The 24 best public colleges in America

We recently released our seventh annual list of the best colleges in America, which included schools from every corner of the US.

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

To determine the rankings, 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 the college-data website College Board and the median starting salary from the employer-information website PayScale to come up with the final ranking. You can read the full methodology here.

Please note that this list drew from our original survey on the best colleges in the US, where survey respondents chose from a limited pool of what we perceived to be the top 100 schools in the US.

Did your school make the cut this year? Read on to find out.

SEE ALSO: The 50 best colleges in America

SEE ALSO: The 48 best colleges in the Northeast

24. University of Connecticut

Average SAT score: 1885

Median starting salary: $51,700

UConn has a built-out career services office, with resources both on campus and online. The online portal features a number of internship, co-op, and full-time job opportunities with companies like Pepperidge Farm, JetBlue, Unilever, and UBS, as well as a number of resources to help students apply and place there.

23. University of California at Irvine

Average SAT score: 1740

Median starting salary: $49,300

Part of the prestigious University of California system, UCI is known for its top-rated research programs, which provide opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students alike to participate in research projects. And although it's a large school, the student to faculty ratio remains low — only 19:1 — and 50% of classes have 20 or fewer students. 

22. University of California at Davis

Average SAT score: 1815

Median starting salary: $50,800

UC Davis graduates enter a network of over 200,000 living alumni when they complete their degrees. While still in school, students have access to 104 major choices, preparing them for careers in everything from landscape architecture to microbiology to nutrition science.

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