HWS News
24 June 2025 • Alums • Service HWS Earns Top Rankings for Alumni Network, Internships, ROI and Impact
The Princeton Review’s 2025 rankings recognize Hobart and William Smith as a Best Value College, highlighting a strong Alumni Network, accessibility of Internships, outstanding Return on Investment and meaningful Student Impact.
Hobart and William Smith has been named to The Princeton Review’s Best Value Colleges for 2025 for providing students an exceptional return on investment through outstanding academics, strong career outcomes and affordability.
Out of more than 650 schools The Princeton Review considered, HWS is a 2025 Best Value College and included in top national rankings across an impressive field of outcomes-based lists including:
HWS Rankings – The Princeton Review 2025 (Private Colleges):
- #10 – Best Alumni Network
- #12 – Best Schools for Internships
- #9 – Best Schools for Making an Impact
- Return on Investment Rating of 90 points out of 99
In its methodology, The Princeton Review writes that the colleges it selected are, “in our opinion truly the most exceptional in the nation.”
Hobart and William Smith’s ROI rating of 90/99 reflects the outstanding and enduring value of an HWS education. The score, calculated by The Princeton Review using an algorithm that includes an assessment of academic excellence, generous financial aid, and alumni-reported data from PayScale.com, incorporates starting and mid-career salaries — comprising a mid-career median of $141,800 — as well as alumni reports of fulfillment and purpose from their jobs.
“These rankings are a testament to our longstanding commitment to our students that we are focused on their futures through a strong academic program that prepares them for lives of consequence,” says President Mark D. Gearan. “We are proud to be recognized not only for the quality of our academic and career programs, but also for the impact our students have on the community. I am especially impressed by our students who were surveyed by The Princeton Review, with one sharing that they believe HWS students share a common characteristic – the desire to build a better world. That’s exactly our hope.”
The “Best Alumni Networks” is determined by student ratings of alumni activity and visibility on campus while the “Best Schools for Internships” ranking is based on college student ratings of accessibility of internship placement. The Making an Impact category is based on student ratings and responses to survey questions covering community service opportunities, student government, sustainability efforts and on-campus student engagement.
The Princeton Review’s Best Value list considers 650 schools and then evaluates the best 209 colleges based on more than 40 data points covering academics, cost, financial aid, graduation rates, student debt and alumni salaries.
"We congratulate Hobart and William Smith along with all of the other exceptional institutions that made our 'Best Value Colleges for 2025', list," says Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review. "They offer outstanding academics and excellent career services, and they demonstrate extraordinary commitments to affordability via generous financial aid and/or comparatively low sticker prices. For all of those reasons—and more—we recommend them highly to college applicants."
The Princeton Review’s methodology is available at princetonreview.com.
The Princeton Review’s Best 391 Colleges (2026 edition) will be published on August 12, 2025.
