Why do Pomona, Swarthmore and Williams have no research ranks?

They are undergraduate liberal arts colleges without PhD programs, and research rankings only count institutions with large research output. Their absence from those columns says nothing about teaching quality.

Which Forbes edition is this?

The order matches Forbes America’s Top Colleges published in July 2013, which was the current list when Edyssy built this page in 2014. Forbes has changed its method several times since.

Does my undergraduate college’s rank matter for grad school admission?

Less than most applicants fear. Committees look hardest at research experience, letters from people who supervised you, and the fit between your interests and the faculty; a strong record from a lesser-known school routinely beats a thin one from a famous name.

Why is Columbia listed twice?

The duplicate row was in the original 2014 table, and the restored page keeps the data as found rather than silently editing it.

US College Ranks (Undergraduate Education)

The college page sorted schools by the Forbes list by default (the July 2013 edition, current when the page was built), with research-ranking columns alongside. Put the two together and you see something the separate tables hide: some of the best places to be an undergraduate barely register as research universities.

Forbes	College	ARWU	US News	ARWU US	Science	Engineering	Life	Medical	Economics
1	Stanford University	2	5	2	6	2	5	9	4
2	Pomona College	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
3	Princeton University	7	1	7	4	23	46	7	7
4	Yale University	11	3	11	22	101+	8	18	11
5	Columbia University	8	4	8	11	45	9	5	6
6	Swarthmore College	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	United States Military Academy	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
8	Harvard University	1	2	1	1	39	1	1	1
9	Williams College	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
10	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	4	7	4	7	1	3	47	3
11	University of Pennsylvania	15	7	15	27	38	21	24	8
12	Brown University	67	14	67	76	67	51	40	51
13	Amherst College	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
14	University of Chicago	9	5	9	17	9	43	42	2
15	Columbia University	8	4	8	11	45	9	5	6
16	Dartmouth College	151+	10	151+	151+	151+	151+	151+	38
17	Northwestern University	30	12	30	30	17	51	41	10
18	California Institute of Technology	6	10	6	3	20	29	6	46
19	Cornell University	13	16	13	15	21	16	38	26
20	Bowdoin College	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
21	Washington and Lee University	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
22	University of California Berkeley	3	20	3	2	3	14	30	5
23	Wellesley College	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
24	University of Notre Dame	201	18	201	151+	101+	–	–	76
25	Tufts University	101+	28	101+	101+	101+	76	34	101+

2014 snapshot as published by Edyssy. A dash means the school was not in that research ranking. Duplicate rows appeared in the original list and are kept as found.

The empty columns are the story

Pomona College, Swarthmore College, United States Military Academy, Williams College, Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Washington and Lee University, Wellesley College sit near the top of the teaching-focused list with no research rank at all. These are liberal arts colleges and a service academy: small, undergraduate-only, no PhD programs to feed the research tables. Their graduates go on to doctoral programs at high rates, because a student there gets a professor’s attention and often a senior thesis that looks a lot like real research.

If you are an undergraduate now and plan to apply to grad school later, that is the point to take away. What admissions committees remember is the research you did and the letters you earned, not the logo on the diploma. A student who spent two summers in a lab at a mid-ranked state school often beats a student from a famous university who never left the lecture hall. The help desk piece on what professors look for goes into this.

Lists the 2014 page offered

Forbes College rankings
USNews Best Universities
USNews Best Public Universities
USNews Best Value Universities
USNews Best Business Universities
USNews Best Engineering (with computer, mechanical, materials, manufacturing, environmental, electrical, civil, chemical, biomedical, aerospace and agricultural sub-lists)
USNews Best Business sub-lists (accounting, finance, international business, insurance, management, marketing, supply chain, real estate)

All of these still publish new editions every year, and their methods change often. Forbes leans on outcomes such as earnings and debt; US News weighs reputation surveys and graduation data; ARWU counts research output and prizes. None of them measures how good a single department is for you.

Using a college rank when you are picking a grad school

Mostly, don’t. Graduate applicants should look at program-level ranks and, more usefully, at the specific labs and their funding. The one exception is location and cost: the residency rules covered in in-state vs out-of-state tuition apply to public universities on this list as much as anywhere else.

Questions about this table

Why do Pomona, Swarthmore and Williams have no research ranks?: They are undergraduate liberal arts colleges without PhD programs, and research rankings only count institutions with large research output. Their absence from those columns says nothing about teaching quality.
Which Forbes edition is this?: The order matches Forbes America’s Top Colleges published in July 2013, which was the current list when Edyssy built this page in 2014. Forbes has changed its method several times since.
Does my undergraduate college’s rank matter for grad school admission?: Less than most applicants fear. Committees look hardest at research experience, letters from people who supervised you, and the fit between your interests and the faculty; a strong record from a lesser-known school routinely beats a thin one from a famous name.
Why is Columbia listed twice?: The duplicate row was in the original 2014 table, and the restored page keeps the data as found rather than silently editing it.