Forbes magazine has once again rated 61´«Ã½ one of America’s top colleges, with an overall ranking of 80 in its . 61´«Ã½comes in at 14 in the national publication’s and 68th in best private colleges.
With a focus on return on investment, Forbes partners with the Washington, D.C.–based Center for College Affordability and Productivity to rank 650 U.S. colleges and universities. Five weighted general categories are used to determine the rankings: student satisfaction (25%), post-graduate success (32.5%), student debt (25%), graduation rate (10%), and academic success (10%).
Forbes points out in its study that colleges and universities are “now focusing on student-consumer value over marketing prestige, making this a new age of return-on-investment education.” New this year was Forbes‘ inclusion of social media in the study’s metrics; targeted students participated in a satisfaction survey on Facebook, where they rated their school experience on a scale from one to five.