U.S. News 2026 Best Colleges Rankings

U.S. News & World Report released its 2026 Best Colleges rankings, with Princeton No. 1, MIT No. 2 and Harvard No. 3; Yale and Stanford tied for fourth, Williams remained the top national liberal arts college, and Spelman led HBCUs. The publisher said only minor methodological tweaks were made after last year’s overhaul, and outcomes — graduation rates, debt and earnings — now carry greater weight, a change reporters say has produced clear winners and losers. California publics performed strongly: UC Berkeley overtook UCLA as the top public university, and UC San Diego ranked No. 29 nationally and sixth among publics. Notable movements included the University of Chicago rising to No. 6 while Caltech fell to No. 11, and regional shifts saw the University of Dallas return to the West Top 10 and the University of North Texas jump 12 spots to No. 208. State-level results showed Notre Dame remained Indiana’s highest-ranked school at No. 20 and Ohio State stayed the top Ohio institution at No. 41, while Tennessee placed 15 schools on the national list, including Vanderbilt in the top 20. Separately, a SmartAsset/Stacker analysis found associate-degree holders earn about 14% more and highlighted low-cost, high-performing community colleges nationwide.