Carleton moves up in U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings – Carleton College

U.S. News & World Report has again ranked Carleton among the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the nation, and as the nation’s best school for undergraduate teaching.

For 2025, Carleton achieved the eighth-place spot for national liberal arts colleges in the Best Colleges rankings, moving up from last year’s ninth-place finish. U.S. News made several methodological changes starting with last year’s rankings, with more than half of a school’s rank now “comprised of varying outcome measures related to schools’ success at enrolling, retaining, and graduating students from different backgrounds with manageable debt and post-graduate success.” Carleton remains the only Midwestern college among the top 10 schools.

In academics, Carleton retained the title of the best school for undergraduate teaching. Carleton has now held this first-place ranking for 14 straight years.

U.S. News & World Report also advanced Carleton in the Best College Value rankings to number 17 among liberal arts colleges. The magazine measures value by relating a school’s academic quality, as indicated by its overall U.S. News ranking, with the net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student who received the average level of need-based financial aid. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.

Carleton’s ranking also advanced in the categories of First-Year Experiences (#26), Study Abroad (#24), and Writing in the Disciplines (#7).

Carleton continued to feature on multiple lists from U.S. News & World Report’s rankings in Academic Programs to Look For as well, including Top Performers on Social Mobility, Most Innovative Schools, Senior Capstone, Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects, Best Undergraduate Economics, and Best Undergraduate Computer Science. U.S. News & World Report considers schools on these lists to have outstanding examples of academic programs that lead to student success.