Your Roadmap to a Great Education

Academics and data scientists building tools to find the best schools and degree programs for you.

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Hi, I’m Jed Macosko, President of Academic Influence. I’m a lifelong educator and current professor of physics at Wake Forest University. Students deserve to know that their investment in higher education is well-spent. I created Academic Influence in partnership with award winning expert in Machine Learning, Winston Ewert, to develop our trademarked Influence Ranking Engine.

This innovative methodology employs objective analysis to rank colleges and degree programs by their real-world impact – something that no other college ranking methodology offers.

Explore our extensive catalog of rankings to discover ROI-positive degree programs to meet your needs and build the future that you have dreamed about.

Recognized by:

Safest Colleges in America

Which are the safest college campuses in America? Learn what makes a safe college campus and get insight into what students should look for.

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Why Academic Influence?

Innovative Ranking Technology

Our college rankings provide meaningful insights for your education. AcademicInfluence.com ranks colleges and academics using innovative machine learning to identify academic impact. We rank schools based on the faculty and alumni who are influential over 24 academic disciplines.

Influential People Matter

People are the foundation of our college rankings. We help you find highly cited, inspiring experts in over 24 disciplines, and the schools they are affiliated with. The colleges and universities that have histories of hiring and graduating influential people rise to the top.

Expert Guidance

We provide tools and resources to help you find your college match based on our expertise in higher education. If you need personal expert guidance, we can connect you to college admissions counselors trained to help you achieve your academic goals.

I find Academic Influence’s methodology to be innovative and refreshing as it uses a big data, machine-learning approach to rank universities based upon the influence/impact of its faculty and graduates. This moves away from a major flaw of existing rankings: reliance on self-reported, outdated or reputational data and toward impartial, openly available information.

— Dr. Santa J. Ono, president of the

School Rankings

Academic Institutions Rankings

Academic Influence employs advanced machine learning to identify the schools with the highest levels of academic excellence and most influential faculty. Explore our rankings of the best Christian schools, best online schools, best traditional US schools and even the best universities in the world to find your ideal learning environment.

Which Colleges and Universities Have the Most Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies?

Dr. Winston Ewert | Chief Software Engineer

Dr. Jed Macosko | Professor

Most Affordable Colleges and Universities in the U.S. 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Top Schools that Offer Free Master’s Degrees Online

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Best Online HBCU Doctoral Programs 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

15 Best Self-paced Online Colleges Ranked for 2025

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

The 15 Safest Colleges in America

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

50 Best Christian Colleges and Universities 2024

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Online Colleges with the Most Generous Financial Aid in 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

By State Rankings

In order to find the best degree program that meets your needs and aspirations, one of the first steps is to decide where you want to go (and how much you want to pay!). Exploring available college degree programs by state allows you to compare in-state and out-of-state tuition around the country. We also have rankings of the best overall associate’s and bachelor’s degrees for each state as well as online options by state.

Best Research Universities in California 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Grad Schools In Texas 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Community Colleges in California 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Christian Colleges in Virginia 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Small Colleges in Ohio 2024

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Grad Schools California 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Grad Schools in Florida 2024

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Grad Schools in New York 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Online Degree Rankings

Online education at a high quality online college provides students with a new level of accessibility, flexibility, and convenience. This allows working students and adult learners with busy schedules to pursue online degrees like an online MBA. But finding the ideal degree program amid the hundreds of available options represents a challenge. We use advanced machine learning technology to create the most authoritative rankings of online college degree programs ( associates, bachelors, masters and Doctorate) available to you.

Top 8 Fastest Accelerated Online Psychology Doctorates (PhDs)

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

15 Fastest Accelerated Online Master’s of Psychology Programs

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Top 15 Most Affordable Online Economics PhD Programs (Doctorates) 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

10 Fastest Accelerated Online Bachelor’s of Computer Science

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Top 8 Best Online Applied Behavioral Analysis PhDs (Doctorates)

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Top 10 Best Online Communications PhD Degree Programs (Doctorates)

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

11 Fastest Accelerated Online Master’s of Speech Pathology

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Best Online History Doctorate Degree Programs (PhDs) 2025

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Affordability Rankings

We know that higher education can be expensive. Community colleges, state universities and some online colleges offer lower cost options that can often be just as good, or even better, depending on your learning style. To get started, visit our Affordability Rankings by State or check out our ranking of the 50 Most Affordable Colleges & Universities. We’ve also ranked online colleges by affordability.

