U.S. News and World Report released its annual ranking of colleges and universities, with few changes to prior years.
Princeton remained the report's top national university for 2024-25, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. The only difference between last year's Top 3 and this year's is Harvard was tied with Stanford for the third spot.
“Now in its 40th year, the Best Colleges rankings continue to be a trusted source of information for students and their families,” says LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News. “By considering factors such as social mobility and post-graduate success, we aim to help students choose schools that not only provide a quality education but also prepare them for a successful and fulfilling future.”
While the report's intention might be altruistic, it has not been without controversy. The report faced criticism in 2021 when a Temple University dean was convicted on federal charges of a scheme that provided U.S. News and World Report false information about the university's business school. Prosecutors said Moshe Porat provided false information to deceive students into paying for tuition and donors into making contributions.
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Columbia University later said it would not submit data to U.S. News and World Report for its annual rankings.
"We remain concerned with the role that rankings have assumed in the undergraduate application process, both in the outsized influence they may play with prospective students, and in how they distill a university’s profile into a composite of data categories," leaders of Columbia wrote in 2023.
In response to the criticism, the last two years have emphasized social mobility and outcomes for graduating college students, U.S. News and World Report said. The results, however, were largely unchanged.
The 2024-25 rankings include 1,500 universities throughout the U.S. using 17 different measures, including graduation rates, student retention, financial resources and peer assessment.
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Here is a look at the top 10 universities in the United States:
1. Princeton University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Harvard University
4. Stanford University
5. Yale University
T6. California Institute of Technology
T.6 Duke University
T.6 Johns Hopkins University
T.6 Northwestern University
10. University of Pennsylvania
A full look at this year's rankings are available on the U.S. News and World Report website.
