Not to be outdone by its ratings rivals, the website Niche – a go-to for many students looking for more nuanced information on colleges and universities – has revealed its 2023 Best Colleges in America rankings with a focus on value.
According to Niche, those who are seeking the best return on investment and have the chops to compete at the highest academic levels should consider applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, its No. 1 this year. MIT beat out another esteemed research institution, Stanford University, which finished at No. 2 and was the top pick in the recent National University list from Washington Monthly. Harvard University came in at No. 3.
Niche used information gleaned from U.S. Department of Education statistics along with the American Community Survey (ACS), and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), but leaders said they tweaked this year’s formula to rely more heavily on ROI. Some of the measures that were given more weight included average ROI by age 30, median earnings the first year after graduation (and differences after Year 2), and employment data after two years.
“Even before the pandemic, high school students and their families were questioning the value of higher education, in large part due to how expensive it’s become in the past 20 years or so,” said Ryan Bell, principal strategist at Niche, noting the sizeable increases in tuition and fee costs across higher education. “Our updates to our value methodology come at a time when prospective college students are more intent on choosing a school that will yield a good return on investment than ever before.”
But when it comes to value, there isn’t much debate from any of the lists which institutions rise to the top. Niche’s top 20 includes five more Ivy League schools – Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia – and stellar privates Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Chicago, Harvey Mudd College, the University of Notre Dame and Pomona College. Perhaps the biggest surprise mover is acclaimed Rice University, which was installed at No. 6 (U.S. News had it at No. 17 last year), although in its ranking of best private institutions, The Princeton Review had it at No. 9. How good is the ROI at Rice? According to the website College Factual, a degree from Rice is worth $2 million more than the investment made after 30 years. The best overall value college, if you can get in (based on net price, alumni earnings, graduation rates, and student debt) is the California Institute of Technology.
More from UB: The top 5 rankings in key categories from the Princeton Review
Many of the usual high-ranking suspects show up near the top of Niche’s overall list, including Johns Hopkins (No. 21) and Cornell University (No. 23). UCLA, which was No. 24 overall, was also its top choice for best public university, beating out the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (No. 25). There were few unexpected twists, although the number of smaller private liberal arts schools in its top 50 were notable – Barnard, Davidson, Williams, Amherst and Middlebury – still showing historic presence and deep value against their counterparts.
Like Washington Monthly, Niche also rated Harvey Mudd and Pomona as its two top liberal arts colleges, but followed with Claremont McKenna, Bowdoin and Swarthmore. Its top five community colleges included two more California institutions – Foothill College at No. 1 and Santa Barbara Community College at No. 5 – with three Wisconsin two-year colleges in between (Northwood Technical College Fox Valley Technical College and Moraine Park Technical College.) The top Historically Black Colleges and Universities were Florida A&M University, Howard University and Alcorn State University in that order.
WINNERS IN INDIVIDUAL MAJORS
In key categories, Harvard ranked best in biology, economics, math, political science and philosophy, while MIT was first in engineering, computer science and chemistry. Penn (nursing and business) and Northwestern (communications and performing arts) each had two. Here are some of the others:
- Agriculture: Cornell
- Criminal Justice: Florida State University
- Design: Washington University in St. Louis
- Education: Vanderbilt
- History: Yale
- Information Technology: Carnegie Mellon
- International Relations: Georgetown
- Music: Curtis Institute of Music
- Pharmacy: University of Michigan
- Physics: Caltech
- Psychology: Stanford
- Public Health: Johns Hopkins
- Public Policy: Duke
- Sports Management: Rice
TOP 3 IN OTHER CATEGORIES
Best Colleges with no application fee: 1. U.S Military Academy at West Point. 2. Wellesley College. 3. Tulane University
Colleges with the best student life: 1. University of Southern California. 2. University of Georgia. 3. UCLA
Best college dorms: 1. Johnson University (TN). 2. Washington University in St. Louis. 3. High Point University (NC)
Top party schools: 1. UC-Santa Barbara. 2. Tulane University. 3. Florida State University
Best college food: 1. UCLA. 2. Virginia Tech. 3. UMass-Amherst
Best college athletics: 1. University of Florida. 2. University of Alabama. 3. Clemson University
Most diverse colleges: 1. Pomona College. 2. Andrews University (MI). 3. Lynn University (FL)
Colleges with the best professors: 1. Yale. 2. Columbia. 3. Brown
THE TOP 100 OVERALL
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stanford University
- Harvard University
- Yale University
- Princeton University
- Rice University
- California Institute of Technology
- Duke University
- Brown University
- Dartmouth College
- University of Pennsylvania
- Columbia University
- Vanderbilt University
- Northwestern University
- Washington University in St. Louis
- University of Chicago
- Georgetown University
- Harvey Mudd College
- University of Notre Dame
- Pomona College
- Johns Hopkins University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Cornell University
- UCLA
- University of Michigan
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- University of Virginia
- University of Southern California
- Claremont McKenna College
- Bowdoin College
- Swarthmore College
- Barnard College
- Davidson College
- Emory University
- U.S. Military Academy
- Wellesley College
- Washington and Lee University
- Tufts University
- Boston College
- Amherst College
- University of Florida
- University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- Williams College
- Middlebury College
- Northeastern University
- University of Texas-Austin
- Boston University
- University of California-Berkeley
- Wake Forest University
- New York University
- Haverford College
- University of Georgia
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Colgate University
- Babson College
- Bates College
- University of Miami
- Hamilton College
- University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
- Tulane University
- Florida State University
- Lehigh University
- College of William & Mary
- Penn State University
- Case Western Reserve
- University of California-Irvine
- Colby College
- Virginia Tech
- Villanova University
- University of Washington
- Wesleyan University
- University of Rochester
- Grinnell College
- Vassar College
- Texas A&M University
- University of California-San Diego
- Carleton College
- The Cooper Union
- Purdue University
- The Ohio State University
- University of Richmond
- Southern Methodist University
- North Carolina State University
- Macalester College
- University of California-Davis
- Smith College
- Kenyon College
- College of the Holy Cross
- University of California-Santa Barbara
- University of Pittsburgh
- Pitzer College
- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- Lafayette College
- Bucknell University
- George Washington University
- Colorado School of Mines
- University of South Florida
- Brigham Young University
- Trinity University
- University of Maryland-College Park