Most Affordable Colleges and Universities in the U.S. 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Most Affordable Colleges in Florida 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Most Affordable Colleges in Massachusetts Ranked for Students in 2024

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Most Affordable Colleges in Texas 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Most Affordable Colleges in Ohio 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Cheapest Colleges in Illinois Ranked for Students in 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Most Affordable Colleges in Connecticut 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Most Affordable Colleges in New York 2025

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Choosing Your Major

Choosing your major is one of the most stressful parts of going to college. Not everyone knows what they want to be or what job they want to do for the rest of their lives. The good news is that Academic Influence has put together some resources to help you on your journey. To get started, you can check out our full list of common college majors.

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in History?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

What Can I Do with a Master’s Degree in Medical Science?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

What Can I Do with a Master’s Degree in Philosophy?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Biology?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Dr. Jed Macosko | Professor

Declaring versus Choosing a College Major

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Physics?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Dr. Jed Macosko | Professor

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Mathematics?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Dr. Jed Macosko | Professor

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Anthropology?

Dave Tomar | Academic Integrity Coordinator

Dr. James Barham | Education Writer

Tools for Prospective Students

Use our tools to discover and compare universities tailored to your preferences, delve into academic rankings, and explore degree and career insights—all in one place.

Find Schools

Discover schools tailored to your preferences.

Select a Metric

Choose a Degree Level

Find Degrees

Get degree and job information.

College Compare

Compare colleges with your desired criteria.

College Strategist

Find your Reach, Target, and Saftety schools.

People Rankings

Dive into a world of knowledge and find inspiring figures from 24 academic fields and more than 300 sub-disciplines. Our approach draws on rich sources like Wikipedia and Semantic Scholar, perfect for spicing up research papers and building your bibliography. Whether you’re curious about legendary philosophers or leading mathematicians, we’ve got the insights to light up your research journey.

Influential People of the Day

Checkout our daily dose of influential people in the slideshow below, use the people search tool to find other people with accomplishments in their respective disciplines, or read about our ranking methodology to understand how we rank people and schools.

Ruth A. David

American engineer

Engineering

A Portrait in Words

Ruth A. David is an American engineer. While at the CIA, David was responsible for encouraging the agency to pursue partnerships with the private sector and designed a proposal to procure technology at the stage of development from the private sector. She has been awarded the CIA Director's Award, the Defense Intelligence Agency Director's Award, the CIA Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the National Reconnaissance Officer's Award for Distinguished Service, and the National Security Agency Distinguished Service Medal.

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Ruth A. David

Electrical Engineering

#895

World Rank

#968

Historical Rank

#213

USA Rank

electrical-engineering Degrees

Ioane Petritsi

Georgian philosopher

Philosophy

A Portrait in Words

Ioane Petritsi also referred as John Petritsi was a Georgian Neoplatonist philosopher of the 11th-12th century, active in the Byzantine Empire and Kingdom of Georgia, best known for his translations of Proclus, along with an extensive commentary. In later sources, he is also referred to as Ioane Chimchimeli . The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Petritsi as "the most significant Georgian medieval philosopher" and the "most widely read Georgian philosopher."

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Ioane Petritsi

Philosophy

#3264

Historical Rank

philosophy Degrees

Joe Nickell

American skeptical investigator

Philosophy

A Portrait in Words

Joe Nickell is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell is senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes regularly for their journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He is also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is the author or editor of over 30 books.

