The College of Idaho highly ranked in Forbes.com college survey

The College of Idaho http://www.collegeofidaho.edu was named No. 174 of 569 colleges and universities by http://www.Forbes.com in a new college ranking guide called "America’s Best Colleges." Only two other Idaho colleges were included in the rankings, BYU-Idaho (No. 245) and the University of Idaho (No. 275). Boise State University, Idaho State University and Northwest Nazarene University were not included.

The top three schools in the nation according to the rankings were Princeton University, California Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

President Bob Hoover said he was pleased by The C of I’s inclusion and placement.

"The College of Idaho is known locally and regionally as a high quality liberal arts college and we are pleased to receive national recognition," Hoover said. "These rankings indicate that we are comparable to better-known and more expensive liberal arts colleges in our region and certainly much higher ranked than the big regional institutions."

Other liberal arts colleges in the northwest and intermountain regions were ranked as follows:

* Whitman – 28

* Reed – 64

* Colorado College – 74

* Whitworth – 165

* Lewis and Clark – 170

* University of Puget Sound – 176

* Willamette – 210

* Linfield – 246

* Rocky Mountain – 285

* Carroll – 373

Universities in the west and northwest were ranked as follows:

* University of Washington – 178

* Pacific University – 184

* Brigham Young University – 217

* Utah State University – 247

* University of Utah – 255

* University of Oregon – 287

* Montana State University – 291

* Utah Valley University – 323

* Washington State University – 371

* University of Montana – 407

* Gonzaga University – 427

* Seattle Pacific – 435

* Oregon State University – 522

* University of Portland – 532

Forbes.com worked with Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University, and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity on "America’s Best Colleges." It intends to release the list annually, saying "for too many years, information about the quality of American higher education has been monopolized by one publication, U.S. News & World Report."

The following criteria were used to evaluate the colleges and universities in the ranking:

* Listing of alumni in the 2008 Who’s Who in America (25%)

* Student evaluations of professors from ratemyprofessors.com (25%)

* Four-year graduation rates (16 2/3%)

* Enrollment-adjusted numbers of students and faculty receiving nationally competitive awards (16 2/3%)

* Average four-year accumulated student debt of those borrowing money (16 2/3%)

Hoover pointed out that the Forbes.com ranking differed from some other college ranking systems by looking at students in college and following graduation rather than those entering college.

"The emphasis in this ranking system is on the college experience and post college experience – including recognition in Who’s Who, faculty-student interaction, four-year graduation rates, national recognition such as Rhodes, Marshall and Goldwater scholarships, and debt at graduation," Hoover said. "It does not include what students bring to their college or university experience such as ACT or SAT scores."

The annual college ranking system published by U.S. News & World Report will be released on Friday, Aug. 22.