Forbes’ has recently published its ranking of the top 50 small colleges for 2026. “These schools, with fewer than 4,000 students each, offer top academics, plus greater access to faculty and more protection from federal funding cuts, than at big research universities.”
Here is the top 10:
You can check the full top 50 here: Forbes’ Top 50 Small Colleges
Hard to get through the list (found all 50 on a different site) but notable Babson at #15, Bucknell (LinkedIn’s #1 LAC at #19) ahead of Hamilton, Trinity U at #22 ahead of Trinity College and ahead of Grinnell, Bates, Vassar.
For those who can’t make out the full list (I found it hard to do so from the Forbes post) - sorry the column headings are a bit off.
| Rank | State | Undergraduate Enrollment | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Williams College | MA | 2302 | |
| 2 | California Institute of Technology | CA | 1023 | |
| 3 | Amherst College | MA | 2017 | |
| 4 | Swarthmore College | PA | 1713 | |
| 5 | Claremont McKenna College | CA | 1410 | |
| 6 | Wellesley College | MA | 2538 | |
| 7 | Pomona College | CA | 1814 | |
| 8 | Washington and Lee University | VA | 1876 | |
| 9 | Bowdoin College | ME | 1996 | |
| 10 | Colgate University | NY | 3210 | |
| 11 | Wesleyan University | CT | 3619 | |
| 12 | Haverford College | PA | 1482 | |
| 13 | Harvey Mudd College | CA | 997 | |
| 14 | Davidson College | NC | 2091 | |
| 15 | Babson College | MA | 3249 | |
| 16 | College of the Holy Cross | MA | 3310 | |
| 17 | Lafayette College | PA | 2764 | |
| 18 | Franklin W Olin College of Engineering | MA | 418 | |
| 19 | Bucknell University | PA | 3833 | |
| 20 | Colby College | ME | 2438 | |
| 21 | Hamilton College | NY | 2131 | |
| 22 | Trinity University | TX | 2558 | |
| 23 | Barnard College | NY | 3685 | |
| 24 | Trinity College | CT | 2244 | |
| 25 | Carleton College | MN | 2106 | |
| 26 | University of Richmond | VA | 3603 | |
| 27 | Smith College | MA | 2617 | |
| 28 | Grinnell College | IA | 1790 | |
| 29 | Bates College | ME | 1928 | |
| 30 | Vassar College | NY | 2607 | |
| 31 | Occidental College | CA | 2029 | |
| 32 | The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art | NY | 920 | |
| 33 | Brandeis University | MA | 3974 | |
| 34 | Dickinson College | PA | 2190 | |
| 35 | Union College | NY | 2140 | |
| 36 | Scripps College | CA | 1130 | |
| 37 | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | IN | 2255 | |
| 38 | Franklin and Marshall College | PA | 2070 | |
| 39 | Pitzer College | CA | 1233 | |
| 40 | Colorado College | CO | 2396 | |
| 41 | Illinois Institute of Technology | IL | 3517 | |
| 42 | Kenyon College | OH | 2834 | |
| 43 | Gettysburg College | PA | 2394 | |
| 44 | Bryn Mawr College | PA | 1480 | |
| 45 | DePauw University | IN | 1782 | |
| 46 | Kalamazoo College | MI | 1376 | |
| 47 | St Olaf College | MN | 3120 | |
| 48 | Connecticut College | CT | 1976 | |
| 49 | University of Portland | OR | 3517 | |
| 50 | SUNY Maritime College | NY | 1474 |
Wow, they said it out loud. A pity that it comes to this! 
Yeah, they did:
“Small schools with strong science programs also offer undergraduate research opportunities, which could be a selling point as large universities struggle with dramatic cuts in federal research funding.”
I am aware of more than one LAC that directly says this in their admissions sessions.
Definitely
Good for Holy Cross coming in at #16. It’s interesting to see enrollment figures of the “small colleges” and how many of the 3,000 plus schools were of interest to our kids when they were applying (Bucknell, Richmond, Brandeis). Not too small and not too big.
Access to research opportunities, joining clubs without big application hurdles and social outlets were big draws on top of demanding academics, professor connections etc. We were drawn by the Jesuit tradition (we’re not Catholic) but didn’t want the size of Georgetown or BC. Holy Cross was the academic, location, social outlets, cura personalis sweet spot for our students. Nice to get some love by Forbes.
