U.S. News Best Colleges: Massachusetts Schools Flood Lists

U.S. News & World Report is out with the latest edition of its best colleges list. The rankings released Monday reveal the top colleges in the country for 2019, including the best national universities, the best value schools and the top regional colleges.

These lists are always especially kind to Massachusetts, and this one is no exception. On the publication's best national universities list, Harvard trailed only Princeton, which was No. 1 for the eighth year in a row. MIT tied with four other prestigious schools for No. 3. The Bay State then had 13 more schools make the best national universities list.

Massachusetts was even more top-heavy in the list for the best national liberal arts colleges. Williams, Amherst, and Wellesley were 1-2-3 in those rankings, followed by 11 more Massachusetts schools.

There were also dozens of local schools in the best value and top regional (North) lists.

You can see the lists of all those categories below, and the rest of the lists here.

National Universities

2. Harvard

3. MIT

27. Tufts

35. Brandeis

38. Boston College

42. Boston University

44. Northeastern

59. WPI

66. Clark

70. UMass

157. UMass-Lowell

177. Suffolk

183. Lesley

191. UMass-Boston

215. UMass-Dartmouth

National Liberal Arts

1. Williams

2. Amherst

3. Wellesley

11. Smith

30. Mt. Holyoke

35. Holy Cross

86. Wheaton

124. Stonehill

162. Gordon

162. MCLA

Regional Universities North

3. Bentley

6. Emerson

11. Simmons

19. Mass. Martime

21. Fisher

23. Dean

25. Endicott

28. Assumption

28. Springfield

31. Newbury

50. Merrimack

62. Wentworth Institute of Tech.

68. Western New England

99. Our Lady of the Elms

105. Bay Path

105. Wheelock

112. Westfield St.

117. Bridgewater St.

117. Worcester St.

123. Framingham St.

126. Lasell

137. Fitchburg St.

Best Value Schools

2. Harvard

3. MIT

26. Tufts

29. Brandeis

32. Clark

33. Boston College

46. Boston University

59. WPI

72. Northeastern

79. UMass

“A university is not successful if it does not graduate its students, which is why the Best Colleges rankings place the greatest value on outcomes, including graduation and retention rates,” Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a press release. “By including social mobility indicators, U.S. News is further recognizing colleges that serve all of their students, regardless of economic status.”

U.S. News explains that its rankings are calculated based on 16 measures of academic quality. The publication groups schools by their academic missions into 10 categories that are then used to determine 10 distinct rankings. The distinct rankings include best national universities, best public schools and so on. The publication also made some notable changes to its methodology, including adding social mobility indicators, eliminating acceptance rate as a factor and reducing the weight it gives to measures like SAT/ACT scores.(You can read more about the methodology here.)

Below are the top five schools in the following categories:

Best National Universities
Princeton University (1)
Harvard University (2)
Columbia University (3)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3)
University of Chicago (3)
Yale University (3)

Best National Liberal Arts Colleges
Williams College (1)
Amherst College (2)
Swarthmore College (3)
Wellesley College (3)
Bowdoin College (5)
Carleton College (5)
Middlebury College (5)
Pomona College (5)

Top Public Schools
University of California-Los Angeles (1)
University of California-Berkeley (2)
University of Virginia (3)
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (4)
University of California-Santa Barbara (5)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (5)

Top Public National Liberal Arts Colleges
United States Military Academy (1)
United States Naval Academy (2)
United States Air Force Academy (3)
Virginia Military Institute (4)
New College of Florida (5)

Best Value Schools (National Universities)
Princeton University (1)
Harvard University (2)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3)
Yale University (4)
Stanford University (5)

Best Value Schools (National Liberal Arts Colleges)
Williams College (1)
Pomona College (2)
Amherst College (3)
Swarthmore College (4)
Principia College (5)

See the full rankings here.

Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images