George Mason University recently ranked 273 out of 650 schools in Forbes' list of "America's Top Colleges." Mason's rank improved over last year's 297 and 2009's 382.

The rankings are based on a Washington D.C. think tank's comparison of enrollment cost and educational value. In summary... "Is it worth spending as much as a quarter of a million dollars for this degree?"

Read more about Forbes' methodologies here. Mason also scored No. 82 out of ranked research universities and No. 63 of schools in the South.