Ranking Factors
This ranking highlights the 30 Most Beautiful Best Small Colleges. We define a small college as one with no more than 5,000 undergraduate students. The mix of aesthetic, academic, and value aspects we considered for this article are as follows:
1: Aesthetics
The following lists were consulted.
Featured Programs
- Business Insider: The 20 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America
- Princeton Review: The Most Beautiful Campuses of 2022
- Thrillist: 25 Most Beautiful College Campuses
- Travel and Leisure: America’s Most Beautiful College Campuses
Points:
Appearance in 1 list: 1 point
2 lists: 2 points
3 lists: 3 points
4 or more lists: 5 points
2: College Ranking
Points:
U.S. News Best National University Ranking: 2 points
Best Regional University Ranking: 1 point
U.S. News & World Report National Liberal Arts College Ranking:
Top 100: 1 point
Top 50: 2 points
Top 25: 3 points
Top 10: 5 points
3: Cost of Attendance
Points:
Under $20,000: 3 points
$20,001 – $39,999: 2 points
$40,000 and above: 1 point
4: Accreditation
To be included in this list, schools must bear regional accreditation. Schools with AACSB accreditation earned 1 point.
5: Ties
In the cases of ties, preference was given to those schools that appeared on the highest number of national lists, followed by higher ranking on the U.S. News & World Report Best National Liberal Arts Colleges list, and finally, the lowest tuition rates.
Sources:
AACSB
Business Insider: The 20 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America
Princeton Review: The Most Beautiful Campuses of 2022
Thrillist: 25 Most Beautiful College Campuses
Travel and Leisure: America’s Most Beautiful College Campuses
U.S. News and World Report – Best Colleges