U.S. News: Best Colleges - National Universities (2009)

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Harvard University

Princeton University

Yale University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Stanford University

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

University of Pennsylvania

Columbia University

Duke University

University of Chicago

Dartmouth College

Northwestern University

Washington University in St. Louis

Cornell University

Johns Hopkins University

Brown University

Rice University

Emory University

University of Notre Dame

Vanderbilt University

University of California–Berkeley

Carnegie Mellon University

Georgetown University

University of Virginia

University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA)

University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

University of Southern California (USC)

Tufts University

Wake Forest University

University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

Brandeis University

College of William and Mary

New York University (NYU)

Boston College

Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)

Lehigh University

University of California–San Diego (UCSD)

University of Rochester

University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign

Case Western Reserve University

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

University of Washington

University of California–Davis (UCD)

University of California–Irvine (UCI)

University of California–Santa Barbara (UCSB)

Pennsylvania State University–University Park

University of Texas–Austin

University of Florida

Yeshiva University

Tulane University

University of Miami

George Washington University

Syracuse University

University of Maryland–College Park

Ohio State University–Columbus

Pepperdine University

University of Georgia

University of Pittsburgh

Boston University

Clemson University

Fordham University

University of Minnesota–Twin Cities

Rutgers University–New Brunswick

Texas A&M University–College Station

Miami University–Oxford

Purdue University–West Lafayette

Southern Methodist University (SMU)

University of Connecticut

University of Iowa

Indiana University–Bloomington

Michigan State University

University of Delaware

Virginia Tech

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Baylor University

Marquette University

State University of New York–Binghamton

University of Colorado–Boulder

Clark University

Colorado School of Mines

St. Louis University

American University

North Carolina State University–Raleigh

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Stevens Institute of Technology

University of Alabama

University of Tulsa

Drexel University

Iowa State University

University of California–Riverside (UCR)

University of Denver

University of Kansas

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

University of Vermont

Auburn University

Northeastern University

State University of New York–Stony Brook

University of Arizona

University of California–Santa Cruz (UCSC)

University of Missouri–Columbia

Florida State University

Howard University

Illinois Institute of Technology

University of Massachusetts–Amherst

University of San Diego

University of the Pacific

University of Dayton

University of Oklahoma

University of Oregon

University of South Carolina–Columbia

University of Tennessee

Brigham Young University–Provo

Texas Christian University

University of New Hampshire

Catholic University of America

Loyola University Chicago

Ohio University

University of Kentucky

Washington State University

Arizona State University

Clarkson University

Michigan Technological University

State University of New York–Buffalo

Colorado State University

University of Arkansas

New Jersey Institute of Technology

University of San Francisco

University of Utah

Duquesne University

Kansas State University

Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge

Samford University

Source: U.S. News

Methodology:

The U.S. News rankings system rests on two pillars. It relies on quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and it’s based on our nonpartisan view of what matters in education.

 

How does the methodology work? First, schools are categorized by mission, derived from the basic Carnegie classification, and, in some cases, by region.

 

The national universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and Ph.D. programs, and emphasize faculty research. The liberal arts colleges focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education. They award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the arts and sciences. The universities-master’s offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master’s degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. The baccalaureate colleges focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. The baccalaureate colleges include institutions where at least 10 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded are bachelor’s degrees. The universities-master’s and baccalaureate colleges categories are further subdivided by geography—North, South, Midwest, and West.

 

Next, we gather data from each college for up to 15 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects our judgment about how much a measure matters. Finally, the colleges in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score.

 

Schools are unranked and listed separately for America’s Best Colleges 2009 if they have indicated that they don’t use the SAT or ACT in admission decisions for first-time, first-year, degree-seeking applicants (or, in a few cases, if they didn’t receive enough responses on the peer assessment survey to allow us to use their peer score as part of the overall ranking). Other schools were unranked for the following reasons: a total enrollment of fewer than 200 students; a vast proportion of nontraditional students; no first-year students (these are sometimes called upper-division schools). We did not rank private, for-profit universities; nor did we rank a few specialized schools in arts, business, or engineering.

 

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