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&lt;p&gt;Only in its third year, the &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; ranking looks at undergraduate programs a little differently.  Enough so, that the No. 1 school has changed each year.  Its inaugural year, Princeton University (my alma mater, go Tigers!) was No. 1.  Last year, the United States Military Academy took the No. 1 spot, pushing Princeton down to No. 2.  This year, Williams College tops the list, though Princeton holds steady at No. 2.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://content.screencast.com/users/cwisevault/folders/Default/media/3be7bc83-c7aa-4167-a4a7-019a2c7cc3c1/Williams1.png&quot; alt=&quot;Williams College is No. 1 in Forbes America&#39;s Best Colleges Ranking&quot; width=&quot;330&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;190&quot;&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Top 10 &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; America&#39;s Best Colleges&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;ol li=&quot;&quot; start=&quot;1&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Williams College&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Princeton University&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Amherst College&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;United States Military Academy at West Point&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Massachusetts Institute of Technology&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Stanford University&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Swarthmore College&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Harvard University&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Claremont McKenna College&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Yale University&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, small liberal arts colleges dominate the list, with four in the Top 10 and two in the Top 5.  Not surprisingly, the Ivy League is a close second, with three in the Top 10.  Colleges that excel at engineering--in fact, West Point awards only BS degrees--round out the Top 10, with West Point and MIT in the Top 5.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; ranking focuses on top schools&#39; undergraduate experience (&quot;Will my courses be interesting? Is it likely I will graduate in four years?&quot;) and return on investment (&quot;Will I incur a ton of debt getting my degree? And once I get out of school, will I get a good job?&quot;).  &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; partners with the Center for College Affordability &amp;amp; Productivity to gather the relevant data from each school, which breaks down like this:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul li=&quot;&quot; type=&quot;disc&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;30 percent: Average alumni salaries&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;15 percent: Alumni success/prestige&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;5 percent: Retention rates from first to second year&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;22.5 percent: Student professor evaluations&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;12.5 percent: Student loan debt at graduation&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;5 percent: Loan default rate&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;8.75 percent: Four-year graduation rate&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;8.75 percent: Actual four-year graduation rate vs. predicted four-year graduation rate&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;The common traits among all the Top 10 schools include very low student-to-professor ratios, grants rather than student loans (or $0 tuition), high employment rates at graduation, and prestigious alumni.  To be fair, all of these colleges are very prestigious schools, appearing at the top of other college and university rankings (e.g., &lt;i&gt;U.S. News &amp;amp; World Report&lt;/i&gt;); but what&#39;s interesting is the order.  Because the focus is on return on investment, low tuition and substantial financial assistance weigh heavily in &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt;&#39; ranking, pushing more expensive, but top academically challenging, schools down the list.  With regards to the new No. 1 each, we can chalk that up to their newbie status, as they are still working out kinks in their methodology.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At lunch today, I heard a family say that the&lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; ranking is too general; and that without the breakdown by category--like the one &lt;i&gt;U.S. News&lt;/i&gt; provides--prospective students are unable to compare top schools.  I disagree.  In fact, &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; ranking is more specific than others, as they focus more specifically on experience and ROI, rather than a general sense of prestige.  Moreover, &lt;i&gt;Forbes&lt;/i&gt; plans (based on a call to action with a non-functioning link) to offer a do-it-yourself ranking database, so that readers can compare and re-rank schools based on what&#39;s important to them.  Which is exactly what Professor Richard Vedder and other academic leaders are asking for from school rankings.&lt;/p&gt;

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