America's Best Private Colleges
These schools rank among the top 100 private colleges and universities in the U.S. on
Forbes’ 2009 list of America’s Best Colleges. Below, each school is listed with both their
rank among private colleges, and their overall rank on the America’s Best Colleges list.
College Name
State
Private-Colleges Rank Overall Rank
Princeton University
New Jersey
California Institute of Technology
California
Williams College
Massachusetts
Harvard University
Massachusetts
Wellesley College
Massachusetts
Amherst College
Massachusetts
Yale University
Connecticut
Stanford University
California
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts
Swarthmore College
Pennsylvania
Columbia University
New York
Centre College
Kentucky
Haverford College
Pennsylvania
Boston College
Massachusetts
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
8
7
9
8
10
9
11
10
12
11
13
12
14
13
15
14
16
Bowdoin College
Maine
Vassar College
New York
Whitman College
Washington
University of Chicago
Illinois
Kenyon College
Ohio
Carleton College
Minnesota
Colby College
Maine
Middlebury College
Vermont
Union College
New York
Claremont McKenna College
California
Pomona College
California
Colgate University
New York
Smith College
Massachusetts
Wabash College
Indiana
Harvey Mudd College
California
Washington and Lee University
Virginia
Bryn Mawr College
Pennsylvania
16
18
17
19
18
20
19
21
20
22
21
23
22
24
23
25
24
26
25
27
26
28
27
29
28
31
29
32
30
33
31
34
32
35
Franklin and Marshall College
Pennsylvania
Wesleyan University
Connecticut
Brandeis University
Massachusetts
Tufts University
Massachusetts
Barnard College
New York
Lawrence University
Wisconson
DePauw University
Indiana
Rice University
Texas
Reed College
Oregon
Washington University, St. Louis
Missouri
Bucknell University
Pennsylvania
Mount Holyoke College
Massachusetts
Hamilton College
New York
Connecticut College
Connecticut
Kalamazoo College
Michigan
Colorado College
Colorado
Hampden-Sydney College
Virginia
33
36
34
37
35
38
36
39
37
40
38
41
39
42
40
43
41
44
42
45
43
46
44
47
45
49
47
51
48
52
49
53
50
54
Mills College
California
St. Mary’s College of California
California
Principia College
Illinois
George Fox University
Oregon
Emory University
Georgia
Davidson College
North Carolina
Rhodes College
Tennessee
College of the Holy Cross
Massachusetts
Sarah Lawrence College
New York
Doane College
Nebraska
Salem College
North Carolina
Sweet Briar College
Virginia
Drew University
New Jersey
Wofford College
South Carolina
Brown University
Rhode Island
College of Wooster
Ohio
Juniata College
Pennsylvania
51
55
52
56
53
57
54
58
55
59
56
60
57
62
58
63
59
65
60
66
61
67
62
69
63
70
64
71
65
72
66
74
67
75
Hillsdale College
Michigan
Skidmore College
New York
Hendrix College
Arkansas
Macalester College
Minnesota
Berea College
Kentucky
Transylvania University
Kentucky
Lake Forest College
Illinois
Nebraska Wesleyan University
Nebraska
Oberlin College
Ohio
St. John’s College
Maryland
Centenary College of Louisiana
Louisiana
Earlham College
Indiana
Wheaton College
Massachusetts
Sewanee–University of the South
Tennessee
Hollins University
Virginia
Wesleyan College
Georgia
Huntington University
Indiana
68
76
70
80
71
81
72
82
74
84
75
85
76
86
77
87
78
88
79
89
80
90
81
91
82
92
83
94
84
95
85
96
86
97
Dartmouth College
New Hampshire
Lafayette College
Pennsylvania
Ripon College
Wisconsin
87
98
88
99
89
100