US News issues yearly rankings of 1,400 schools in a large number of categories such as National Universities, Regional Universities, Regional Colleges, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Business Programs, Engineering Programs, Online degrees, International Universities, and others. US News also ranks graduate schools and high schools. US News considers various factors such as tuition costs, acceptance rates, retention and graduation rates, class sizes and others. Results are published annually online and in magazine format.
While Princeton Review is more famous for its suite of college preparation and standardized testing books, the company also publishes an annual ranking of the "Best 373 Colleges" on 62 individual ranking lists. Undergraduate colleges are ranked by region, academics, quality of life, demographics, extracurricular activities and even social scene. Princeton Review also has rankings of business schools, law schools, medical schools and graduate schools. Princeton Review gathers a large compilation of information and also surveys a large number of students. For the 2011 edition, over 122,000 students were surveyed.
Forbes magazine, in partnership with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, also publishes an annual list of college rankings that considers schools based on the "quality of the education they provide, the experiences of the students and how much they achieve." Other factors are considered including student body size, student to faculty ratio, cost and graduation rates. Over 10 factors are considered, with no factor counting for more than 20 percent of the total score. Forbes puts a heavy emphasis on affordability and success of graduates, and claims its rankings are objectively determined.
Yet another magazine that provides yearly college rankings is Newsweek. However, in contrast to other publications, Newsweek does not attempt to lump all schools together and attempt to find a single "best" school; instead Newsweek narrows all qualifying schools down into a large number of highly specific categories. Some examples of these include "25 Schools for the Service-Minded", "The 25 Most Diverse Schools," "The 25 Most Desirable Rural Schools" and even "25 Great Schools with Great Weather." Data is gathered about each school, then weightings and scoring criteria for each category are defined and tabulated.