Look at the methodology. Sheesh!
We say that about every single ranking there is 
But Bucknell’s & W&L’s marketers can start building a whale of a story - sort of like UF for the large schools, they find themselves in a strong position in all these rankings and if I’m Vassar….I’d start to worry…a perennial big name not showing up high in a lot of these “alternative” rankings.
Actually I don’t say that about every single ranking. (I know you said ‘we” and that’s true.) I tend to welcome new rankings. But this one seems especially frivolous to me. Just my 2 cents.
I agree that the marketers can go to work with this one. I’d advise any college on the list to do so.
Yeah, we have a love/hate relationship with rankings. But I sure enjoy seeing rankings other than the “official”(?) USNews that comes out in the fall. What is considered T-20 is kind of fluid in reality.
Again, let’s not make this discussion about methodology.
Please share your favorite small college or views on small colleges vs. large universities.
Discussion about the colleges included in the list is also allowed.
Holding aside the exact order, I like the fact this is a pretty diverse list. Of course the fact that any individual college will be completely unsuitable for some students, and among the best possible choices for other students, is part of why a generic ranking doesn’t make sense. But if you used this list as more of an idea-generator than a generic ranking, I can see the value.
I sort of fell in love with Carleton during my S24’s college search process. As always, it would not be the right college for everyone, but I could really see myself having a great experience there.
It’s unlikely that schools like Scripps or Pitzer or other top schools on this list are going to worry one iota about where they land on this list and what schools are also on the list. More likely maybe lists like this will bring a school to the attention of a student who might not have been familiar with it or considered it.
I like small colleges! My kids do not
During my D22’s search, I fell hard for Kenyon. A tour of Vassar with S26 left me swooning in the summer sun. I have a crush on Wesleyan and we’ve never even met 
I’m not worried about any college in the top 50.
This year a college could be thirty, next year it could be 27, or 40. I’d only worry about a precipitous and sudden steep decline. That is not Vassar, which has a $1 billion endowment and an A+ financial grade from Forbes.
In the 12 years I’ve been here, I’ve seen almost all of these colleges move up and down all kinds of rankings list. I’m more interested in some of the names we hardly ever hear of, like SUNY Maritime and University of Portland.
It’s also worth noting that a lot of these types of rankings are skewed by graduates’ incomes from colleges like Williams, where a lot of kids go into IB or similar. Not so many kids at Bryn Mawr are likely to be doing that.
Agree. I think for Scripps and Pitzer, the attention (which normally goes to their 5C siblings) is likely far more important than where on the list they are. That kids learn of them, and see them in these “top” ranking lists is more important. Plus, my experience visiting both of those schools with my D26, was that many of the kids who choose those schools do not seem to be the rankings obsessed type. Scripps gets a lot of women who want the perks of a high quality women’s college, but still wanted a coed environment. Pitzer gets a lot of kids drawn in by its 5 core values, environmentalist and social responsibility types who care more about that than the prestige of tippy-top rankings.
Edit: Relatedly, in terms of schools one fell in love with, I totally fell in love with the Claremont Colleges on our visits. Not just one of them, the whole package. There really is something for almost everyone there. Each school’s personality and mission is so distinct, yet they function together so well as a whole community. And you get, really small schools with a mid-sized University’s resources and social pool. Plus, there are 4 gorgeous campuses (I won’t say which I find not gorgeous). It really is an incredible concept.
…so happy to see Trinity University in Texas getting much deserved love! It is a fantastic school and the research opportunities my kid has had, has been amazing.
I know which one we didn’t find gorgeous 
The Claremont colleges are great. Step right off one campus, cross the street and you are on the next. Older s considered one of the colleges (the ugly campus one) and younger s considered 2 (CMC and Pomona) because he wanted a school where he could ski in the morning and go to the beach in the afternoon! Ah, the priorities of kids! My s’s ultimately did not apply, but I bought a Harvey Mudd t-shirt b/c I’ve loved that school since I was looking at colleges decades ago, and I like to wear it to the gym to see if anyone shows a glimpse of recognition .
“I go to Harvey Mudd”. Possible replies:
Harvard Med?!?
Harvey WHO??
Is that a 4-year college?
