Read this article to find out which universities are ranked highest in the nation. In this article on university ranking, a number of different university ranking systems are reviewed to give you a better idea of which universities consistently rank highest.
Many organizations do university ranking, including some that invite students to comment on their professors, etc. But the four most prominent are those done by Forbes.com, U.S. News and World Report, The Center for Measuring University Performance publication, “The Top American Research Universities,” and the National Research Council Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs.
U.S. News and World Report University Ranking
In the most recent ranking, posted in 2008, but referred to as “Best Colleges 2009,” U.S. News gives the following National University Rankings for institutions that have a full array of graduate and undergraduate programs, as well as a research focus. These are their top 10:
| Rank | Institution |
| 1 | Harvard University |
| 2 | Princeton University |
| 3 | Yale University |
| 4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 4 | Stanford University |
| 6 | California Institute of Technology |
| 6 | University of Pennsylvania |
| 8 | Columbia University |
| 8 | Duke University |
| 8 | University of Chicago |
U.S. News also collects data from High School Counselors, whose ratings come out a bit different:
| Rank | Institution |
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 1 | Princeton University |
| 1 | Harvard University |
| 1 | Yale University |
| 5 | Stanford University |
| 5 | Cornell University |
| 5 | Columbia University |
| 5 | Brown University |
| 9 | University of California - Berkeley |
| 9 | California Institute of Technology |
| 9 | Northwestern University |
| 9 | John Hopkins University |
| 9 | Duke University |
| 9 | University of Pennsylvania |
| 9 | Dartmouth College |
| 9 | Georgetown University |
Forbes.com America's Best Colleges
Explicitly in the interest of offering an alternative to U.S. News and World Report's ranking, Forbes developed a college rating and rolled it out in August, 2008. This is their inaugural top 10 list for four-year undergraduate colleges:
| Rank | Institution |
| 1 | Princeton University |
| 2 | California Institute of Technology |
| 3 | Harvard University |
| 4 | Swarthmore College |
| 4 | Williams College |
| 6 | United States Military Academy |
| 6 | Amherst College |
| 8 | Wellesley College |
| 8 | Yale University |
| 8 | Columbia University |
The Center for Measuring University Performance University Ranking
In the 2007 version of their publication, “The Top American Research Universities,” the Center judges these to be the top 10 national research universities:
| Rank | Institution |
| 1 | Columbia University |
| 2 | Harvard University |
| 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 4 | Stanford University |
| 5 | University of Pennsylvania |
| 6 | Duke University |
| 7 | University of Caifornia - Berkeley |
| 8 | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor |
| 9 | John Hopkins University |
| 10 | Yale University |
National Research Council Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs University Ranking
NRC's system is very helpful because it ranks by 41 subject areas, rather than overall. This acknowledges that a school may have some programs that are stronger than others. With the depth that undergraduates attain today and the opportunities for undergraduate research, the graduate program's standing may have impact on undergraduates as well.
NRC is, in 2008, at work on a forthcoming survey, and the most recent is 1995. Given that it is not quite up-to-date, still, listing the top 3 schools in each discipline will show that a number of schools that are listed in none of the lists above are among the top in their field in particular areas.
| Rank | Art History | Classics | Comp. Lit | English | French |
| 1 | NYU | Harvard | Yale | Yale | Yale |
| 2 | Columbia | Cal - Berkeley | Duke | Harvard | Princeton |
| 3 | Cal - Berkeley | Michigan | Columbia | Cal - Berkeley | Duke |
| Rank | German | Linguistics | Music | Philosophy | Religion |
| 1 | Cal - Berkeley | MIT | Harvard | Princeton | Chicago |
| 2 | Princeton | Standford | Chicago | Pittsburgh | Harvard |
| 3 | Cornell | UCLA | Cal Berkeley | Harvard | Princeton |
| Rank | Spanish | Biochem/Molec | Cell Bio | Ecol/Evol/Beh | Molec/Genetics |
| 1 | Columbia | Cal - SF | MIT | Stanford | MIT |
| 2 | Duke | Stanford | Rockefeller | Chicago | Cal - SF |
| 3 | Brown | MIT | Cal - SF | Duke | Harvard |
| Rank | Neursciences | Pharmacology | Physiology | Aerospace Eng | Biomed Eng |
| 1 | Cal - SD | Yale | Yale | Cal Tech | MIT |
| 2 | Yale | Texas SW Med | Cal - SD | MIT | Cal - SD |
| 3 | Harvard | Cal - SD | Penn | Stanford | Washington |
| Rank | Chem Eng | Civil Eng | Elec Eng | Indust Eng | Materials Sci |
| 1 | Minnesota | MIT | Stanford | Georgia Tech | MIT |
| 2 | MIT | Cal - Berkeley | MIT | Cal - Berkeley | Northwestern |
| 3 | Cal - Berkeley | Stanford | Illinois | Purdue | Cornell |
| Rank | Mech Eng | Astrophys/Astr | Chemistry | Computer Sci | Geosciences |
| 1 | Stanford | Cal Tech | Cal - Berkeley | Stanford | Cal Tech |
| 2 | MIT | Princeton | Cal Tech | MIT | MIT |
| 3 | Cal - Berkeley | Cal - Berkeley | Stanford | Cal - Berkeley | Cal - Berkeley |
| Rank | Mathematics | Oceanography | Physics | Stat/Biostat | Anthropology |
| 1 | Princeton | Cal - SD | Harvard | Stanford | Michigan |
| 2 | Cal Berkeley | MIT | Princeton | Cal - Berkeley | Chicago |
| 3 | MIT | Washington | MIT | Cornell | Cal - Berkeley |
| Rank | Economics | Geography | History | Poli Sci | Psychology |
| 1 | Harvard | Penn State | Yale | Harvard | Stanford |
| 2 | Chicago | Wisconsin | Cal - Berkeley | Cal - Berkeley | Michigan |
| 3 | MIT | Minnesota | Princeton | Yale | Yale |
| Rank | Sociology | | | | |
| 1 | Chicago | ||||
| 2 | Wisconsin | ||||
| 3 | Cal - Berkeley |
All of these sources also supply rankings with different goals and categories. Check the sites for further information to find about such areas as top-ranked college in the Midwest, or top schools with less than 1,000 undergrads or the school with the most beautiful campus. You may also want to examine Barron's Profiles of American College and the 2009 edition of Princeton Review's The Best 368 Colleges.
Sources
U.S. News.com - colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com
usnews.com
Forbes.com - forbes.com/
Texas A&M University: Summary of the NRC Rankings - stat.tamu.edu
National Academies: Board on Higher Education and Workforce: Rating and Ranking - sites.nationalacademies.org
The Journal of Nutrition: “The National Research Council's Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs Can Be Used to Strengthen Doctoral Programs in Nutrition” - jn.nutrition.org
University of California at Berkeley “Briefing/Update on NRC Assessment”- grad.berkeley.edu/ The Center for Measuring University Performance - mup.asu.edu