Forbes ranks Pomona College as top college in US

POMONA, Calif. (KABC) -- Move over Harvard. The top college in the country isn't an Ivy League. It's Pomona College in Claremont, according to Forbes Magazine.

This liberal arts college with a student body of less than 2,000 students now has national bragging rights.

It may not have the cache or name recognition that schools like Harvard or Yale do, but their students are in the same class.

"A lot of students here got accepted to Ivy League schools. We applied. We thought about them. They were options for us, but Pomona just fit us better," said Marisol Diaz, a sophomore at Pomona College.

Among the reasons Pomona got the top spot? Its 8-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio and its partnership with five other schools in the Claremont University Consortium.

The No. 1 ranking won't change anything at the school, other than give it more attention.

"Our admissions staff, I put them on notice. They're probably going to be seeing some extra applicants this year," said David Oxtoby, president of Pomona College.

Forbes' top colleges:

Other California colleges on the list:

For a full list, visit www.forbes.com/top-colleges.