Lafayette College and Lehigh University make the list this year.
View full sizeStudents, family and friends gathered this spring during a windy graduation ceremony at Lafayette College in Easton. Lafayette was ranked No. 48 on Forbes' Top 100 colleges list. Two Lehigh Valley schools are among Forbes Magazine's 100 top schools in the nation.
Those close to home that made the list include Lafayette College in Easton, coming in at No. 48, and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, coming in at No. 70, according to the list.
The only New Jersey school to break the top 100 was Princeton University, coming in at No. 3, according to the list.
The list was compiled by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity based in Washington, D.C., and considers factors including student satisfaction, post-graduate success, student debt, graduation rates and national awards.
Eight other schools in Pennsylvania made the top 100, including Swarthmore College (No. 6), University of Pennsylvania (No. 11), Bryn Mawr College (No. 40), Carnegie Mellon University (No. 42), Haverford College (No. 43), Villanova University (No. 79), Franklin and Marshall College (No. 86) and Penn State University, University Park (No. 93), according to the list.
Other New Jersey schools did not break the top 100, but Rutgers University and the College of New Jersey broke the top 200, at No. 125 and No. 174, respectively, according to the list.