Princeton Review has released its list of top ranked colleges for 2016. 

380 public and private institutions are covered and ranked across several categories based on student survey results.  Here are some of our favorites:

• Quality of Life (Rice University #1)
• Happiest Students (Vanderbilt)
• Best Classroom (Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering)
• Best Run Schools (Claremont McKenna)
• Best Food (Bowdoin)
• Best Dorms (Bennington)
• Best Career Services (Clemson)

Click here for the press release.

In search of colleges and universities with strong undergraduate international relations programs?

Courtesy of Foreign Policy magazine and the College of William & Mary, we've compiled their list of top 25 programs in the United States, along with admit rate and test score data to help you locate safety, target and reach schools to add to your list.  As always, we've also included a link to each school's websites to help you explore further.

The report also calls out Chinese and Arabic as the two most important languages for aspiring international relations majors to learn, and global climate change as the most important topic to contend with over the next ten years.

Click on Continue Reading for the list, or here for the Foreign Policy article. 

Forbes released its list of top ranked colleges for 2015. 

The Forbes ranking methodology is driven by student satisfaction (25%), post-graduate success (32.5%), student debt (25%), graduation rate (7.5%) and academic success (10%).  

At the top of this year's list are:

1. Pomona College
2. Williams College
3. Stanford University
4. Princeton University
5. Yale University
6. Harvard University
7. Swarthmore College
8. Brown University
9. Amherst College
10. MIT

Click here for the full list.

In search of colleges with more intimate learning environments?

Look no further, we've identified 50+ schools that fit the bill.  To make the grade, each school has to have at least 70% of their classes with fewer than 20 students and a student/faculty ratio lower than 10:1.

The result: an eclectic mix of private liberal arts colleges and universities where teachers are more likely to know your name, including several institutions featuring tutorial-style or self-directed study programs.

We've included admission rates, mid-50th percentile SAT and ACT scores and links to each school's website to help you explore the possibilities.

Click on Continue Reading for the details. 

In search of schools that do a great job of keeping your interest and getting you graduated?  

Look no further, here's a list of 50 public and private institutions that do just that. To make the list, each institution has to have freshman retention and six-year graduation rates of 90% or better. 

Many of the schools listed will come as no surprise, but others—in particular the public institutions—will!  We've also included admit rates and mid-50th percentile SAT and ACT ranges to help you narrow down your choices.

The National Association for College Admissions Counseling released its 2014 State of College Admissions report last Thursday.  

We had an opportunity to review the 72 page report and took away some key points about overall application and early admission trends.  

The findings strongly reinforce the need for students and families to actively evaluate early admission opportunities as an integral part of their college plan.  

Click on Continue Reading below for the summary.

Here's an interesting article from the Washington Post about "undermatching"—when low-income students with the ability to succeed at elite universities never apply or attend one.  Past studies have shown that as many as four in 10 in this pool choose not to attend an elite institution because they didn't apply or decided not to enroll.

Undermatching is a serious social issue impacting long-term economic equality and social mobility, but it's also one that can be avoided with better information and planning.  

Read the article here

One interesting way to measure the value of a college education is to consider return on investment.  PayScale does this by comparing the salary of graduates (return) to the cost of attendance (investment) at each school it tracks.  

Here's the recently released 2015 rankings.  We'd focus less on the rankings themselves and more on the relative returns by major/career since it will give you a sense for where your interests can lead.  It comes as no surprise that schools strong in technology fare the best.    

Planning to major in business in college?  Here's an article covering some well-regarded undergraduate business schools for you to consider.  

Business and related fields are the most popular undergraduate majors in the country, accounting for approximately 20% of all college students. If you're thinking about it but still aren't sure, continue reading about the pros and cons of an undergraduate business degree and perspective from pundits, courtesy of the New York Times.

A few days ago we reported that over 90% of college lists initially submitted to College Kickstart needed improvement, and just about all of them (>90%) were too aggressive. Here are the top 5 reasons why and how to make sure it doesn't happen to you.