The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is ranked No. 274 out of the top 500 universities in the nation, according to the America’s Top Colleges 2023 list by Forbes. The top 500 universities were selected out of the approximately 2,640 four-year institutions in the U.S. The rankings are based on several categories, including graduation and retention rates, alumni salary and academic excellence.
“The latest ranking affirms our commitment to providing a high quality education to the people of Hawaiʻi that is affordable and accessible to all,” UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno said. “Every ranking has different methodologies and yet UH Mānoa always finds itself among the top tier universities in the country.”
UH Mānoa was highly ranked in the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings released in September (No. 57 in the U.S. and in the No. 201–250 tier worldwide) and the 2024 QS World University Rankings released in June (No. 66 in the U.S. and No. 386 in the world). For the Forbes rankings, the 500 top universities were selected based on the following criteria:
- Alumni salary (20%)—Forbes used earnings data from Payscale and College Scorecard to determine which colleges produced the highest-paid graduates.
- Debt (15%)—Forbes used two variables from College Scorecard to measure the typical debt load for students at a given college.
- Graduation rate (15%)—Colleges were ranked using the six-year graduation rate.
- Forbes American Leaders List (15%)—This list aims to gauge the leadership and entrepreneurial success of a college’s graduates. Forbes counted those from each school who made the most recent Forbes 30 Under 30, Forbes 400, Richest Self-Made Women and Most Powerful Women lists. Forbes also counted the undergraduate alma maters of members of the Presidential cabinet, Supreme Court, Congress and sitting governors, as well as winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, Nobel Prize, Breakthrough Prize, Lasker Prize, Fields Prize, Academy Awards, Oscars, Tony’s, NAACP Awards, Guggenheim Fellowship, Presidential Medals, Pulitzer Prizes and major sport all-stars.
- Return on investment (15%)—This ranking divided the total net price of obtaining a college degree by the post-enrollment earnings boost that students get compared to the typical salary of a high school graduate in their state.
- Retention rate (10%)—Forbes calculated a three-year average retention rate, which measures the percentage of students who choose to stay after their freshman year.
- Academic excellence (10%)—This category was compiled using two measures. First was the number of recent graduates of each college who have gone on to win Fulbright, Truman, Goldwater and Rhodes scholarships. Second was data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics to determine the average number of alumni who earned a PhD over the last three years.
In its assessment of UH Mānoa, Forbes recognized that UH’s flagship institution is a top producer of political leaders—among them, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Former Hawaiʻi Gov. and UH regent Neil Abercrombie, the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.
For more information on rankings, see the Mānoa Institutional Research Office website.
