MIT Tops Princeton in 2027 US News College Rankings
MIT is the new No. 1. On September 22, 2026, U.S. News & World Report released its 2027 Best Colleges rankings, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top spot among National Universities for the first time — ending Princeton University's run at No. 1 that had lasted since the 2012 edition.
The new top 10
Every school from last year's top 10 is still there, just reshuffled. Ties push the group to 11 schools:
| Rank | School |
|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 2 | Princeton University |
| 3 | Harvard University |
| 4 | Yale University |
| 5 (tie) | California Institute of Technology |
| 5 (tie) | Stanford University |
| 7 | University of Pennsylvania |
| 8 | Duke University |
| 9 (tie) | Johns Hopkins University |
| 9 (tie) | Northwestern University |
| 9 (tie) | University of Chicago |
Check your own school in the full list of more than 1,700 ranked colleges.
Why the list moved
The shakeup traces back to a new scoring factor. For the 2027 edition, U.S. News replaced Graduate Indebtedness with Earnings by Major, now worth 5% of a school's overall score. It draws on the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard to measure what graduates who received federal financial aid are earning four years after finishing a bachelor's degree — a swap made partly because the old debt data had stopped being reliably updated. U.S. News also adopted the 2025 Carnegie Classification update for the first time, which shifted how some schools are categorized.
The public-university twist
UC Berkeley and UCLA tied for No. 1 among public national universities, with the University of California celebrating the joint win. Michigan (No. 2), Virginia (No. 3) and UNC-Chapel Hill (No. 4) rounded out the top public schools.
Yet leading the public-school pack didn't protect either California campus in the overall National Universities list: Berkeley slid to No. 20 from No. 15, and UCLA also landed at No. 20, down from No. 17. Northwestern saw a milder version of the same slide, dropping two spots to a tie for No. 9 while staying inside the top 10.
What happens next
Prediction: the earnings-by-major factor will keep reshaping the rankings in future editions, as schools lean harder into career-outcome data and pre-professional majors to defend their scores.
Prediction: searches for "US News college rankings 2027" and for individual schools will keep climbing through October, since Early Decision and Early Action deadlines fall around November 1 — right as applicants finalize their lists.
