The 25 Most Desirable Small Schools

We scored our desirability ranking based on yield (the percentage of accepted students who enroll), admissions, test scores, endowment, student-to-faculty ratio, retention, as well as climate and the quality of facilities, housing, and dining.  When we adjusted our overall school desirability ranking to include only those with fewer than 2,500 undergrads, Cooper Union ranks at the top because of its very competitive admissions rate (it accepts a lower percentage of applicants than Yale) and zero-debt guarantee. Traditional liberal-arts schools in New England also make a strong showing, as do the Claremont Colleges. A notable outlier is O'More College of Design, a tiny, predominantly female arts school just outside Nashville, Tenn., modeled after Paris's Le College Feminin. It claims fewer than 250 undergraduates, but coming in at No. 10 is College of the Ozarks, whose motto is "Hard Work U" because its students work on campus rather than pay tuition. The private Christian college also strictly prohibits drugs and alcohol and boasts the highest yield of any school on this list.