The 50 best private colleges in America

For our seventh annual ranking of the best colleges in America, we asked over 1,000 Business Insider readers to choose the colleges that best prepare their students for success after graduation.

We then combined those results with each school's average SAT score from College Board and the median starting salary from PayScale to come up with the final ranking. You can read the full methodology here.

Here, we've narrowed down our results to look at the best private colleges in the country.

SEE THE MAIN LIST: The 50 best colleges in America

SEE ALSO: The 24 best public colleges in America

50. Fordham University

Average SAT score: 1880

Median starting salary: $50,200

"The Jesuit University of New York" has two undergraduate campuses serving 8,633 students at Rose Hill in the Bronx and Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Fordham emphasizes giving and community service with over 1.2 million hours served by students in 2013. 

49. Brigham Young University

Average SAT score: 1890

Median starting salary: $51,800

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsors Brigham Young University and seeks to cultivate individuals of faith, intellect, and character. Last year, US News ranked Utah's BYU in the top 10 best-value schools. The most popular colleges where students study at BYU are Life Sciences and The School of Management. 

48. George Washington University

Average SAT score: 1950

Median starting salary: $47,700

Located in the nation's capital, GW established the world's first political communications major. This month, The Princeton Review named GW students the most politically active in the country. The most popular majors are social sciences, business and marketing, and healthcare – GW reportedly provides the second-highest number of service professionals among national universities.

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