A different way to rank colleges

Do Boricua College, Bluefield State University, Elizabeth City State University, and Mississippi University for Women sound familiar to you?

They are all part of Washington Monthly’s list of the best 25 colleges and universities in 2025.

Over the past two decades, Washington Monthly has published rankings with the intent of avoiding what the most prestigious rankings seek to reward: an institution’s wealth, prestige and exclusivity. This tendency causes most lists to include the same top 10 or 20 elite universities, most of which are private.