The 50 best American colleges and universities of 2020
Madison Hoff
- Education research firm Quacquarelli Symonds shared its first-ever ranking of the best colleges and universities in the United States with Business Insider.
- The research firm looked at four categories to create an overall index score for 300 universities.
- At the top of the list was Harvard University with an overall score of 93.3 out of 100.
Harvard University is the best university in the US, according to education research firm Quacquarelli Symonds.
QS releases an annual ranking of the best universities in the world. This year, the company decided to release its first-ever US-specific national university ranking.
"The QS US Rankings aim to provide not only international students with new and more granular insights when deciding on a study destination in the [United States], but also offer domestic students with a fresh outlook on their home institutions, set within the frame of a new bespoke methodology," QS told Business Insider.
QS ranked 300 US universities that have both undergraduate and graduate programs.
To rank the universities, QS used 17 metrics that fall into four broader groups that were weighted and combined into a final index score: Employability had a weight of 27%, diversity and internationalization had a weight of 25%, learning experience had a weight of 22%, and research had a weight of 26%. A university's scores in each category were added together to calculate the total index score on a scale of 0 to 100.
Harvard University earned the highest overall score of 93.3, making it the best US university according to QS' metrics. Harvard scored a perfect score in employability and research, 76.0 in diversity and internationalization, and 96.8 in learning experience.
Stanford, MIT, and University of California, Berkeley, followed behind Harvard with scores above 79.0. Additionally, 14 universities on the list had a total index score of over 70.0 out of 100.
The following are the 50 best US universities and their total index scores. To find out where the top 300 universities in the US fall on the list, read the full ranking on QS' website.
Read the original article on Business Insider50. University of Virginia
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Overall index: 55.8
Read more about the University of Virginia on QS Top Universities.
48 (tie). University of Maryland, College Park
Location: College Park, Maryland
Overall index: 56.3
Read more about University of Maryland, College Park, on QS Top Universities.
48 (tie). Boston College
Location: Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Overall index: 56.3
Read more about Boston College on QS Top Universities.
47. Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Location: Centre County, Pennsylvania
Overall index: 56.4
Read more about Pennsylvania State University on QS Top Universities.
46. University at Buffalo SUNY
Location: Buffalo, New York
Overall index: 56.6
Read more about University at Buffalo on QS Top Universities.
45. Stony Brook University
Location: Stony Brook, New York
Overall index: 56.8
Read more about Stony Brook University on QS Top Universities.
43 (tie). University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC)
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Overall index: 57.5
Read more about University of Illinois, Chicago, on QS Top Universities.
43 (tie). Case Western Reserve University
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Overall index: 57.5
Read more about Case Western University on QS Top Universities.
41 (tie). University of California, Irvine (UCI)
Location: Irvine, California
Overall index: 57.6
Read more about University of California, Irvine, on QS Top Universities.
41 (tie). Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Total index score: 57.6
Read more about Rutgers University, New Brunswick, on QS Top Universities.
40. University of Notre Dame
Location: Notre Dame, Indiana
Total index score: 57.8
Read more about the University of Notre Dame on QS Top Universities.
39. University of Miami
Location: Coral Gables, Florida
Total index score: 57.9
Read more about the University of Miami on QS Top Universities.
38. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Total index score: 58.3
Read more about The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on QS Top Universities.
37. Dartmouth College
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
Total index score: 58.4
Read more about Dartmouth College on QS Top Universities.
35 (tie). University of Florida
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Total index score: 58.6
Read more about University of Florida on QS Top Universities.
35 (tie). Tufts University
Location: Medford, Massachusetts
Total index score: 58.6
Read more about Tufts University on QS Top Universities.
34. The George Washington University
Location: Washington, D.C.
Total index score: 59.1
Read more about George Washington University on QS Top Universities.
33. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Location: Champaign, Illinois
Total index score: 55.9
Read more about University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on QS Top Universities.
32. Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Total index score: 60.4
Read more about Georgia Tech on QS Top Universities.
30 (tie). Vanderbilt University
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Total index score: 60.8
Read more about Vanderbilt University on QS Top Universities.
30 (tie). University of Rochester
Location: Rochester, New York
Total index score: 60.8
Read more about University of Rochester on QS Top Universities.
28 (tie). Washington University in St. Louis
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Total index score: 60.9
Read more about Washington University in St. Louis on QS Top Universities.
28 (tie). University of California, Davis (UCD)
Location: Davis, California
Total index score: 60.9
Read more about University of California, Davis, on QS Top Universities.
27. Emory University
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Total index score: 61.1
Read more about Emory University on QS Top Universities.
26. University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
25. The University of Texas at Austin
Location: Austin, Texas
Total index score: 62.4
Read more about The University of Texas at Austin on QS Top Universities.
24. University of Washington
Location: Seattle, Washington
Total index score: 62.5
Read more about University of Washington on QS Top Universities.
23. Georgetown University
Location: Washington, D.C.
Total index score: 64.1
Read more about Georgetown University on QS Top Universities.
21 (tie). Rice University
Location: Houston, Texas
Total index score: 64.3
Read more about Rice University on QS Top Universities.
21 (tie). Boston University
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Total index score: 64.3
Read more about Boston University on QS Top Universities.
20. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Total index score: 65.8
Read more about Brown University on QS Top Universities.
19. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Location: Pasadena, California
Total index score: 66.1
Read more about Caltech on QS Top Universities.
18. University of Michigan
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Total index score: 66.3
Read more about University of Michigan on QS Top Universities.
17. Carnegie Mellon University
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Total index score: 66.5
Read more about Carnegie Mellon University on QS Top Universities.
16. Northwestern University
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Total index score: 67.2
Read more about Northwestern University on QS Top Universities.
15. University of Southern California
Location: Los Angeles, California
Total index score: 68.5
Read more about University of Southern California on QS Top Universities.
14. John Hopkins University
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Total index score: 70.2
Read more about John Hopkins University on QS Top Universities.
13. Duke University
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Total index score: 70.5
Read more about Duke University on QS Top Universities.
12. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Total index score: 71.8
Read more about University of Chicago on QS Top Universities.
11. New York University (NYU)
10. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Total index score: 73.5
Read more about Cornell University on QS Top Universities.
9. Princeton University
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Total index score: 75.7
Read more about Princeton University on QS Top Universities.
8. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Total index score: 76.1
Read more about University of Pennsylvania on QS Top Universities.
6 (tie). Yale University
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Total index score: 78.3
Read more about Yale University on QS Top Universities.
6 (tie). University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Total index score: 78.3
Read more about UCLA on QS Top Universities.
5. Columbia University
Location: New York City, New York
Total index score: 79.0
Read more about Columbia University on QS Top Universities.
4. University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
Location: Berkeley, California
Total index score: 79.2
Read more about University of California, Berkeley, on QS Top Universities.
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Total index score: 87.1
Read more about MIT on QS Top Universities.
2. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Total index score: 89.7
Read more about Stanford University on QS Top Universities.
1. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Total index score: 93.3
Read more about Harvard University on QS Top Universities.
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