RELATED: The 10 best public universities in the U.S. College Factual’s ranking methodology is highly focused on data related to outcomes, such as loan default rates, graduation rates and average starting salaries of graduates. You can read more about the methodology here. Best private colleges, Brown University, College Factual, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Meghan Cahill, MIT, Notre Dame, Princeton, Stanford University, UPenn, yale, THE LOWDOWN FROM COLLEGE FACTUAL.