U.S. News and World Report publishes the premier annual top school list that can break down into a variety of lists. The factors the publication uses come from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's 2006 Basic version of its classifications. The Department of Education also uses Carnegie's standards in determining grant funds. Culling the top public schools from the 2011 report yields the following top 10: the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the College of William and Mary, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California at San Diego, the University of California at Davis, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of California at Irvine.
Kiplinger's Report concentrates on best values when generating its annual "top colleges" report. The February 2011 report looks for the public schools that excel in academic quality, possess a quality student-faculty ratio and offers reasonable total cost to attend without the benefit of financial aid. The east coast seems to come out well with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ranked the best value, followed by Binghamton University (sometimes called SUNY Binghamton). Binghamton has the best value for out-of-state tuition. Others scoring well include the University of Florida and the University of Virginia.
Forbes Magazine offers the third-most popular college ranking report. Using 10 factors in compiling their rankings, Forbes limits each factor to no more than 20 percent of the total. Some of the factors include: Do students enjoy their classes and overall academic experience? Do graduates succeed well in their occupations after college, and do students succeed in distinguishing themselves academically? Forbes' top 10 for 2010 includes the United States Military Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Naval Academy, the College of William and Mary, the New College of Florida, the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles and the Virginia Military Institute.
While most college rankings take into account the quality of education or the cost of education, or facilities, when combined, there are only five schools that stand alone -- the United States Service Academies. The five schools are West Point, otherwise known as the United States Military Academy, Annapolis (also known as the United States Naval Academy), the Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard Academy and the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Tuition at each school is 100 percent paid for by the United States government. In exchange for the education, students must serve in their branch of the military anywhere from six to 10 years. Students at the Merchant Marie Academy can either join a branch of the military or take a job in the merchant marine industry as a way to repay their debt. Standards for admission are rigorous, and each school, except the Coast Guard, requires a nomination from a senator or congressional representative.
With the rising cost of education, many students are finding themselves priced out of attending a four-year school. Community colleges continue to see a dramatic rise in enrollment. Most community colleges position themselves to either put a student into a vocation or prepare him to get a baccalaureate degree at a four-year institution. The Washington Monthly uses two sources to prepare its rankings: the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and student graduation rates. Top-ranked schools include Saint Paul College (Minnesota), Hesston College (Kansas), Carolinas College of Health Sciences (North Carolina), Mayland Community College (North Carolina), Itasca Community College (Minnesota), Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, Leech Lake Tribal College (Minnesota), Alexandria Technical College (Minnesota), Southwestern Community College (North Carolina) and Chippewa Valley Technical College (Wisconsin).
With the plethora of college ranking lists available in print or on the web, it is important to recognize the nearly all lists have their critics who point out inherent flaws in the formula used to generate the lists. The website Inside Higher Education takes issue with Washington Monthly's report on American's Best Community Colleges, noting that the use of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement as criteria to rank schools has been denounced by CCSSE officials. Many four-year schools have refused to participate in U.S News and World Report ranking exercise, led by Reed College whose President Colin Diver claims the "one-size-fits-all ranking schemes undermine the institutional diversity that characterizes American higher education." Forbes notes in its ranking that it only interviewed 610 of more than 6,000 institutes of higher education, making the list far from complete.