The Top 50 Private Universities At a Glance

We updated and ranked this list of the top 50 values in private universities for 2009 (how we scored the schools). Clicking on the college names below will show you all of the ranking data. Or, see our top 50 values in liberal arts colleges. Most of our data come from Petersons, a Nelnet company.

1 - Cal. Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Cal.
2 - Yale, New Haven, Conn.
3 - Princeton, Princeton, N.J.
4 - Rice, Houston, Tex.
5 - Duke, Durham, N.C.
6 - Harvard, Cambridge, Mass.
7 - Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.
8 - MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
9 - Emory, Atlanta, Ga.
10 - Stanford, Stanford, Cal.
11 - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.
12 - Brown, Providence, R.I.
13 - Northwestern, Evanston, Ill.
14 - University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
15 - Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tenn.
16 - Brandeis, Waltham, Mass.
17 - University of Richmond, Richmond, Va.
18 - Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Md.
19 - Tufts, Medford, Mass.
20 - Wake Forest, Winston-Salem, N.C.
21 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
22 - Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
23 - Trinity, San Antonio, Tex.
24 - Cornell, Ithaca, N.Y.
25 - Columbia, New York, N.Y.
26 - Lehigh, Bethlehem, Pa.
27 - University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
28 - Bentley, Waltham, Mass.
29 - Elon University, Elon, N.C.
30 - Univ. of So. California, Los Angeles, Cal.
31 - Providence College, Providence, R.I.
32 - Villanova University, Villanova, Pa.
33 - University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.
34 - Clark, Worcester, Mass.
35 - Pepperdine, Malibu, Cal.
36 - Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, Ohio
37 - Gonzaga, Spokane, Wash.
38 - University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.
39 - Whitworth, Spokane, Wash.
40 - Baylor, Waco, Tex.
41 - Xavier, Cincinnati, Ohio
42 - Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pa.
43 - Santa Clara Univ., Santa Clara, Cal.
44 - Marquette, Milwaukee, Wis.
45 - New York University, New York, N.Y.
46 - Boston Univ., Boston, Mass.
47 - Loyola College, Baltimore, Md.
48 - Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
49 - Marist College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
50 - Emerson College, Boston, Mass.