College and University Blog
StateUniversity.com 2012 College Rankings Released
StateUniversity.com is pleased to announce that its 2012 college rankings have been released. The leading website for college and university information calculates its Top 2000 Colleges and Universities ranking with a statistical analysis and comparison of several critical factors including SAT/ACT scores, student retention rates, and student/faculty ratio.
College Reviews and Rankings
Unlike other college rankings organizations, which utilize sometimes controversial surveys and peer evaluations to determine the top or best colleges in the country, StateUniversity.com’s rankings – first released in 2009 – are purely mathematical. The information used to calculate rankings is based on U.S. government surveys and reports provided by the schools themselves. Schools receive a score between 0 and 100 with 100 being the highest possible.
Top 20 Colleges in 2012
The top 20 colleges and universities for 2012 are as follows:
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. Stanford University
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Duke University
5. Pomona College
6. Rice University
7. Princeton University
8. Wellesley College
9. Cornell University
10. Middlebury College
11. Carleton College
12. Williams College
13. Amherst College
14. Brown University
15. Carnegie Mellon University
16. University of Notre Dame
17. Bowdoin College
18. Vassar College
19. Swarthmore College
20. Harvard University
In addition to the 4th annual Top 2000 Colleges ranking by overall school score, the website has also released Top 500 rankings on key points such as:
- Top Private Colleges and Universities
- Top Community Colleges
- Top Vocational, Technical and Career Colleges
- Student Loan Debt
as well as Top Schools by State and many other criteria for 2012.
Dominik Mazur, the founder of StateUniversity.com, reminds students and parents to evaluate schools on personal preferences and values in addition to numbers and college rankings. It is advisable to research several potential colleges and take campus tours before applying and making a final decision.
View the complete list of 2012’s Top 2000 Ranked Colleges here.
Melissa Rhone+
Melissa Rhone earned her Bachelor of Music in Education from the University of Tampa. She resides in the Tampa Bay area and enjoys writing about college, pop culture, and epilepsy awareness.