Here are the best-ranked colleges in the US

College rankings have come under recent scrutiny, but U.S. News and World Report’s list still holds major influence for students and institutions.

by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech | Sep. 12, 2022

Story at a glance

U.S. News and World Report released its 2022-23 “best colleges” ranking on Monday.

Harvard University, Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were ranked as the top three National Universities.

Columbia University’s ranking fell from 2 to 18 after the school used “outdated and/or incorrect methodologies” for its data.

Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Stanford University round out the country’s best colleges, according to U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings.

The media company released its influential report Monday, announcing changes to how it measured academic prestige — in part reflecting the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on student life for the past two years.

This year’s rankings discounted if a school received low SAT and ACT submissions in 2020 “when the supply and demand for taking the [tests] plummeted.”

The rankings also include a more comprehensive measure of faculty resources and updates that moved 10 percent of schools into different categories.

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“For nearly 40 years, the Best Colleges methodology has continuously evolved to reflect changes in the higher education landscape and the interests of prospective students,” said Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News in a statement. “Guiding that evolution is U.S. News’ mission of providing useful data and information to help with one of life’s biggest decisions

In previous years, if a college or university submitted too few SAT or ACT scores from its incoming students, those scores were given less weight in the school’s overall ranking.

But this year, for schools reporting SAT and ACT scores for less than 50 percent of its incoming students, U.S. News did not use test scores as part of the criteria for determining the institution’s rank.

Instead, U.S. News placed more weight on high school class standing and average graduation rate. The outlet said it adopted the change after many students were unable to attend standardized exams.

U.S. News also included part-time faculty with a terminal degree, or the highest achievable degree in a field, when determining a school’s total percent of faculty with a terminal degree. In prior years, list crafters only used full-time faculty.

College rankings, like those crafted by U.S. News, have come under scrutiny recently, with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona arguing that institutions’ obsession with chasing the prestige associated with the lists hurts students.

“Too often, our best-resourced schools are chasing rankings that mean little on measures that truly count: college completion, economic mobility, narrowing gaps in access to opportunity for ALL Americans,” Cardona said last month. “That system of ranking is a joke!”

In February, a Columbia University professor also questioned the school’s “un-matched” rise in rankings from 18^th place in 1988 to 2^nd place in 2021. In a statement, Professor Michael Thaddeus claimed that “several of the key figures supporting Columbia’s high ranking are inaccurate, dubious, or highly misleading.”

The outlet unranked the university from its list released in 2021. Columbia University in June stated that it relied on “outdated and/or incorrect methodologies” in submitting data to U.S. News and World Report. Columbia University ranked 18th this year.

Here are the top 10 National Universities for 2022-23:

1. Princeton University

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. Harvard University (tie)

3. Stanford University (tie)

3. Yale University (tie)

6. University of Chicago

7. Johns Hopkins University (tie)

7. University of Pennsylvania (tie)

9. California Institute of Technology

10. Duke University (tie)

10. Northwestern University (tie)

Here are the top 10 National Universities in 2021-22:

1. Princeton University

2. Harvard University (tie)

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (tie)

5. Yale University

6. Stanford University (tie)

6. University of Chicago (tie)

8. University of Pennsylvania

9. California Institute of Technology (tie)

9. Duke University (tie)

9. Johns Hopkins University (tie)

9. Northwestern University (tie)

This article was updated at 5:30 Sept. 15, 2022.