Connecticut's Best Colleges For 2018: U.S. News & World Report

The new school year is in full swing, and as high school seniors plan the next big step in their lives, their attention is no doubt on what colleges best suit their educational and career ambitions. College rankings certainly play into that decision making as well, and for 2018, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Princeton University in New Jersey as the best national university for the seventh year in a row.

Princeton is trailed by Harvard University, which comes in at second place, and the University of Chicago is the third best national university, according to U.S. News. For the 15th consecutive year, Williams College in Massachusetts ranked as the best national liberal arts college, followed in second place by another Massachusetts school, Amherst College.

Connecticut schools were not well represented in the rankings of the country's top national universities. Yale University was the only school in the Nutmeg State in the top 50 national universities nationwide, and just three schools were ranked overall. The University of Connecticut in Storrs came in tied at No. 56 and the University of Hartford in West Hartford was tied at No. 176. (To receive free news alerts from your hometown in Connecticut click here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The state fared slightly better in terms of its national liberal arts colleges, with its three representatives finishing in the top 50. Wesleyan University in Middletown finished tied for No. 21, followed by Trinity College tied for No. 44 and Connecticut College tied for No. 46.

However, Connecticut was well-represented in the top of the rankings of regional universities in the North region. Both Fairfield University (3) and Quinnipiac University (14) were listed in the top 20. The North region consists of states in the Northeast, including Maryland and Washington D.C. The United States Coast Guard Academy in New London was the lone Connecticut school to make the rankings of the top regional colleges in the North region.

The top 5 regional universities in Connecticut are:

• Fairfield University (3)
• Quinnipiac University (13)
• Sacred Heart University (41)
• University of St. Joseph (78)
• Eastern Connecticut State University (86)

The top 5 regional universities in the North region are:

• Providence College (1)
• Bentley University (2)
• Fairfield University (3)
• College Of New Jersey (4)
• Loyola University Maryland (4)

The top 5 national universities in the country are:

• Princeton University (1)
• Harvard University (2)
• University of Chicago (3)
• Yale University (3)
• Columbia University (5)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5)
• Stanford University (5)

The top 5 national liberal arts colleges are:

• Williams College (1)
• Amherst College (2)
• Bowdoin College (3)
• Swarthmore College (3)
• Wellesley College (3)

The top 5 national universities among public schools are:

• University of California Berkeley (1)
• University of California Los Angeles (1)
• University of Virginia (3)
• University of Michigan Ann Arbor (4)
• University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (5)

The top 5 national liberal arts colleges among public schools are:

• United States Military Academy at West Point (1)
• United States Naval Academy (2)
• United States Air Force Academy (3)
• Virginia Military Institute (4)
• St. Mary’s College of Maryland (5)

You can view the complete rankings on the U.S. News And World Report website.

In its rankings, U.S. News also took a look at student debt, and it turns out that 70 percent of students who graduate from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., graduate with debt — the average amount of debt being $46,779 — the highest among national universities. For national liberal arts colleges, that number is highest among graduates of St. John’s University in Minnesota, where 66 percent of students graduate with debt with an average amount of debt of $40,272. Students from Princeton, it turns out, graduate with the least amount of debt among national universities, as do students of Berea College in Kentucky when it comes to national liberal arts colleges.

U.S. News relies on various factors in determining the rankings, with retention, graduate rate performance and graduation rate accounting for 30 percent of the rankings.

“Graduation rate performance measures how well schools are graduating their students based on our predictions, which consider spending, test scores and the proportion of students receiving Pell Grants,” U.S. News explains.

Faculty resources account for 20 percent of the rankings — things like class size, student-to-faculty ratio — and financial resources — average spending on things that go directly toward educating undergraduates — accounts for 10 percent of the rankings. The rest of the rankings are based on expert opinion, student excellence and alumni giving.

U.S. News notes that the top national and top national liberal arts universities have significantly higher graduation and freshman retention rates than other schools. That’s a six-year graduation rate of 96 percent for the top 10 national universities and 92.5 percent for top 10 national liberal arts colleges, whereas that same figure for all numerically ranked national universities is 71.7 percent and 75.7 percent for national liberal arts colleges. Similarly, the freshman retention rate for top 10 national universities is 98.3 percent and 96.5 percent for top 10 national liberal arts colleges, compared to 87.2 percent for all numerically ranked national universities and 85.7 percent for all numerically ranked national liberal arts colleges, respectfully.

What do you think of the rankings? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Christopher Capozziello/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Reporting from Feroze Dhanoa was used in this story.