U.S. News Best Colleges 2026 — National Universities

Recorded placements 36

Institutions the Index records in this table. A placement here is a placement anywhere: the Index reports each institution's best, whatever its scope.

1. #1Princeton University1st in the world
2. #2Massachusetts Institute of Technology2nd in the world
3. #3Harvard University3rd in the world
4. #4Stanford University4th in the world
5. #4Yale University4th in the world
6. #6University of Chicago6th in the world
7. #7University of Pennsylvania7th in the world
8. #7Johns Hopkins University7th in the world
9. #7Northwestern University7th in the world
10. #7Duke University7th in the world
11. #11California Institute of Technology11th in the world
12. #12Cornell University12th in the world
13. #13Brown University13th in the world
14. #15Columbia University15th in the world
15. #15University of California, Berkeley15th in the world
16. #17University of California, Los Angeles17th in the world
17. #17Vanderbilt University17th in the world
18. #17Rice University17th in the world
19. #20University of Michigan-Ann Arbor20th in the world
20. #20Carnegie Mellon University20th in the world
21. #26University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill26th in the world
22. #28University of Southern California28th in the world
23. #29University of California, San Diego29th in the world
24. #30University of Texas at Austin30th in the world
25. #32New York University32nd in the world
26. #32Georgia Institute of Technology32nd in the world
27. #36University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign36th in the world
28. #36University of Wisconsin-Madison36th in the world
29. #41Ohio State University41st in the world
30. #42University of Washington42nd in the world
31. #42University of Maryland, College Park42nd in the world
32. #42Boston University42nd in the world
33. #46Purdue University46th in the world
34. #59Pennsylvania State University59th in the world
35. #59University of Minnesota59th in the world
36. #69University of Pittsburgh69th in the world