This year’s Forbes ranking of America’s Top Colleges saw Boston College climb to No. 41 overall, an improvement of nine spots from last year’s placement. This iteration of the list is also the first since 2016 to name BC one of its top 25 colleges in the Northeast, placing it at No. 24.
Forbes said that the average BC graduate shoulders $3,607 in debt—the lowest of any non-military academy ranked above it—and a mean early-career salary of $63,600.
As for common competitor schools, Georgetown University was ranked No. 15; the University of Notre Dame, 18; Boston University, 74.
Each year, Forbes publicizes its ranking methodology. The 2019 rankings—like the 2018 rankings—were weighted according to six metrics: 20 percent for alumni salary; 20 percent for student satisfaction, which is based on Niche surveys on professor quality and the freshman retention rate; 20 percent for debt, which prioritizes low debt loads and default rates; 15 percent for the American Leaders List—a Forbes-compiled list of thousands of schools’ most successful alumni; 12.5 percent for graduation rate; and 12.5 percent for academic success.
BC fell 27 spots—from No. 22 to No. 49—from 2016 to 2017 due to a change in the methodology. The change in methodology reflected a return-on-investment-focused approach and implemented a weighting system that valued alumni salary and cost to a greater degree.
Featured Image by Jonathan Ye / Heights Editor
