Harvey Mudd Jumps in Forbes Rankings

Harvey Mudd College ranked No. 18 in Forbes’ annual America’s Top Colleges list, climbing 41 spots from last year’s 59^th position.

Forbes also placed Harvey Mudd at No. 3 on its Top 25 STEM Colleges list and No. 5 among the nation’s liberal arts colleges.

Forbes editor Caroline Howard attributed Harvey Mudd’s high ratings to its “intimate 800-person campus beautifully situated at the base of Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains along with the other Claremont Consortium colleges, its small class sizes and its greater diversity.”

Howard also noted that according to PayScale, an online compensation data company, Mudd graduates earn higher early and mid-career salaries than peers from Stanford, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.

Forbes’ methodology is based on what the magazine considers a college’s effectiveness: post-graduate earnings, amount of student debt, retention and graduation rates and student experience.