Parchment's annual college rankings are pulled directly from students using Parchment's free, online college admissions tools. The Parchment website is a free resource that helps students and parents research colleges, discover their chances of admissions and see how they stack up with their peers. Parchment, the most widely adopted digital credential service, announced the results of its sixth annual Parchment Student Choice College Rankings study. During a period of great concern over the cost and value of higher education, student choices reveal a marked preference by applicants for colleges and universities that offer a clear and distinctive educational environment. These "mission-oriented" schools, including Pomona College, United States Air Force Academy, the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy, attract students who share their purpose and consequently are chosen by those whom they admit when students have alternative choices available.
Parchment's annual study is different from other college rankings as it compares more than 770 colleges and universities using the self-reported matriculation choices of nearly 89,000 first-year college-bound students. Parchment treats student's college choices like a chess tournament, ranking schools by the total matchups won against another school. In 2017, students reported on more than 124,000 total matchups, increasing the six-year total matchups to nearly 323,000. Over the course of the six years of the Parchment study, each year yields results uncommon to traditional college rankings. Unique to the 2017 rankings, Pomona College took over the top spot, following Stanford University's three-year run at No. 1. In the most recent rankings, 17 schools that were ranked in the Top 25 in 2016 remain in 2017. Read More