Lists of top colleges are always problematic. It's unreasonable to compare comprehensive universities like Harvard to four-year colleges like Amherst to engineering schools like MIT. Here I've listed only four-year colleges. These are schools that offer Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees and have primarily a liberal arts and sciences core curriculum. Differentiating between #1 and #2 on lists of top colleges such as this one is so subjective that here I've simply listed the schools alphabetically.
Amherst College
Amherst Chapel
Located in Western Massachusetts, Amherst usually stands #1 or #2 in rankings of top colleges with a liberal arts focus. Amherst students can take classes at the other excellent schools in the five-college consortium: Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Amherst has an interesting open curriculum with no distribution requirements.
Carleton College
photo by TFDuesing / Flickr
Located less than an hour from the Minneapolis / St. Paul area, the small town of Northfield, Minnesota is home to one of the best schools in the Midwest. Features of Carleton's campus include beautiful Victorian buildings, a state-of-the-art recreation center and the 880 acre Cowling Arboretum. With about 1900 students and over 200 faculty members, quality teaching truly gets top priority at Carleton College.
Grinnell College
Aureliusxv / Wikimedia Commons
Don't be fooled by Grinnell's rural location in Iowa. The school has a talented and diverse faculty and student body, and a rich history of social progressiveness. With an endowment over $1.5 billion and an 8:1 student/faculty ratio, Grinnell holds its own against the most elite schools in the Northeast.
Haverford College
edwinmalet / flickr
Located on a beautiful campus outside of Philadelphia, Haverford offers its students a wealth of educational opportunities. Although strong in all areas of the liberal arts and sciences, Haverford is often noted for its superb science programs. Students have the opportunity to take classes at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Middlebury College
khanqpa / flickr
Located in Robert Frost’s scenic hometown in Vermont, Middlebury College is probably best known for their foreign-language programs, but it excels in nearly all fields in the liberal arts and sciences.
Pomona College
CMLLovesDegus / Wikimedia Commons
Originally modeled after elite Northeastern colleges, Pomona is now one of the most competitive and best endowed colleges in the country. Situated a little over 30 miles from Los Angeles, Pomona is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Students frequently interact and cross-register with the other Claremont schools: Pitzer College, Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College, and Harvey Mudd College.
Reed College
dmcdevit / flickr
Reed is a suburban college located about 15 minutes from downtown Portland Oregon. Reed consistently ranks high for the number of students who go on to earn PhDs, as well as their number of Rhodes scholars. The Reed faculty takes pride in teaching, and their classes are consistently small.
Swarthmore College
EAWB / flickr
Swarthmore's gorgeous campus is situated just 11 miles from downtown Philadelphia, and students have the opportunity to take classes at neighboring Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and the University of Pennsylvania. Swarthmore consistently sits near the top of nearly all rankings of U.S. colleges.
Wellesley College
redjar / flickr
Located in an affluent and beautiful town outside of Boston, Wellesley provides women with one of the best educations available. The school offers small classes taught exclusively by the full-time faculty, a beautiful campus with Gothic architecture and a lake, and academic exchange programs with Harvard and M.I.T.
Williams College
SERSeanCrane / flickr
Also in Western Massachusetts, Williams typically vies with Amherst for the #1 spot on national rankings of top colleges. One of Williams' unique features is their tutorial program in which students meet with faculty in pairs to present and critique each other's work. With a 7:1 student faculty ratio and an endowment well over $1 billion, Williams offers exceptional educational opportunities for its students.
