College Rankings

Brag to your friends about what your school does best. Or choose a school based on their position on our rankings for your interests.

Looking for the best schools for journalists? How about most beautiful college campuses?

We heavily research our topics and rank them through relevant criteria that ensure our ranking gives you the most accurate judgment of a school’s ability in a certain area. We start with five criteria that will set the best schools apart from the “eh” schools. Whether it’s how many hours the gym is open that determines the buffest guys out there or the number of history classes that determines the best schools for history majors, these decide which areas the schools have to keep it #awesome in to make the cut.

Before we can narrow the list down to 10 or even 20 schools, we cast a wide net to take into consideration every school–big or small–that matches our criteria. We look at data (IPEDS from the National Center for Education Statistics), read news articles, scour university websites, review course catalogues and speak directly to students.

Each ranking, depending on its criteria, often requires its own unique system to figure out exactly which of the top 20 schools will make it to the top 10. This ain’t no singing competition; you don’t get America’s vote. You can read more about our methodology here.

Once we polish up the ranking and publish, you’ll find them here. Want to own the dancefloor on the best college dancefloor in the country? Find out where that is in our Top 10 Schools for Dance. See yourself as the next Meredith Grey? Our number one is on the opposite coast from Grey Sloan Memorial, but you’ll make it work with at least one of the schools on our Top 10 Schools for Pre-Med Students.

You can literally make or break your college decisions based on College Magazine rankings.