U.S. News & World Report Posts 2026 College Rankings

Editorial team Sep 30, 2025 · 2 min read
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usnwr bestcollegesU.S. News & World Report released their 2026 college rankings recently.  Nearly 1,500 schools were ranked based on 17 factors, with the methodology mostly unchanged from the previous year.  

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

 

 

U.S. News and World Report Ranking Changes (2026 vs 1)

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  • InstitutionRank (2026)Rank (2025)Change
    Princeton 1 1  
    MIT 2 2  
    Harvard 3 3  
    Stanford 4 4  
    Yale 4 5 1
    UChicago 6 11 5
    Duke 7 6 1
    Johns Hopkins 7 6 1
    Northwestern 7 6 1
    UPenn 7 10 3
    Caltech 11 6 5
    Cornell 12 11 1
    Brown 13 13  
    Dartmouth 13 15 2
    Columbia 15 13 2
    UC Berkeley 15 17 2
    Rice 17 18 1
    UCLA 17 15 2
    Vanderbilt 17 18 1
    Carnegie Mellon 20 21 1
    Michigan 20 21 1
    Notre Dame 20 18 2
    WUSTL 20 21 1
    Emory (Emory) 24 24  
    Georgetown 24 24  
    UNC - Chapel Hill 26 27 1
    Virginia 26 24 2
    USC 28 27 1
    UCSD 29 29  
    Florida 30 30  
    UT Austin 30 30  
    Georgia Tech 32 33 1
    NYU 32 30 2
    UC Davis 32 33 1
    UC Irvine 32 33 1
    Boston College 36 37 1
    Tufts 36 37 1
    UIUC 36 33 3
    Wisconsin 36 39 3
    UCSB 40 39 1
    Ohio State 41 41  
    Boston University 42 41 1
    Rutgers 42 41 1
    Maryland 42 44 2
    Washington 42 46 4
    Lehigh 46 46  
    Northeastern 46 54 8
    Purdue 46 46  
    Georgia 46 46  
    U Rochester 46 44 2
  • InstitutionRank (2026)Rank (2025)Change
    Williams 1 1  
    Amherst 2 2  
    Navy 3 4 1
    Swarthmore 4 3 1
    Bowdoin 5 5  
    Air Force 5 8 3
    Claremont McKenna 7 8 1
    Pomona 7 5 2
    Wellesley 7 7  
    Carleton 10 8 2
    Harvey Mudd 10 12 2
    Army 10 8 2
    Barnard 13 14 1
    Davidson 13 14 1
    Grinnell 13 19 6
    Hamilton 13 14 1
    Middlebury 13 19 6
    Smith 13 14 1
    Vassar 13 12 1
    Wesleyan 13 14 1
    Washington and Lee 21 19 2
    Colgate 22 22  
    U Richmond 22 22  
    Bates 24 26 2
    Colby 24 25 1
    Haverford 24 24  
    Holy Cross 27 28 1
    Macalester 28 26 2
    Mt. Holyoke 29 34 5
    Bryn Mawr 30 29 1
    Bucknell 30 31 1
    Colorado College 30 29 1
    Lafayette 30 31 1
    Denison 34 36 2
    F&M 35 31 4
    Occidental 35 34 1
    Pitzer 37 36 1
    Scripps 37 44 7
    Skidmore 37 36 1
    Soka 37 45 8
    Spelman 37 40 3
    Trinity College 37 36 1
    Trinity 37 40 3
    Union College 44 40 4
    Berea 45 40 5
    Dickinson 45 45  
    Furman 45 45  
    Kenyon 45 45  
    Sewanee 45 45