US College Rankings: top universities in the USA

A new ranking of American colleges by Times Higher Education and The Wall Street Journal reveals the top universities in the US.

Rankings
Rankings for Students

October 7 2016

New US College Rankings reveal a list of the best schools in America, based on unique criteria for measuring excellence.

More than 1,000 American universities are included in the round-up of the best colleges in the United States.

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College scores are calculated over four key areas: resources, engagement, student outcomes and the college environment.

The ranking does not award points for selectivity in admissions, focusing instead on the learning gains that students receive once they enter university, measured using indicators such as graduation rate, graduate salaries, loan repayment rates, student engagement and interaction between students and staff.

Based on these measures, the very top universities are all private, not-for-profit institutions, many based in California, New York or Massachusetts.

US College Rankings methodology: designed for students
US universities in the World University Rankings 2016-2017

Prestigious schools such as Stanford, MIT, Columbia and UPenn take the top spots, but the usual suspects aren’t all where we might expect them to place.

CalTech only just achieves a spot in the top 10, while the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill all make it into the top 30 – the only public institutions to do so.

Most of the top 10 universities have undergraduate populations of significantly fewer than 10,000 students. University of Pennsylvania are the only exceptions, and both have about 10 per cent international students.

The WSJ/THE College Rankings were published by The Wall Street Journal in September 2016. Full results can be found here or scroll down for the top 100.

