Decoding the Forbes Best Colleges Ranking Methodology: A Comprehensive Analysis
For students and families navigating the complex landscape of higher education, college rankings serve as a seemingly objective tool for evaluating institutions. Among the numerous ranking systems available, the Forbes Top Colleges ranking garners significant attention. This article delves into the methodology employed by Forbes to generate its annual ranking of America's best colleges, examining the factors considered, data sources utilized, and potential biases that may influence the results. By understanding the intricacies of the Forbes ranking system, prospective students can make more informed decisions about their educational pursuits.
Data and Evaluation
Forbes evaluates colleges that educate undergraduates according to their Carnegie Classification-a higher education framework that categorizes institutions based on the types of degrees they offer, their research output and specialty focus. Schools that have announced plans to close and those with fewer than 300 undergraduates are excluded from consideration.
The evaluation process involves analyzing data from various sources, including two federal education databases: the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and College Scorecard. The Department of Education did not update its College Scorecard in time for ranking with new information on graduates’ salary and student debt. As a result, the ranking uses last year’s numbers, the most recently available, for those metrics. Additional data is sourced from the Seattle-based software and data company Payscale, the Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank Third Way, the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, and Forbes' own lists.
Key Ranking Factors
The Forbes ranking methodology considers a range of factors, each weighted to reflect its perceived importance in determining a college's overall quality and value. These factors can be broadly categorized into the following areas:
Post-Graduate Success: Earnings and Debt
A significant portion of the Forbes ranking hinges on the post-graduate success of alumni, primarily measured by earnings data. Earnings data from Payscale and College Scorecard is used to determine which colleges produced the highest-paid graduates. From Payscale, Forbes looks at graduates’ median earnings six years and ten years after graduation.
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However, neither data source is perfect. Payscale relies on self-reported survey data, which can result in skewed information-graduates that are employed and happy with their earnings may be more likely to respond. College Scorecard collects information only for those with federal student loans-not all graduates.
Forbes also considers student debt. Two variables from College Scorecard help measure the typical debt load for students at a given college. First, the median federal loan debt per borrower is multiplied by the percentage of students who take out federal student loans at the college-this is called the debt and percent borrowed index. Second, the college’s five-year repayment rate is considered-which is the percentage of graduates who paid at least $1 toward their federal loan principal within five years of entering repayment.
Graduation Rates
Graduation rates are a crucial indicator of a college's ability to support students in completing their degrees. Forbes evaluates colleges using their six-year graduation rate in order to account for the outcomes of transfer students, part-time students, and other students who take time off for financial, health-related or other reasons. 10% of the scoring model uses the six-year graduation rate for all students, and another 5% is based on graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients, which is often used as a proxy for low-income students at a given institution.
Leadership and Entrepreneurial Success
The Forbes American Leaders List is part of what sets the rankings apart. The list aims to gauge the leadership and entrepreneurial success of a college’s graduates. To do this, Forbes counts how many listmakers each school produced on the most recent Forbes 30 Under 30, Forbes 400, Richest Self-Made Women and Most Powerful Women lists. The undergraduate alma maters of members of the current President’s Cabinet, the Supreme Court, Congress and of sitting governors, as well as the most recent winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, Nobel Prize, Breakthrough Prize, Lasker Prize, Fields Prize, Academy Awards, Oscars, Tony’s, NAACP Awards, Guggenheim Fellowship, Presidential Medals, and Pulitzer Prizes, and major sport all-stars are also tallied.
Return on Investment
To give a look at the return on students’-and parents’-investment at a given institution, Third Way produces a price-to-earnings premium for each college. Third Way calculates this number by dividing the total net price of obtaining a college degree by the post-enrollment earnings boost that students get compared to the typical salary of a high school graduate in their state. This variable is weighted at 10%.
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Student Satisfaction
To account for student satisfaction, Forbes calculates a three-year average retention rate using IPEDS data, which measures the percentage of students who choose to stay after their freshman year.
Academic Excellence
Two measures are used to assess the academic performance of each college. First, the number of recent graduates of each college who have gone on to win Fulbright, Truman, Goldwater and Rhodes scholarships is compiled. Second, data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics is used to determine the average number of alumni at a given college who earned a Ph.D. over the last three years, weighted by the college’s enrollment.
Potential Biases and Criticisms
While the Forbes ranking aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of colleges, it is not without its critics. Some common concerns include:
Emphasis on Post-Graduation Salaries
The Forbes ranking places a significant weight on post-graduation salaries, which may inadvertently favor institutions located in states with higher costs of living. For example, California schools like Berkeley ($161,300), UCLA ($140,300), UCSD (147,000), UCSB ($143,400), and UC Davis ($139,300), score very highly amongst public colleges. One could argue that these schools likely have such high post-graduation salaries because the cost of living in California is higher. Put simply, $100,000 in California is worth $68,965 dollars in the rest of the country. Thus, California schools with high 10-year salaries are likely caused by inflation in California more than any type of academic rigor or institutional prestige. This is relevant, as 70% of UC System graduates work in California after graduation. This may not be true for other public universities. However, this means that Californian universities are over-ranked in the Forbes rankings by inadvertently benefitting universities in states with inflated economies and therefore higher median salaries generally.
Data Limitations
The reliance on self-reported data from Payscale and data limited to federal loan recipients from College Scorecard raises concerns about potential biases and inaccuracies in the earnings and debt data used in the ranking.
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Focus on Elitism
The inclusion of factors such as the number of graduates who have achieved prominence in Forbes lists and won prestigious awards may favor elite institutions with established networks and resources, potentially overlooking the accomplishments of graduates from less well-known colleges.
Historical Context and Notable Rankings
The Forbes America's Best Colleges ranking has been published annually since 2008. Over the years, several institutions have consistently ranked among the top, including Ivy League universities and prestigious private colleges.
For example, in 2013 and 2016, Stanford University occupied the No. 1 position. Starting in 2013, four schools that had admitted to misreporting admissions data were removed from the list for two years.
In 2021, a notable shift occurred when a public university, UC Berkeley, topped the Forbes list for the first time.
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