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Forbes published its Top 50 Small Private Colleges list last month alongside its 2027 ranking of America's top 500 colleges, limiting it to private nonprofit schools with fewer than 4,000 undergraduates.
Small colleges tend to give students closer access to professors, the magazine said, and many of those at the top of the list are highly selective, very wealthy or strongly focused on well-paid STEM fields, with some being all three.
Caltech, in Pasadena, California, had 987 undergraduates and admitted 3% of applicants in the 2024-25 academic year, according to U.S. National Center for Education Statistics data cited by Forbes. It is the only research university in the top 15 and ranks No. 7 on Forbes's overall list of 500 colleges.
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| An aerial view of the California Institute of Technology. Photo courtesy of Caltech |
The other 14 are liberal arts colleges, except Cooper Union in New York, which specializes in art, architecture and engineering.
Median salaries 10 years after graduation range from about $103,200 at Wesleyan University to about $121,400 at both Cooper Union and Claremont McKenna College, Forbes data shows.
Published tuition for the 2026-27 academic year runs from about $68,600 to $76,800 at 14 of the schools, according to their websites, not counting housing, food and fees.
The exception is Cooper Union, which gives every admitted undergraduate a half-tuition scholarship, bringing tuition down to about $22,300 a year.
| Rank | School | Tuition 2026-27 (USD) | Median salary 10 years after graduation (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Institute of Technology | 68,600 | 117,300 |
| 2 | Williams College | 76,300 | 111,600 |
| 3 | Bowdoin College | 74,300 | 109,700 |
| 4 | Pomona College | 71,700 | 108,300 |
| 5 | Amherst College | 75,300 | 111,700 |
| 6 | Claremont McKenna College | 75,300 | 121,400 |
| 7 | Wellesley College | 72,600 | 107,100 |
| 8 | Washington and Lee University | 73,600 | 118,100 |
| 9 | Middlebury College | 72,900 | 113,400 |
| 10 | Colgate University | 76,800 | 113,000 |
| 11 | Swarthmore College | 72,700 | 106,300 |
| 12 | Colby College | 75,800 | 113,400 |
| 13 | Cooper Union | 22,300 | 121,400 |
| 14 | Wesleyan University | 75,900 | 103,200 |
| 15 | Haverford College | 74,900 | 105,200 |
Forbes ranks schools on seven criteria, the heaviest being alumni salaries three, six, 10 and 20 years after graduation, which together make up 20% of a school's score.
Student debt, graduation rates, return on investment and the number of alumni who become leaders or influential figures each carry 15%, while first-year retention and academic success each carry 10%.
