6 Colorado colleges named among best in U.S. Did yours make the grade?

Colorado State University received four out of a possible five stars in Money magazine’s recently released list of 2024 “Best Colleges in America.”

Money ratings are based on 25 factors related to quality of education, affordability and outcomes, according to the methodology published online with the ratings.

Only four-year public and private nonprofit colleges with at least 500 undergraduate students or 150 freshmen; graduation rates at or above the median for its institutional category or a high “value-added” graduation rate; sufficient and reliable data to be analyzed; and not determined to be in financial distress were eligible for consideration.

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Of the more than 2,400 colleges and universities in the country, only 745 made the magazine’s initial cut for this year’s list. Military academies that require a service commitment in exchange for free tuition were not included because of the difficulty assigning value to the cost of the time commitment and risk, the magazine explained.

Six colleges and universities in Colorado made the 2024 list, topped by Colorado School of Mines with a 4.5-star rating. Colorado College and CSU each earned four stars, the University of Colorado-Boulder and Regis University earned 3.5, and the University of Denver earned three.

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Only 40 colleges and universities in the country earned five stars. That list includes six University of California campuses and five Ivy League schools.

Key figures that factored into CSU’s four-star rating included 76% of its students receiving need-based financial-aid grants, averaging $5,390 annually, reducing the estimated $31,700 full price of admission to an average of $17,900 for all students and $10,700 for low-income students. The average CSU student, according to the ratings, graduates in 4.3 years with median student-loan debt of $20,000 and typical early career earnings of $58,388. Seventy-five percent of CSU’s graduates earn more money than those who only have a high school diploma.

CSU’s acceptance rate was listed at 91%, with those accepted enrolling with an average high school grade-point average of 3.70 and median test scores of 1190 on the SAT and 26 on the ACT.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com , x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news .

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: 6 Colorado colleges named among best in U.S. Did yours make the grade?