Aug 20, 2014 10:14 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

U.S. News and World Report has announced their annual Best College list is on the way soon and will be unveiled Sept. 9.

The rankings will include lists for the best National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges. The accompanying guidebook will also start shipping that day and will go on sale Sept. 23.

CLICK HERE to see their methodology.

The goal of the annual rankings is to help prospective students choose a college and the series of lists is meant to cater to a wide variety of students.

U.S. News' extensive rankings also include lists for Up-And-Coming Schools, which has grown in popularity in recent years. There will also be Internet-exclusive lists to detail which colleges and universities high school counselors regarded highest and which have the best undergraduate commitment.

Other lists will rank business programs, engineering programs and historically black colleges and universities. One of the more unique rankings is the A-plus Schools for B-students, a list meant to display the best schools for students who do not have a sterling GPA.

Like the Princeton Review, the rankings go on and include issues like campus diversity, financial aid, study abroad programs, graduation rates, class size and more. Unlike the Princeton Review, U.S. News does not rank the best party schools, a list the former has grown well known for publishing.

The Princeton Review does not publish an outright "Best College or University" list, but instead divides the rankings into 62 categories, which include classroom experience, faculty accessibility, politically active students, extracurricular activities and many more.

Forbes released its seventh annual best colleges ranking earlier this year, but the list focused on "output" instead of "input." The financial magazine focused mostly on a student's return on investment, looking at how schools affect their graduates after they have left.

Forbes' top five schools were Williams College, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Princeton University took top honors in U.S. News' top national university ranking last year and Williams College was the best national liberal arts college.

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