Top Universities -- And Where to Go to Avoid Debt

Just how can rankings help you identify colleges and universities that are right for you? There is no way to summarize everything a college has to offer with a single number. But the U.S. News rankings provide a starting point because they make apples-to-apples comparisons of the relative quality of more than 1,400 institutions based on up to 15 widely accepted indicators of excellence, including graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, financial resources, and student selectivity.

The schools in the magazine’s National Universities rankings are the 262 American universities (164 public and 98 private) that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees. It’s a diverse group that ranges from the historic Ivy League campuses of the East Coast to the football friendly Big 10 campuses in the Midwest and the tech-savvy schools of California.

Figuring out which of these colleges is right for you is almost a course itself: Think of the U.S. News rankings as the first day of class.

1. Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Last year’s rank: 1
Undergraduate student body: 4,906
Endowment: $11,762,502,000
Tuition and fees: $33,000
Room/board: $9,200

2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Last year’s rank: 2
Undergraduate student body: 6,649
Endowment: $25,853,048,000
Tuition and fees: $33,709
Room/board: $9,946

3. Yale University
New Haven, CT
Last year’s rank: 3
Undergraduate student body: 5,409
Endowment: $15,091,021,000
Tuition and fees: $33,030
Room/board: $10,020

4. Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Last year’s rank: 4 (tie)
Undergraduate student body: 6,576
Endowment: $12,205,035,000
Tuition and fees: $32,994
Room/board: $10,367

5. California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Last year’s rank: 4 (tie)
Undergraduate student body: 913
Endowment: $1,520,478,000
Tuition and fees: $29,595
Room/board: $9,102

Click here for more of America's Best Colleges 2008.