Princeton University remains the top national university according to the annual U.S. News & World Report 2017 Best Colleges Rankings. The annual survey, released Tuesday, assesses more than 18,000 U.S. based colleges and universities, of which 1,374 are ranked. Princeton University was followed closely by Harvard University. The University of Chicago, which was ranked ninth ten-years-ago, tied with Yale University for the third best national college this year.Here are the top National Universities:
1. Princeton University
2. Harvard University
3. University of Chicago
3. Yale University
5. Columbia University
6. Stanford University
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. Duke University
9. University of Pennsylvania
10. Johns Hopkins University
11. Dartmouth College
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Northwestern University
14. Brown University
15. Cornell University
16. Rice University
17. University of Notre Dame
18. Vanderbilt University
19. Washington University in St. Louis
20. Emory University
21. Georgetown University
22. University of California-Berkeley
Here are the Top Public National Universities:
1. University of California - Berkeley
2. University of California - Los Angeles
3. University of Virginia
4. University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor
5. University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill
6. College of William and Mary
7. Georgia Institute of Technology
8. University of California - Santa Barbara
9. University of California - Irvine
10. University of California- Davis
11. University of California - San Diego
12. University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
13. University of Wisconsin-Madison
The institutions receive rankings based on some 15 measures of academic quality, including retention, graduation rate performance, faculty resources, financial resources, and alumni giving. This year, U.S. News modified the way it factored class size into the methodology to more accurately reflect class sizes at different campuses. The report ranks colleges and universities within several categories, including National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
