Pomona College topped the list of America's Top Colleges 2015, followed by Williams College and Stanford University, showing the high return on investment of its degrees, according to the latest ranking released by Forbes.

This is the eighth year that Forbes has published the ranking. Nowadays, more and more universities are prioritizing value for students rather than marketing prestige, marking an era of focusing on return-on-investment education.

It is the result of intense public scrutiny about the substantial cost of a degree and its long tail value, which is also the core standard that Forbes used when compiling its university rankings.

According to the list, the recipe for a top college mainly includes satisfied students, a low student to faculty ratio, being able to graduate in four years, financial aid and funding.

Let’s take a look at the Top 10 universities in the US in 2015:

   Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

State: Massachusetts

Cost: US$61,030

Student population: 11,301