NC’s Best Colleges Definitive Rankings: Forbes, Money And More

Students across the country are returning to college this fall semester. And as we all know from our school days, there’s some serious thought that goes into where to spend all that money.

In August, Patch brought you a number of rankings released by national publications that use different methodologies to determine the best colleges in the country and in North Carolina.

The usual names, like Harvard, Yale and Princeton fell among the top five spots on lists from Niche and Forbes. But one list from Money magazine that ranked best value colleges saw a large number of schools from the University of California system featured among the top. Yet another list from Princeton Review named, but did not rank, the 384 best colleges in the country.

The Niche list was released the most recently on Aug. 27. Niche’s rankings of America’s best colleges places Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the top, followed by Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and Yale. The same colleges took the top five spots on the Forbes list, although in a slightly different order.

Money magazine named Princeton the best college for value in the U.S., followed by the University of California-San Diego, University of California-Irvine, University of California-Los Angeles and Stanford University.

Below are the top 10 colleges in North Carolina, according to each of the four lists:

Niche “2019 Best Colleges in America” (Released Aug. 27)

• Duke University (No. 1)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (No. 2)
• Wake Forest University (No. 3)
• Davidson College (No. 4)
• North Carolina State University (No. 5)
• Appalachian State University (No. 6)
• Elon University (No. 7)
• University of North Carolina at Asheville (No. 8)
• University of North Carolina at Wilmington (No. 9)
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte (No. 10)

Forbes “America’s Top Colleges for 2018”(Released Aug. 21)

• Duke University (No. 10)
• Davidson College (No. 41)
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (No. 47)
• Wake Forest University (No. 62)
• North Carolina State University, Raleigh (No. 141)
• Elon University (No. 142)
• Appalachian State University (No. 318)
• University of North Carolina, Wilmington (No. 364)
• High Point University (No. 474)
• University of North Carolina, Charlotte (No. 480)

Money Magazine “Best Colleges For Your Money 2018” (Released Aug. 13)

• North Carolina State University at Raleigh (No. 31)
• Duke University - Durham (No. 33)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (No. 58)
• Davidson College (No. 73)
• Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem (No. 91)
• University of Mount Olive (No. 349)
• Appalachian State University - Boone (No. 369)
• Elon University (No. 372)
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte (No. 400)
• East Carolina University - Greenville (No. 423)

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Princeton Review “The Best 384 Colleges, 2019 Edition” (Released Aug. 6)

(All North Carolina colleges that made the Princeton Review list are listed here since they are not ranked in any particular order)

• University of North Carolina at Asheville
• Warren Wilson College
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Davidson College
• Duke University
• Elon University
• Guilford College
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• High Point University
• North Carolina State University
• Catawba College
• Wake Forest University

Photo via Brian A. Jackson/ Shutterstock