In the competitive world of college rankings, applicants looking for schools that "deliver results" will find Stanford and UC Berkeley again in the top 10 on Forbes' 2027 list of top American colleges - although both slipped in the annual lineup.
As it did last year, MIT took the top spot on Forbes' new list of the 500 colleges that produce "high-earning, successful and influential graduates from all economic backgrounds, with less student debt," as the company describes its rankings, released Thursday. The median 20-year salary is $131,182 for MIT alumni, who graduate with an average debt of $9,046, according to Forbes.
Stanford ranked 6th, taking a tumble from the fourth spot on last year's list. Its graduates earn a median salary of $126,916 after 20 years and graduated with an average debt of $11,418.
UC Berkeley ranked 9th on the new list, down from No. 5 last year. Its median 20-year salary sits at $111,530, and graduates owe an average of $5,924.
One other California university, the private Caltech in Pasadena, made the top 10, at No. 7.
A newcomer to the top 10 is also a newcomer to the Bay Area: Vanderbilt, a private university in Tennessee, is opening a satellite campus next fall in San Francisco and cracked into Forbes' highest echelon this year, at No. 10.
Its graduates owe an average of $12,263 and earn a median salary of $115,467 after 20 years, the ranking showed. Forbes also said the school's 94% graduation rate helped push it higher this year.
Many companies - among them Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal and QS World University Rankings - produce college rankings, slicing their excellence criteria in different ways, from research reputation to schools thought to provide the best bang for the buck. College applicants often rely on such lists, as do many admissions counselors, as a way to sift through the hundreds of higher education options available to them.
But the lists also come with caveats: What rises to the top in company algorithms may not also be the best school for an individual student, counselors generally agree.
Forbes said it whittled down a list of more than 1,600 four-year colleges and universities "by focusing not on a college's reputation, but on outcomes." Evaluators looked at students' success academically and professionally, as well as student debt and "what sort of return do students get from their investment of time and money." They measured that in part by looking at how graduates fared in leadership roles on other Forbes rankings. The company said it gave "extra credit" to schools where students from lower-income families also "produce strong outcomes."
Colleges often jockey for position among their rivals in various rankings, and UC Berkeley shrugged off its slide on the new Forbes list.
"We know that rankings may fluctuate from year to year due to methodology changes or other factors in any given year, but we are especially proud that over the years - and going back decades - UC Berkeley has consistently been at the top or in the top tier of various major national and international rankings," said Janet Gilmore, a campus spokesperson.
It's true. In June, for example, the public university notched a spot as the 7th best university in the world on the U.S. News & World Report listings of schools around the globe.
While UC Berkeley and most universities enjoy basking in the glow of favorable rankings, Gilmore also cautioned students not to rely too heavily on the lists.
"Students should seek to find the right fit for THEM," she said in an email, and recommended that applicants tour colleges, including virtually, chat with current students and examine each school's academics and student life.
While many college admissions counselors regard rankings as a good starting point for students interested in comparison shopping, some counselors specifically avoid them.
"We believe rankings often fail to account for the crucial factors of cultural and financial fit," said Karla Salazar, executive director of ScholarMatch. Headquartered in San Francisco, the nonprofit aims to help more low-income students go to college.
"Our approach to college counseling is individualized and holistic, focusing on helping students identify institutions that meet their academic, social, and financial needs," Salazar said.
A closer look, however, suggests that the type of data ScholarMatch uses to identify low-debt, high-earning schools for its clients is not very different from that used by Forbes.
"The financial metrics featured in the (Forbes) report align closely with the data points we use to calculate our proprietary 'Financial GPA' in ScholarMatcher, such as median debt for Pell recipients and long-term earnings," Salazar said.
Allen Koh, founder of Cardinal Education college counseling, said that although his company relies more heavily on college rankings other than the Forbes list, "it seems like the (Forbes) ranking is striving for a holistic and rigorous approach that balances various aspects of 'success' for their students."
As a result, Koh said, it makes sense that a number of regional schools fare well in the ranking.
Here are other notable results for California universities from Forbes' list of 500 best schools:
All nine of the University of California's undergraduate campuses made the list. While the 20-year median salary was lowest at UC Merced – $97,055 – so was the average debt of its graduates, at $5,215.
UC Berkeley was the nation's top-performing public university on the list, followed by UCLA (12th), and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (21st).
The Forbes ranking included 21 of the 22 California State University campuses - all except Cal Poly Humboldt. In the Bay Area, they included San Jose State (132), San Francisco State (140), Cal State East Bay (273) and Sonoma State (315).
"What is especially meaningful is that Forbes evaluates colleges based on outcomes … rather than reputation alone," said Kimberly Hawkins, a spokesperson at Cal State East Bay, which has struggled to attract enrollment after steep declines since the COVID-19 pandemic. "For a university whose mission centers on access, opportunity and social mobility, those measures matter."
San Francisco State has experienced similarly steep enrollment declines but saw a small uptick this fall.
"We are proud of this recognition, which I believe affirms the hard work of our faculty and staff, and the role SFSU plays in creating pathways to upward mobility," said campus President Lynn Mahoney, who announced Tuesday that she will step down next summer after eight years at the helm.
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This article originally published at Stanford, UC Berkeley again make Forbes' top 10 - but slip.