College is hard enough without having to worry about serious crime. Yet crime is a reality on and around many college campuses.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Report identified 2,696 violent crime incidents and 87,160 property crime incidents on and around college campuses in 2011.

We ranked the most dangerous colleges by averaging FBI crime data per capita from 2008 to 2011 for schools with enrollment over 10,000. Schools were ranked based on a combination of violent crime rank and property crime rank, with violent crime weighted four times higher.

Click here to see the most dangerous colleges >

NOTE: Some people have objected to our use of FBI data because (1) not all schools participate in the survey and (2) some schools are more aggressive than others in reporting crime in neighboring noncampus areas.

In response to criticism, we prepared an alternate list based on on-campus crimes tracked for the Clery Act. We are happy to report, however, that this alternate ranking produced remarkably similar results — suggesting that both lists are good at identifying dangerous colleges. For instance, two schools which objected vocally to our original list — UCLA and UC-Riverside — were also named among the most dangerous colleges based on this new data set.

We have included responses submitted by various schools on their respective slides.

UPDATE: We have changed New Mexico State's ranking after having been informed of an error in the FBI database.

Click here to read a longer discussion of FBI versus Clery data, and why we whole-heartedly defend our list >