The University of Chicago is the fourth best college in the nation, according to Forbes rankings.
The esteemed magazine ranked the University of Chicago at number four in its 2012 list of America's Top 650 Colleges. The list is headed by Princeton University in New Jersey.
Forbes, with help from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C., used a number of different factors like the quality of teaching, cost to students and graduation rates. The rankings were explicitly unrelated to the school's reputation or academic selectivity, according to the magazine.
According to the magazine, the top ten colleges in America behind Princeton are Williams College, Stanford, Unitversity of Chicago, Yale, Harvard, Columbia University, Pomona College and Swarthmore.
Northwestern University made the list at 22nd best college and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign squeezed into the top 100 at 86.
