In its most recent college rankings, Princeton University topped the charts at #1 on the National Universities Rankings list compiled by U.S. News. Princeton, a private Ivy-League school, offers degrees in the humanities social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering, while supporting a student population of 8,088. Harvard and Yale fall in step behind Princeton, completing the list’s top three.
Columbia, Stanford, and the University of Chicago lock horns in a three-way-tie for fourth place, and the California Institute of Technology stays in the same spot as last year, tenth place, but is no longer tied with Dartmouth. Besides Stanford and the California Institute of Technology, all schools in the top ten are located on the east coast. Massachusetts has two schools in the top ten: MIT, coming in at #8, as well as Harvard, both of which are located in Cambridge.
For the complete list, click US News
Liberal arts colleges also have their own separate rankings list. Their generalist curricula as well as small size (in terms of student body, faculty, and often campus acreage) sets liberal arts colleges apart from universities. For the National Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings, Williams College in Massachusetts takes the #1 spot. Incidentally, Williams College took #1 on the Forbes 2014 list of “America’s Top Colleges.” Pomona College, first on Forbes’ 2015 list, ties with Bowdoin College in Maine for #5. Carleton, Claremont McKenna, and Haverford Colleges round out the top ten in a three-way-tie for 8th place.
For the complete list, click US News
If you’re interested in applying to these top schools, check out our blog, “How I Got Into Harvard.”