2025 College Rankings

The University of Colorado–Boulder is the flagship school of the University of Colorado system and is considered a “public Ivy.” Though it is subject to many of the malign trends that afflict much of higher education, CU–Boulder does boast several bright spots that raise its standing in our rankings.

CU–Boulder’s administration does not habitually suppress its students’ ability to speak freely on campus. The school has endorsed the Chicago Principles, which encourage academic free inquiry. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) gives the school a “green” speech code rating, meaning that its policies do not explicitly restrict speech.

The administration also largely avoids other forms of activism. CU–Boulder wisely stayed out of the Supreme Court affirmative action battle in the Students for Fair Admissions case. It has also embraced institutional neutrality, an indicator that it has little interest in weighing in on other controversial matters. When it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the DEI bureaucracy appears to be relatively weak. No faculty job postings require a DEI statement, and the existing bureaucracy is rather small: slightly more than one DEI employee for every 1,000 students. Political views among faculty members are heavily skewed left. When asked to place their professors on an ideological continuum, where 1 is “very liberal” and 7 is “very conservative,” students, on average, put them at 2.6. More than 1 percent of CU–Boulder faculty members belong to Heterodox Academy, an organization that promotes free inquiry on campus.

Students tend to be fairly politically tolerant compared with those at peer institutions. A great majority, 68 percent, tell FIRE that they think it “rarely” or “never” acceptable to shout down a campus speaker; 82 percent say that blocking a campus speech is “rarely” or “never” acceptable; and 89 percent say that violence is almost never acceptable in a contentious campus situation. While students say that they are more tolerant of left-wing speakers than they are of right-wing ones, they have not recently attempted to silence someone in the minority. There have been no recorded de-platforming attempts at CU–Boulder since 2019.

The school’s curriculum is not impressive. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives CU Boulder a C in its What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. ACTA does identify two areas of excellence: the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, which sponsors events, lectures, and a variety of other academic initiatives in service of studying the intellectual, artistic, and political traditions of the West; and the Engineering Leadership Program, which offers courses examining applied science from a liberal arts perspective, a welcome change from the tendency of many schools to ditch the liberal arts entirely in favor of STEM.

CU–Boulder can be a risky investment. On average, it takes graduates 3.2 years to pay back the cost of their education, well over our 2.3-year average. Retention and six-year graduation rates fall below predictions, based on data from SAT scores and Pell Grant recipients. The predicted six-year graduation rate is predicted to be about 78 percent; but it reaches only 75 percent. That said, earnings for CU–Boulder graduates ten years after enrollment are about $4,500 more than predictions, based on these same data.