The Top 50 USA University Rankings
Many students aspire to gain admission to one of the top 50 USA universities (out of the overall total of 600) There are a number of league tables based on different criteria, which sometimes give wildly different results. Whilst academic ratings are usually similar, less subjective factors like student satisfaction surveys can be very different because human nature tends to be to criticise before praising! To use a simpler approach we have averaged the current rankings and then added other factors including acceptance percentage (to illustrate how difficult or otherwise it is to win a place and International student percentage to indicate which universities are more likely to admit foreign students.
We have also included only universities with a substantial student roll in order to illustrate teaching capability and breadth of degree subjects. This has excluded Cal Tech , one of the famous STEM universities , which has an extremely small student roll.
League table rankings are far from being the only criterion by which to judge a university choice but nevertheless many of our clients use this as a starting point. In particular it is interesting to note how much easier it is to gain admission to the second half of this list than the Ivy League.
We welcome your approach to let us guide you with your choices and application. Please contact Steven, our Senior Educational Consultant, at steven@educationadvisers.co.uk / +44(0)1622 813870 to discuss how Education Advisers Ltd can support your pathway to university.
| USA Uni Name | position | intl percentage | acceptance per cent | website URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard | 1 | 24 | 4.6 | https://www.harvard.edu |
| Stanford | 2 | 23 | 4.2 | https://www.stanford.edu |
| MIT | 3 | 33 | 7 | https://web.mit.edu |
| Berkeley | 4 | 23 | 16.8 | https://www.berkeley.edu |
| Princeton | 5= | 23 | 6.1 | https://www.princeton.edu |
| Yale | 5= | 21 | 6.3 | https://www.yale.edu |
| Columbia | 7 | 35 | 6.1 | www.columbia.edu |
| California- Los Angeles | 8 | 17 | 12 | https://www.ucla.edu |
| Chicago | 9 | 33 | 7 | https://www.uchicago.edu |
| John Hopkins | 10 | 28 | 11.5 | https://www.jhu.edu |
| Cornell | 11 | 25 | 8.7 | https://www.cornell.edu |
| New York | 12 | 35 | 16.2 | https://www.nyu.edu |
| Duke | 13 | 22 | 10 | https://www.duke.edu |
| Northwestern | 14 | 19 | 9 | https://www.northwestern.edu |
| Michigan Ann-Arbor | 15 | 17 | 18.2 | https://www.umich.edu |
| Carnegie Mellon | 16 | 47 | 17 | https://www.cmu.edu |
| California - Southern | 17 | 24 | 12 | https://www.usc.edu |
| Washington | 18 | 17 | 51 | https://www.washington.edu |
| California San Diego | 19= | 47 | 32.3 | https://www.ucsd.edu |
| Boston | 19= | 29 | 21 | https://www.bu.edu |
| Washington St Louis | 21 | 22 | 14 | https://wustl.edu |
| Brown | 22 | 20 | 8.3 | https://www.brown.edu |
| Penn State | 23= | 16 | 51 | https://www.psu.edu |
| Texas - Austin | 23= | 10 | 31.8 | https://www.utexas.edu |
| Illinois | 25 | 23 | 59 | https://illinois.edu |
| Emory | 26 | 20 | 21.4 | https://www.emory.edu |
| Carolina at Chapel Hill | 27 | 8 | 22 | https://www.unc.edu |
| Georgia Inst of Technology | 28 | 25 | 21 | https://www.gatech.edu |
| California - Davis | 29 | 19 | 39 | https://www.ucdavis.edu |
| Vanderbilt | 30 | 16 | 10.3 | https://www.vanderbilt.edu |
| Rice | 31 | 28 | 9 | https://www.rice.edu |
| Georgetown | 32= | 20 | 15.4 | https://www.georgetown.edu |
| Dartmouth College | 32= | 15 | 9 | https://home.dartmouth.edu |
| California Santa Barbara | 34 | 19 | 29.6 | https://www.sbcc.edu |
| Rochester | 35 | 36 | 35 | https://www.rochester.edu |
| Virginia | 36= | 13 | 30 | https://www.virginia.edu |
| Case Western Reserve | 36= | 23 | 27.9 | https://www.case.edu |
| Ohio State | 36= | 13 | 53.7 | https://www.osu.edu |
| California - Irvine | 36= | 28 | 29 | https://www.uci.edu |
| Wisconsin-Madison | 40 | 14 | https://www.wisc.edu | |
| Florida | 41 | 9 | 46 | https://www.ufl.edu |
| Maryland College Park | 42 | 11 | 44.2 | https://www.umd.edu |
| Minnesota | 43 | 10 | 57 | https://www.twin-cities.umn.edu |
| Tufts | 44 | 16 | 14.8 | https://www.tufts.edu |
| Purdue West Lafayette | 45= | 21 | 58 | https://www.purdue.edu |
| Michigan State | 45= | 14 | 18.2 | https://msu.edu |
| Rutgers-New Brunswick | 47 | 17 | 58 | https://www.rutgers.edu |
| Northeastern | 48= | 36 | 20 | https://www.northeastern.edu |
| Notre Dame | 48= | 16 | 19 | https://www.nd.edu |
| George Washingon State | 50 | 18 | 41 | https://www.gwu.edu |