U.S. News & World Report Posts 2027 College Rankings

Editorial team Sep 22 · 2 min read
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usnwr bestcollegesU.S. News & World Report released their 2027 college rankings recently.  Nearly 1,500 schools were ranked based on 17 factors, with a few key changes to the methodology compared to the previous year.  

New Carnegie classifications reshuffle the categories

The biggest change to the methodology is that rankings are now built on the 2025 Carnegie Classification instead of the 2021 version. This remaps schools’ categories (National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, or Regional Colleges). With roughly one in five schools changing category this year, a college can change rank simply because its grouping changed.

A new earnings measure replaces student debt

U.S. News dropped median federal loan debt as a factor and replaced it with a new Earnings by Major indicator, still weighted at 5%. The new measure looks at what graduates earn four years out, using College Scorecard data limited to students who received federal financial aid. U.S. News argues that this switch gives a cleaner read on what the school itself adds in salary potential, rather than a reflection of family resources or of enrollment weighted toward high-paying fields.

Rankings shifts

MIT claims the top spot for National Universities, unseating Princeton, while Williams College retains its position atop the Liberal Arts Colleges list. Check the tables below for full details.

 

U.S. News and World Report Ranking Changes (2027 vs 2026)

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InstitutionRank (2027)Rank (2026)Change
MIT 1 2 1
Princeton University 2 1 1
Harvard University 3 3  
Yale University 4 4  
California Institute of Technology 5 11 6
Stanford University 5 4 1
University of Pennsylvania 7 7  
Duke University 8 7 1
Johns Hopkins University 9 7 2
Northwestern University 9 7 2
University of Chicago 9 6 3
Columbia University 12 15 3
Dartmouth College 12 13 1
Carnegie Mellon University 14 20 6
Cornell University 14 12 2
Brown University 16 13 3
Rice University 16 17 1
Vanderbilt University 16 17 1
Washington University in St. Louis 16 20 4
University of California - Berkeley 20 15 5
University of California - Los Angeles 20 17 3
University of Notre Dame 20 20  
Emory University 23 24 1
Georgetown University 23 24 1
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 25 20 5
University of Virginia 26 26  
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 27 26 1
University of Southern California 27 28 1
Georgia Institute of Technology 29 32 3
University of California - San Diego 29 29  
Boston College 31 36 5
New York University 31 32 1
Tufts University 31 36 5
Boston University 34 42 8
University of California - Davis 34 32 2
University of California - Irvine 34 32 2
University of Florida 34 30 4
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign 34 36 2
University of Texas - Austin 34 30 4
University of Wisconsin - Madison 34 36 2
Wake Forest University 34 51 17
Northeastern University 42 46 4
Villanova University 42 57 15
Case Western Reserve University 44 51 7
Lehigh University 44 46 2
Ohio State University - Columbus 44 41 3
Rutgers University - New Brunswick 44 42 2
University of California - Santa Barbara 44 40 4
University of Maryland - College Park 49 42 7
University of Rochester 49 46 3
University of Washington 49 42 7