Connecticut earns national top marks for public colleges despite cost Cayla Bamberger, Andrew DaRosa FacebookTwitterEmail A new report ranks states on their public higher education options, and Connecticut tops the list. The seventh of its kind, a recent SmartAsset analysis of Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System 2018-19 data compared states' four-year public universities across five metrics: undergraduate graduation rate, average net price, student-to-faculty ratio, 20-year return on investment and in-state attendance rate. The analysts selected the metrics "to find the states where public colleges and universities are more affordable and offer a greater (return on investment)," said a spokesperson for SmartAsset.