Montana State University earned a spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of “America’s Top Colleges,” which ranks universities according to factors such as students’ return-on-investment from their degrees and their ability to earn scholarships.
MSU ranked 345th on Forbes’ list, placing it among a select group of 500 institutions recognized from approximately 2,600 four-year colleges and universities across the country. It was the highest-ranked Montana university on the list. Forbes pulled information from national databases to determine how likely students are to find success in their chosen fields, win accolades or scholarships, earn enough to pay off their student debt and become leaders in private and public life, according to the magazine.
As Montana’s land-grant university, MSU provides its students with opportunities to engage in hands-on research that impacts communities across the state and the nation. The university invested an all-time high of $288.7 million in research in 2025, becoming the first and only institution in the state to surpass $200 million in research expenditures. MSU’s effort to bring research, teaching and service to communities across Montana earned the university a prestigious, nationally awarded Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
MSU is also a national leader in producing winners of the Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s premier award for undergraduates in math and science fields, with 92 scholars to date. MSU students have earned other prestigious scholarships that include 12 Rhodes Scholarships, the most recent awarded in 2025; 18 Truman Scholarships; 15 Udall scholarships and 15 Boren awards. The awardees span numerous disciplines — MSU offers more than 250 academic options within its colleges and programs.
To read the full list of “America’s Top Colleges,” visit the Forbes website.