
Photography by Bailey Shelton
On August 15, Forbes released its list of America's Top Colleges and many of Missouri's universities made the list. Most notably, Washington University in St. Louis was named No. 31, making it No. 5 in the Midwest region.

Photography by Bailey Shelton
Students touring Washington University.
The rankings are assessed by examining things such as alumni salary which is "a combination of early and mid-career salaries as reported by the federal College Scorecard and PayScale data and research" (20 percent weight); student satisfaction (20 percent weight); debt (20 percent weight); the amount of American leaders, per Forbes' database, as alumni (15 percent weight); on-time graduation rate (12.5 percent weight); and academic success as measured by the amount of alumni who have earned PhDs or been awarded "prestigious scholarships."
Other Missouri colleges also on the list include: Saint Louis University (No. 161); University of Missouri—Columbia (No. 219); Truman University (No. 232); Missouri University of Science and Technology (No. 245); Rockhurst University (No. 259); College of the Ozarks (No. 270); Maryville University (No. 421); University of Missouri—St. Louis (No. 497); Webster University (No. 506); William Jewell College (No. 514); Missouri State University (No. 517); Westminster College (No. 533).