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Joe Nickell

Philosophy

#2938

World Rank

#4870

Historical Rank

#986

USA Rank

philosophy Degrees

Matt Cutts

American computer scientist

Computer Science

A Portrait in Words

Matthew Cutts is an American software engineer. Cutts is the former Administrator of the United States Digital Service. He was first appointed as acting administrator, to later be confirmed as full administrator in October 2018. Cutts previously worked with Google as part of the search quality team on search engine optimization issues. He is the former head of the web spam team at Google.

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Matt Cutts

Database

#1386

World Rank

#1458

Historical Rank

#373

USA Rank

database Degrees

Crystal Wilkinson

American poet and educator

Literature

A Portrait in Words

Crystal E. Wilkinson is an African-American feminist writer from Kentucky, and proponent of the Affrilachian Poet movement. She is the winner of a 2022 NAACP Image Award, a 2020 winner of the USA Fellow of Creative Writing, and a 2021 O. Henry Prize winner. She teaches at the University of Kentucky. Her work has primarily been in involving the stories of Black women and communities in the Appalachian and rural Southern canon. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky 2021.

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Crystal Wilkinson

Literature

#3735

World Rank

#6125

Historical Rank

#1718

USA Rank

literature Degrees

Ergun Caner

American minister

Religious Studies

A Portrait in Words

Ergun Michael Caner is a Swedish-American academic, author, and Baptist minister, who became well known for his book, co-authored with his brother, on Islam and his claims that he was a devout Muslim trained as a terrorist. He emigrated to the United States at age four and claimed to have converted to Protestantism in the early 1980s.

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Ergun Caner

Religious Studies

#2106

World Rank

#4361

Historical Rank

religious-studies Degrees

Leon Bibb

American musician

Communications

A Portrait in Words

Leon Bibb was an American-Canadian folk singer and actor who grew up in Kentucky, studied voice in New York City, and worked on Broadway. His career began when he became a featured soloist of the Louisville Municipal College glee club as a student. He lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, after 1969.

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Leon Bibb

Communications

#8083

World Rank

#11005

Historical Rank

#3555

USA Rank

communications Degrees

Douglas Massey

American sociologist

Sociology

A Portrait in Words

Douglas Steven Massey is an American sociologist. Massey is currently a professor of Sociology at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and is an adjunct professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Douglas Massey

Sociology

#118

World Rank

#166

Historical Rank

#61

USA Rank

sociology Degrees

Meet Our Team

See bios

James Barham

Education Writer

Jed Macosko

Professor

Robert J. Marks II

Professor

Dave Tomar

Academic Integrity Coordinator

Jenn Finley

Content Manager

Chloe Dembski

Content and Media Editor

Winston Ewert

Chief Software Engineer

Tommy Doak

UI/UX/Web Developer

James Linder

Media Director

Karina Macosko

Videographer and Interviewer

Your Roadmap to a Great Education

Trending Articles:

Which Colleges and Universities Have the Most Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies?

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Why Academic Influence?

Innovative Ranking Technology

Influential People Matter

Expert Guidance

School Rankings

Academic Institutions Rankings

Which Colleges and Universities Have the Most Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies?

Most Affordable Colleges and Universities in the U.S. 2025

Top Schools that Offer Free Master’s Degrees Online

Best Online HBCU Doctoral Programs 2025

15 Best Self-paced Online Colleges Ranked for 2025

The 15 Safest Colleges in America

50 Best Christian Colleges and Universities 2024

Online Colleges with the Most Generous Financial Aid in 2025

Choosing Your Major

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in History?

What Can I Do with a Master’s Degree in Medical Science?

What Can I Do with a Master’s Degree in Philosophy?

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Biology?

Declaring versus Choosing a College Major

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Physics?

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Mathematics?

What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Anthropology?

Tools for Prospective Students

Find Schools

Select a Metric

Choose a Degree Level

Find Degrees

Select a Category

Choose a Degree

College Compare

Search for School 1

Search for School 2

College Strategist

ACT Score

SAT Score

People Rankings

Influential People of the Day

Ruth A. David

A Portrait in Words

Meet Our Team