Princeton, Williams Top 2019 Best Colleges Rankings

See which other colleges and universities across the country excelled academically.

By Farran Powell , Reporter | Sept. 10, 2018, at 8:00 a.m.

Earning potential and improved job prospects are often cited as the benefits of graduating from a four-year college.

In fact, new research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that bachelor's degree holders earn nearly twice as much as those with a high school diploma. According to the May 2018 report, the median earnings for a college grad are $62,000 per year compared with $36,000 for a high school diploma holder.

The message to prospective students: Among other benefits, higher education can lead to greater earning power. To find and evaluate schools and the outcomes of their graduates, prospective students and their families can turn to the 2019 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, released today.

The new edition provides data on more than 1,800 colleges and universities, including nearly 1,400 ranked institutions. These schools report most of the data to U.S. News through an annual survey. In the rankings, schools are divided into categories such as National Universities, which offer a range of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees and emphasize research, and National Liberal Arts Colleges, which focus on undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in liberal arts fields.

{See: Explore the 2019 Best National Universities.}