Pennsylvania's Best Colleges: 41 Make Forbes List

Pennsylvania colleges were well-represented in Forbes Magazine's list of the top colleges in the country, released Wednesday. There were 41 Pennsylvania schools on the list; the highest-ranked in the state was University of Pennsylvania, which came in seventh overall. Swarthmore College was second in Pennsylvania, then Haverford College in third. (Full list below)

The 2017 list, which was released on Wednesday, looks at what institutions give back to students on 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."

Forbes describes the rankings as "fiscally minded" and says they does 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.)

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

1. University of Pennsylvania (7)
2. Swarthmore College (19)
3. Haverford College (25)
4. Carnegie Mellon University (45)
5. Bucknell University (55)
6. Lafayette College (56)
7. Lehigh University (67)
8. Villanova University (67)
9. Franklin and Marshall College (92)
10. Bryn Mawr College (95)
11. Dickinson College (118)
12. Gettysburg College (138)
13. Pennsylvania State University (142)
14. University of Pittsburgh (154)
15. Muhlenberg College (164)
16. Saint Joseph's University (189)
17. Grove City College (224)
18. Ursinus College (252)
19. University of Scranton (257)
20. Drexel University (267)
21. Duquesne University (273)
22. Juniata College (277)
23. Messiah College (302)
24. Allegheny College (304)
25. Susquehanna University (306)
26. Lebanon Valley College (352)
27. Temple University (360)
28. La Salle University (376)
29. Washington & Jefferson College (393)
30. Elizabethtown College (411)
31. Westminster College (423)
32. Saint Vincent College (424)
33. West Chester University of Pennsylvania (431)
34. Moravian College (459)
35. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (489)
36. Lycoming College (532)
37. Millersville University (542)
38. King's College (580)
39. Immaculata University (582)
40. Indiana University of Pennsylvania (622)
41. Albright College (643)

The colleges that crack 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 Midwest (University of Chicago), the top schools in the West (Stanford), the top public schools (United States Naval Academy) and the top private schools (Harvard).

To view the full list of colleges, click here.

Photo: Flickr, doeverythinginlove