If you're thinking about studying in the USA, you may well want to know which of the country's universities are most highly rated. In that case, the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings can help. This long-established guide to America's top institutions sets out how each one compares every year. Read on as we take a close look at the 2026 U.S. News Rankings.
What are the U.S. News Rankings?
The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings are an annual guide to America's top universities. For more than 40 years, they have helped countless people decide where they want to go for a degree. To do this, they compare more than 1,700 institutions on the basis of factors that are important to students, and rank hundreds on their National Universities list. We explain the process later in this article.
What do the latest rankings tell us?
The 2026 U.S. News Rankings show that America's most famous universities remain its most well regarded. Princeton places first for the 15th year in a row, while nine of the top 10 institutions appeared in the same part of the list last year. The only newcomer is the University of Chicago, which rises five places to sixth.
Further down the list, several universities are rising fast. The biggest climber in the top 50 is Boston's Northeastern University, which moves up eight positions to 46th place. Among the top 100, New York City's Yeshiva University has gained the most ground – its 84th place is an improvement of 14 positions on last year. Competition among universities in the USA is clearly strong, far beyond the Ivy League.
The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings 2026 top 10
| Rank | University | Movement |
| 1 | Princeton University | - |
| 2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | - |
| 3 | Harvard University | - |
| =4 | Stanford University | - |
| =5 | Yale University | Up 1 |
| 6 | University of Chicago | Up 5 |
| =7 | Duke University | Down 1 |
| =7 | Johns Hopkins University | Down 1 |
| =7 | Northwestern University | Down 1 |
| =7 | University of Pennsylvania | Up 3 |
Inspired by these names? Find out how to apply to study in the USA.
How are the rankings calculated?
The U.S. News Rankings are compiled with data from more than 1,700 universities. This covers a variety of factors that matter to students, including everything from staff numbers to graduation rates and employment outcomes. When combined, these form a picture of the overall strength of each institution.
Most of the data is provided by institutions through a statistical survey before being analysed and quality-assured. Some is also derived from official government sources, such as the Department for Education. Once everything has been checked, weightings are applied to each factor, leading to an overall rating for each institution.
The full list of factors and weightings are:
|
Factor |
Weighting |
|
Graduation rates |
16% |
|
First-year retention rates |
5% |
|
Graduation rate performance |
10% |
|
Pell graduation rates* |
5.5% |
|
Pell graduation performance* |
5.5% |
|
Borrower debt |
5% |
|
College graduates earning more than a high school graduate |
5% |
|
Peer assessment |
20% |
|
Faculty salaries |
6% |
|
Student-faculty ratio |
3% |
|
Full-time faculty |
2% |
|
Financial resources per student |
8% |
|
Standardised tests |
5% |
|
Citations per publication |
1.25% |
|
Field-weighted citation impact |
1.25% |
|
Publications cited in the top 5% of journals |
1% |
|
Publications cited in the top 25% of journals |
0.5% |
*This refers to students who have received a Pell Grant, a form of financial assistance provided by the American government.
Learn all about the US higher education system.
Which universities are in the top 25?
Unlike the top 10, there are no new entries in the top 25. Movement is minimal, with the California Institute of Technology's drop of five places being the largest change. Two institutions climb two places: Dartmouth College and the University of California, Berkeley.
Here are the universities that complete the top 25:
| Rank | University | Movement |
| 11 | California Institute of Technology | Down 5 |
| 12 | Cornell University | Down 1 |
| =13 | Brown University | - |
| =13 | Dartmouth College | Up 2 |
| =15 | Columbia University | Down 2 |
| =15 | University of California, Berkeley | Up 2 |
| =17 | Rice University | Up 1 |
| =17 | University of California, Los Angeles | Down 2 |
| =17 | Vanderbilt University | Up 1 |
| =20 | Carnegie Mellon University | Up 1 |
| =20 | University of Michigan | Up 1 |
| =20 | University of Notre Dame | Down 2 |
| =20 | Washington University in St. Louis | Up 1 |
| =24 | Emory University | - |
| =24 | Georgetown University | - |
These universities are based all around the country. Find out more about some of their locations with our guide to the top student cities in the USA.
What about rankings for other institutions?
The U.S. News Rankings also evaluate liberal arts colleges, which are usually smaller and more focused on the teaching of humanities subjects. These institutions appear on a separate list to the overall ranking. The top liberal arts colleges are:
| Rank | College | Movement |
| 1 | Williams College | - |
| 2 | Amherst College | - |
| 3 | United States Naval Academy | Up 1 |
| 4 | Swarthmore College | Down 1 |
| =5 | Bowdoin College | - |
| =5 | United States Air Force Academy | Up 3 |
| =7 | Claremont McKenna College | Up 1 |
| =7 | Pomona College | Down 2 |
| =7 | Wellesley College | - |
| =10 | Carleton College | Down 2 |
| =10 | Harvey Mudd College | Up 2 |
| =10 | United States Military Academy at West Point | Down 2 |
Remember that university rankings are only a guide. They should form part of your research and decision-making, but not all of it. If you'd like to explore more lists, you can read our analysis of the QS World University Rankings 2026 and the Complete University Guide League Tables 2026. Alternatively, you can consider some good reasons to study in the USA.
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