The Daily Caller has already provided the groundbreaking, epoch-making list of the best colleges in America when you consider absolutely everything that matters. (RELATED: The 52 Best Colleges In America PERIOD)

Now, it’s time for the world to know about the worst colleges in America. Period.

The one caveat about the colleges and universities on this list is that they certainly aren’t the lousiest schools from a purely academic standpoint. You may find lesser-caliber coursework at the community college in your town, for example, or at a nearby public university with a couple cardinal directions in the name.

These schools are not community colleges or bidirectional schools, though. They are all either national in scope or, at the least, they attract students from swathes of the country.

The schools on this list are here because they are the polar opposites of the 52 schools on TheDC’s list of the best colleges. They score low in several if not all of the eight overall categories.

Some are here because students regard the academics are mediocre or worse, for example, or because the schools can’t seem to graduate students in four years, or because they’ll admit pretty much anyone with a pulse.

While some of these schools are affordable, many cost entirely too much to attend. The cost of a college education in the United States today is generally out of hand as colleges have bloated their administrative staffs with entirely too many useless bureaucrats. They have also built palatial dorms and gleaming athletic facilities with climbing walls and Olympic pools — passing the cost right along to you, the education consumer.

Other schools are here because the social life is dreadful. The ability to have a good time around cool people is critical. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. College has become a four-year (or five-year, of six-year) party. You may as well join the fun. You should consider the local quality of life, too. If there’s nothing to do or you are likely to get mugged, that matters.

You will note that schools with an emphasis on engineering dominate the list. That’s no coincidence. Students at engineering schools are notoriously unhappy with the heavy workload and with professors they say can’t teach a lick. If they are unhappy, the odds are you’ll also be unhappy. (Important note: Graduates of these schools may end up considerably happier with their engineering degrees than, say, some anthropology major hawking perfume at Macy’s, but that’s after — not during — school.)

Like engineering schools, military schools also aren’t famous for raucous parties. And so, while America’s three major service academies made the list of best schools in spite of the lack of much fun, two other military academies find themselves on the list of the worst schools. Among the reasons is that costs at these schools are much higher. The service academies are, after all, free to attend.

A smattering of highly religious schools also make TheDC’s list.

The full list is below. You can scroll down, or take a minute to read about the various parts of the list first.

For academics, there is an overall academic rating, a professor-quality rating and rating for the school’s penchant to graduate freshmen in four years. There’s also an admission rating. The harder the school is to get into, the higher the rating is.

Beyond academics, there is a social life rating, a student-attractiveness rating and a combined rating for the campus and the surrounding area.

TheDC proudly features hotness as part of the calculus of student attractiveness because, let’s face it, four or more years of your life are better when you are surrounded by attractive people. At many of the schools below, you will not be.

Finally, there is cost, which really varies from school to school, and which can really affect your life later on if you take on a bunch of debt. The cost of a school assumes in-state tuition. As you certainly know, if you go to a public school in another state and can’t claim residency, your tuition price is often astronomically higher.

There’s more about how the list are formulated if you scroll past the list itself.

For the 400 or so schools, TheDC has given each one a score in each category. The scores range between 4.00 and 0.00 — just like a typical grade-point average. In the list, those ratings are rounded to the nearest half and presented as star ratings.

For each school’s grand total, TheDC just added up each raw score. The New Jersey Institute of Technology is thus the worst school in the land, with a measly total raw score of just 14.40.

THE “TOP” 10

THE REST

The rating for the cost of tuition and fees assumes in-state tuition for public schools. As you certainly know, if you go to a public school in a state where you can’t claim residency, your tuition price is often astronomically higher. Also, cost does not include room and board, books and spending cash. The theory is that these costs are largely a wash because you have to eat, sleep somewhere and buy books wherever you attend college. Obviously, though, the cost of living in, say, New York City is considerably higher than it is in Rolla, Mo.

For social, life, campus and locale, student hotness and the quality of professors, TheDC has relied heavily on an amalgamation of information at various websites featuring student-generated information about schools.

The overall rating for academics is a composite of this student-generated data and hard data.

The data for four-year graduation rates and admission rates is all hard data. TheDC has used data for the most recent year available.

Finally, again, the raw score is the cumulative raw score for a school’s standing in each of the eight categories.

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