Clark University appears in Forbes’ annual “America’s Top Colleges” report; it is #128 on the list of 650 schools recognized this year.

Besides the overall ranking, Clark appears as #111 in the list of Private Colleges and is #51 in the list of Research Universities.

The rankings, which are compiled exclusively for Forbes by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for College Affordability and Productivity, focus on quality of teaching, great career prospects, high graduation rates and low-levels of debt.

According to Forbes, “[The rankings] do not attempt to assess a school’s reputation, nor are they a measure of academic selectivity and we pointedly ignore any metrics that would encourage schools to engage in wasteful spending.”

Forbes’ rankings are based on five general categories:  post graduate success (32.5%), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence, student satisfaction (27.5%), which includes professor evaluations and freshman to sophomore year retention rates, debt (17.5%), which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates, four-year graduation rate (11.25%) and competitive awards (11.25%), which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships like the Rhodes, the Marshall and the Fulbright or go on to earn a Ph.D.

The rankings can be found at http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/.