GW is No. 291 on Forbes’ annual America’s Best Colleges list, the highest ranking the University has had on the three-year-old list of the best 610 private and public undergraduate institutions.
Last year GW was ranked 429 out of 600, and in 2008, the University was No. 350 on a list of 569 schools.
Forbes compiled the rankings with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. According to Forbes, the list is based on “the quality of the education [the institutions] provide, the experiences of the students and how much they achieve.”
CCAP staff used 11 factors to rank schools, which included the average salaries of graduates, student evaluations of classes on websites like RateMyProfessors.com and the amount of debt students have.
This year, Williams College, a small private liberal-arts school, took the top spot in the study of undergraduate schools. Princeton University and Amherst College hold the second and third places on the list.
The full list of schools and an explanation of the factors used to compile the rankings are available here.