Maryland's Best Colleges: 12 Make Forbes List

Two Maryland schools cracked the top 30 on Forbes' "America's Top Colleges List" for 2017, and a dozen in total were among the magazine's rankings of top schools in the Northeast. The 2017 list, which was released on Wednesday, looks at what institutions give back to students for the money they spend on a college education.

This year's rankings, as Forbes explains, were created to better align with what the magazine values most: "superior return on investment; high impact, leadership and success; and a first-rate student-consumer experience." (SIGN UP: Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts, or like us on Facebook. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The United States Naval Academy came in at No. 20 on the overall list and was No. 1 among public colleges and the service academies. The magazine describes the Naval Academy's four-year graduation rate as among the nation’s best, as is the earnings potential for its graduates. "Chalk it up to Navy’s high-powered academics and extensive application process -- only 7.4% of hopeful midshipmen are actually selected to go to Annapolis. … The majority of students (at least 65%, per the needs of the U.S. Navy and national security) study in one of the STEM fields, including the emerging area of cyber operations."

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University came in at No. 30 overall and is rated the No. 18 school in the Northeast and No. 20 among research universities. The University of Maryland in College Park also earned a spot among the top 100 schools, coming in at No. 72.

See Also:

• 15 Maryland Schools Ranked ‘Best Colleges For Your Money’
• Best Graduate Schools In 2018: What Maryland Schools Made The List?
• Maryland Falls In Education Rankings Because Of Achievement Gaps
• America's Best Schools: Where Maryland Ranks

Forbes describes the rankings as "fiscally minded" and says they do not take into account things like campus atmosphere, Greek life, sports etc. The methodology favors variables like "alumni salary, graduation rate and student satisfaction." Post-graduate success accounted for 35 percent of the ranking; how effectively students at each school avoid or pay back student loan debt accounts for 20 percent of the rankings, as does the student experience. Graduation rate and academic success both account for 12.5 percent. (You can see the full methodology here.)

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Find the full list of America's Top Colleges here.

Here are the colleges in Maryland that made the list and their overall ranking:

• No. 20 United States Naval Academy
• No. 30 Johns Hopkins University
• No. 72 University of Maryland, College Park
• No. 145 Loyola University Maryland
• No. 204 St. Mary's College of Maryland
• No. 215 St. John's College, Annapolis
• No. 268 University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• No. 335 Towson University
• No. 377 Salisbury University
• No. 435 Goucher College
• No. 460 Washington College
• No. 549 Hood College

The colleges that cracked the top 10 on Forbes' list are:

1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Yale University
4. Princeton University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6. California Institute of Technology
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Duke University
9. Brown University
10. Pomona College

Harvard made its way back to number one after landing on the sixth and fourth spot in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Among the top 50, Forbes also points out some surprises: The U.S. Naval Academy (20) edges out the U.S. Military Academy (24), and the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (38) pushed ahead of the University of Virginia (40).

Forbes also ranks the top schools in the Northeast (Harvard University), the top schools in the South (Duke), the top schools in the West (Stanford), the top public schools (United States Naval Academy) and the top private schools (Harvard).

— Feroze Dhanoa (Patch National Staff) contributed to this article
US Naval Academy photo courtesy of the academy