140 Hobart and William Smith Colleges NY 50,886 2,078
141 University of Puget Sound WA 46,035 2,844
142 Pepperdine University CA 49,750 7,614
143 University of Minnesota-Morris MN 19,116 1,607
144 Gonzaga University WA 39,982 7,272
145 Earlham College IN 42,694 1,336
146 St. Anselm College NH 42,465 1,900
147 Albion College MI 38,770 1,860
148 John Carroll University OH 39,024 3,826
149 Manhattan College NY 36,810 3,441
150 University of Georgia GA 33,070 34,180
151 Tulane University LA 50,030 10,737
152 St. Norbert College WI 34,707 2,137
153 University of Dallas TX 37,955 2,977
154 Lake Forest College IL 43,500 1,400
155 St. John’s College MD 49,818 562
156 Virginia Tech VA 32,165 30,739
157 William Jewell College MO 33,630 1,210
158 Marlboro College VT 42,220 326
159 Doane College NE 28,600 894
160 Gordon College MA 36,918 1,717
161 Clark University MA 42,620 3,330
162 University of California-Davis CA 45,619 30,568
163 Berry College GA 33,198 1,795
164 Trinity University TX 38,521 2,703
165 United States Merchant Marine Academy NY 9,010 986
166 Hiram College OH 36,985 1,360
167 Pitzer College CA 50,800 1,025
168 Colorado School of Mines CO 35,684 4,704
169 James Madison University VA 30,196 18,454
170 Sarah Lawrence College NY 54,854 1,715
171 Pacific University OR 38,202 3,167
172 University of California-Santa Cruz CA 46,526 16,615
173 New York University NY 52,082 42,189
174 Marietta College OH 35,784 1,606
175 Lehigh University PA 49,540 6,994
176 Wittenberg University OH 44,550 1,976
177 California Polytechnic State University CA 29,295 19,471
178 Capital University OH 38,120 3,632
179 Covenant College GA 33,520 1,343
180 Lewis and Clark College OR 45,576 3,565
181 Sewanee – University of the South TN 44,020 1,562
182 College of Idaho ID 27,876 944
183 Hanover College IN 35,120 926
184 Carroll University WI 31,954 3,318
185 University of Colorado-Boulder CO 42,739 32,469
186 University of Redlands CA 46,932 4,317
187 Willamette University OR 43,910 2,721
188 The University of Utah UT 29,749 28,211
189 Illinois Wesleyan University IL 41,214 2,125
190 College of the Atlantic ME 41,637 327
191 California Lutheran University CA 41,765 3,499
192 Pennsylvania State University PA 37,976 44,406
193 Florida State University FL 31,896 38,682
194 Texas A&M University-College Station TX 34,235 48,039
195 Ripon College WI 33,315 1,057
196 Cornell College IA 37,260 1,112
197 SUNY-Binghamton NY 23,906 14,882
198 Austin College TX 37,187 1,298
199 Providence College RI 43,910 5,085
200 Brigham Young University-Idaho ID 12,441 14,276

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