Oregon moved up to No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday, Mississippi earned its highest ranking since 2015, Alabama jumped back into the top 10 and Virginia was in the Top 25 for the first time in six years in the wake of a volatile weekend in which four top-10 teams lost.
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The 2024-2025 school year saw a growing number of students at campuses nationwide. Undergraduate enrollment was up by 3.2% in the spring of 2025, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That increase is all the more noteworthy when you consider the current price tag for a college education—per the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of one year at a higher education institution clocks in at more than $38,000 in 2022-23. Still, college offers a valuable return on investment for many prospective students. An analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that in recent years, college grads earned a median of $80,000 per year, while workers with only a high school diploma earned a median of $47,000 per year.
With this in mind, the return on investment may be more apparent at some schools than others. Stacker compiled a list of the best colleges in America using Niche's 2026 rankings. All four-year schools in Niche's database were considered. Niche ranks colleges using various factors, including academics, admissions, finances, and student life. You can check out the full methodology here.
- Winston Tan // Shutterstock
Best colleges in America
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Best colleges in America
The 2024-2025 school year saw a growing number of students at campuses nationwide. Undergraduate enrollment was up by 3.2% in the spring of 2025, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That increase is all the more noteworthy when you consider the current price tag for a college education—per the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of one year at a higher education institution clocks in at more than $38,000 in 2022-23. Still, college offers a valuable return on investment for many prospective students. An analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that in recent years, college grads earned a median of $80,000 per year, while workers with only a high school diploma earned a median of $47,000 per year.
With this in mind, the return on investment may be more apparent at some schools than others. Stacker compiled a list of the best colleges in America using Niche's 2026 rankings. All four-year schools in Niche's database were considered. Niche ranks colleges using various factors, including academics, admissions, finances, and student life. You can check out the full methodology here.
- Winston Tan // Shutterstock