WSJ/THE US College Rankings: top 100 universities in the United States

Rank	Institution	City	State	Percentage of international students	Out of state tuition and fees ($)
1	Stanford University	Stanford	CA	15.3	44757
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Cambridge	MA	9.9	45016
3	Columbia University	New York	NY	13.5	51008
4	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	PA	10.2	47668
5	Yale University	New Haven	CT	20.7	45800
6	Harvard University	Cambridge	MA	16	43938
7	Duke University	Durham	NC	8.7	47243
8	Princeton University	Princeton	NJ	11	41820
9	Cornell University	Ithaca	NY	10.1	47286
10	California Institute of Technology	Pasadena	CA	9	43362
=11	Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore	MD	11.5	47060
=11	Washington University in St Louis	Saint Louis	MO	8.6	46467
=13	University of Chicago	Chicago	IL	9.5	48252
=13	Northwestern University	Evanston	IL	6.2	47251
15	University of Southern California	Los Angeles	CA	12.7	48280
16	Dartmouth College	Hanover	NH	8.5	48108
17	Emory University	Atlanta	GA	15.5	45008
18	Rice University	Houston	TX	12.3	40566
19	Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh	PA	17.1	49022
20	Brown University	Providence	RI	12.3	47434
21	Vanderbilt University	Nashville	TN	6.1	43838
22	Williams College	Williamstown	MA	7.1	48310
23	Amherst College	Amherst	MA	9.4	48526
24	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor	MI	7	43377
25	University of Notre Dame	Notre Dame	IN	4.3	46237
26	University of California, Los Angeles	Los Angeles	CA	11.7	35583
27	Tufts University	Medford	MA	7.8	48643
28	Pomona College	Claremont	CA	7.6	45832
29	Georgetown University	Washington	DC	16.6	46744
=30	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Chapel Hill	NC	2.6	33418
=30	Wellesley College	Wellesley	MA	11	45078
32	Case Western Reserve University	Cleveland	OH	8.8	43158
33	York University	New York	NY	14.2	46170
34	Swarthmore College	Swarthmore	PA	8.5	46060
35	Smith College	Northampton	MA	12.8	44724
36	Middlebury College	Middlebury	VT	10	46044
=37	University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley	CA	12.6	35850
=37	Carleton College	Northfield	MN	8.8	47736
=37	Haverford College	Haverford	PA	5.5	47214
=37	University of Miami	Coral Gables	FL	14.3	44350
=37	Purdue University	West Lafayette	IN	16.5	28804
42	Boston University	Boston	MA	19.3	46664
43	University of California, Davis	Davis	CA	6.2	36774
44	Bowdoin College	Brunswick	ME	4.6	46808
45	Wesleyan University	Middletown	CT	8.8	47972
46	Claremont McKenna College	Claremont	CA	14.7	47395
47	Bryn Mawr College	Bryn Mawr	PA	22.2	45540
48	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Champaign	IL	15.8	32621
49	University of California, San Diego	La Jolla	CA	11.6	36305
50	Lehigh University	Bethlehem	PA	7.4	44890
=51	Georgia Institute of Technology	Atlanta	GA	10.5	30698
=51	University of Texas at Austin	Austin	TX	5.1	34836
53	Bucknell University	Lewisburg	PA	5.9	48498
=54	Colgate University	Hamilton	NY	8.1	48175
=54	Wake Forest University	Winston-Salem	NC	3.6	46200
=56	University of Florida	Gainesville	FL	1.8	28591
=56	University of Virginia	Charlottesville	VA	6.1	42394
58	University of Rochester	Rochester	NY	14.4	46960
59	University of Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	PA	3.4	28168
60	Hamilton College	Clinton	NY	4.4	47820
61	University of Washington	Seattle	WA	12.4	33513
62	Oberlin College	Oberlin	OH	6.6	48682
=63	Boston College	Chestnut Hill	MA	6.7	47436
=63	Michigan State University	East Lansing	MI	12.4	35516
65	Trinity College	Hartford	CT	7.9	49056
66	Colby College	Waterville	ME	7.9	47350
=67	George Washington University	Washington	DC	9.6	46725
=67	Macalester College	Saint Paul	MN	11.9	47195
=67	University of Wisconsin	Madison	WI	9.1	26660
70	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	Worcester	MA	12.4	44222
71	Ohio State University	Columbus	OH	7.5	26537
72	Northeastern University	Boston	MA	16.7	43440
=73	Lafayette College	Easton	PA	6	45635
=73	Trinity University	San Antonio	TX	7.2	36214
=75	Tulane University	New Orleans	LA	3.4	48306
=75	Vassar College	Poughkeepsie	NY	7	49570
77	Davidson College	Davidson	NC	5.5	45377
=78	Grinnell College	Grinnell	IA	11.6	45620
=78	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Troy	NY	7.5	47908
=80	Barnard College	New York	NY	9.7	46040
=80	Texas A&M University	College Station	TX	1.7	26583
82	Drexel University	Philadelphia	PA	12.5	42164
83	Denison University	Granville	OH	6.8	45670
=84	Occidental College	Los Angeles	CA	4.8	47522
=84	University of Richmond	Richmond	VA	10.1	46680
86	Methodist University	Dallas	TX	6.8	45940
87	Howard University	Washington	DC	3.3	23970
88	College of the Holy Cross	Worcester	MA	0.9	45692
89	Brandeis University	Waltham	MA	13.1	47475
90	University of Denver	Denver	CO	9.6	42090
91	DePauw University	Greencastle	IN	10.6	42746
92	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology	Terre Haute	IN	8.7	41283
93	William & Mary	Williamsburg	VA	4.1	39916
94	Kenyon College	Gambier	OH	4.2	47330
95	Bentley University	Waltham	MA	16.5	42511
=96	Connecticut College	New London	CT	5.2	47740
=96	Pennsylvania State University	University Park	PA	9.2	30452
=96	Scripps College	Claremont	CA	4.3	47378
99	Stevens Institute of Technology	Hoboken	NJ	4.1	45366
=100	Franklin and Marshall College	Lancaster	PA	12.3	48514
=100	University of Maryland, College Park	College Park	MD	3.3	29720

Editor's note: The information on this page was correct at the time of publication. Since then, Times Higher Education has reissued the US College Rankings. For the most up-to-date 2017 US College Rankings results, always use the overall league table. Click here for the full up to date results of the US College Rankings