USNews.com: America's Best Colleges 2008

National Universities

To rank colleges and universities, U.S. News first assigns schools to a group of their peers, based on the basic categories developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2006. Those in the National Universities group are the 262 American universities (164 public and 98 private) that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral degrees; many strongly emphasize research.

In each category, data on up to 15 indicators of academic quality are gathered from each school and tabulated. Schools are ranked within categories by their total weighted score.

Top Schools:

The top 50 percent of schools in this category, ranked numerically

Tier 3 Schools:

The next 25 percent of schools in this category, listed alphabetically

Tier 4 Schools:

The bottom 25 percent of schools in this category, listed alphabetically

Unranked Schools:

These school in this category have not been ranked, listed alphabetically

Best Values:

Schools that are above average academically and cost significantly less than many when the financial aid, in the form of need-based grants that they dispense, is taken into account