Two Bay Area schools in Top 5 of Forbes’ best colleges list

( KRON ) — Once again, Stanford University and UC Berkeley are rated as two of the most prestigious universities in the country. In Forbes’ 2024-25 America’s Top Colleges list, which was released earlier this month, the two Bay Area colleges ranked in the top five.

Stanford was ranked second overall, and UC Berkeley placed fifth on Forbes’ 16th annual top colleges list. Princeton University took home the top spot at No. 1 while fellow Ivy League school Yale was ranked fourth. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ranked third to round out the top five.

Forbes: Top 10 America’s Top Colleges List

1. Princeton University
2. Stanford University
3. Massachusetts Institue of Technology
4. Yale University
5. University of California, Berkeley
6. Columbia University
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Harvard University
9. Rice University
10. Cornell University

The ranking mirrors last year’s list almost identically . In Forbes’ 2023 list , Stanford was ranked one spot lower at No. 3 while UC Berkeley remained at No. 5. The top five colleges list from a year ago remained the same with some slight order changes.

Berkeley consistently ranks in the top tier nationally and globally, a reflection of the outstanding work of our faculty, students and staff.

University of California, Berkeley spokesperson

Forbes ranked a total of 500 colleges across the country.

Other Bay Area institutions to make the list: Santa Clara (No. 61), San Francisco State (No. 137), University of San Francisco (No. 165), Sonoma State (No. 168), Saint Mary’s College (No. 175), San Jose State (No. 235), Cal State Maritime Academy (No. 337), Cal State East Bay (No. 369), Dominican University (No. 387) and Menlo College (No. 459).

Unlike The Wall Street Journal’s college list, which was also released this month , SJSU did not rank highly on Forbes’ list.

WSJ gave SJSU a higher-than-expected ranking of sixteenth overall. The news outlet also had Stanford and UC Berkeley ranked high at No. 3 and No. 8, respectively.

Methodology

Forbes used slightly different metrics from WSJ to compile its top colleges list. Therefore, some were given drastically different rankings in each of the two lists.

Forbes factored in the following metrics:

• Alumni salary (20%)
• Debt (15%)
• Graduation rate (15%)
• Return on investment (15%)
• Forbes American Leaders List (15%)
• Retention rate (10%)
• Academic success (10%)

“The Forbes American Leaders List is part of what sets our rankings apart,” Forbes wrote. “The list aims to gauge the leadership and entrepreneurial success of a college’s graduates.”

You can view Forbes’ full best colleges list HERE . More on Forbes’ methodology can be viewed here .

KRON4 reached out to both Stanford for comment on the Top 5 ranking by Forbes. We did not hear back in time for publication.

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