USNews.com: America's Best Colleges 2008

Universities–Master's

Like the National Universities, these institutions provide a full range of undergraduate and master's programs. But they offer few, if any, doctoral programs. The 574 universities in this category are ranked within four geographic areas—North, South, Midwest, and West—because, in general, they tend to draw students heavily from surrounding states. Like all U.S. News categories, the groupings are derived from the basic classification framework established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2006.

Top Schools:

The top 50 percent of schools in this category, ranked numerically

Tier 3 Schools:

The next 25 percent of schools in this category, listed alphabetically

Tier 4 Schools:

The bottom 25 percent of schools in this category, listed alphabetically

Unranked Schools

The schools in this category have not been ranked, listed alphabetically

Best Values:

Schools that are above average academically and cost significantly less than many when the financial aid, in the form of need-based grants that they dispense, is taken into account

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