Fall Enrollment Defies Economy

Princeton Review list weighs affordability, academic quality

(NEWSER) - The Princeton Review's annual list of the best college values takes into account price—cheap tuition or generous financial aid get a thumbs up—and weighs that against the academic quality of a school based on surveys, professor-to-student ratios, and the like. USA Today takes a look at the list. First, the top public schools:

1. University of Virginia
2. Hunter College, City University of New York
3. New College of Florida
4. Florida State University
5. University of Colorado, Boulder

Harvard, Princeton top universities list

(NEWSER) - US News and World Report has released its latest college rankings, and it’s full of the usual suspects, with Harvard, Princeton, and Yale topping the list; not much has changed since last year . Among liberal arts colleges , Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore lead the pack. The magazine also presents its best universities in the world : The UK is on top, with Cambridge at No. 1, followed by Harvard and Yale (don’t ask us why Yale beats Princeton worldwide but not nationally). More»

School sees 50% jump in applications over 4 years

(NEWSER) - Harvard has drawn 35,000 applications this year—a 15% increase over last year and a whopping 50% increase in four years. That means about 6% of Class of 2014 applicants will be admitted, compared to about 9% of Class of 2010 applicants. About one in 50 high school seniors now applies to Harvard, writes Daniel de Vise in the Washington Post . That’s largely due to students each applying to a greater number of schools, pushing peers to do the same in a “self-perpetuating cycle,” De Vise notes, adding that the "30,000 club is growing"—Northwestern and Penn both entered it this year. More»

(NEWSER) - The US Military Academy tops the new Forbes list of top colleges, leapfrogging five places to bump Princeton out of the top spot. In the second annual ranking, another service academy, the Air Force's, lands in seventh place on a list that places schools according to "the quality of the education they provide, the experience of the students and how much they achieve." The top 10: More»

Growing middle class attracted by American system's reputation

(NEWSER) - The population of Chinese students in the US has soared in recent years, the Washington Post reports, driven by a US reputation for top-notch education and an expanding Chinese middle class. For years, Chinese undergrads in the US numbered about 9,000; in 2007, that figure surged to some 16,000. “People just think the education offered in the US is undoubtedly the best in the world,” said one student. More»