Forbes Top 10 Colleges List Has 4 Massachusetts Schools

BOSTON (CBS) -- When it comes to receiving a quality education, Forbes ranks Williams College and Harvard University among the top colleges nationwide.

Four of the top 10 schools on Forbes' "America's Top Colleges" list can be found in Massachusetts including Williams (no. 2), Harvard (6), Amherst College (9) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology at no. 10.

Williams slipped from the top spot on Forbes' 2014 list, finishing behind top-ranked Pomona College and ahead of no. 3 Stanford University this year.

Of the 650 schools that made the entire list, 26 are from Massachusetts.

A dozen Massachusetts schools made the top 100, with Tufts University (no. 24), Wellesley College (26), and Boston College (37) among the top 50.

Smith College (no. 54), College of the Holy Cross (55), Brandeis University (75), Boston University (91) and Mount Holyoke College (95) round out the top 100.

Forbes says it partnered with Washington, D.C.-based Center for College Affordability and Productivity to compile the list.

Several areas were considered while putting together the list, including post-graduate success (32.5 percent), student satisfaction (25), student debt (25), academic success (10) and graduation rate at 7.5 percent.