If you are serious about attending a top college or university, begin here. Our ranking of the 50 best undergraduate schools in the US is accurate and unbiased.
Every fall, more than 2 million high-school graduates will enroll in colleges and universities across the United States. With nearly 3,000 4-year schools to choose from, finding the best college for your educational, personal, and professional goals may be challenging. The purpose of this ranking is to help you manage this challenge with an accurate, objective, and up-to-date ranking of the best colleges and universities for earning a bachelor’s degree.
We’ve identified a total of 1,392 colleges and universities in the US that meet our criteria. Of those, 637 are public institutions and 755 are private institutions. This list focuses on schools that offer four-year undergraduate degrees, and includes both public and private colleges and universities. In order to be included in this list of best colleges, a school needs to satisfy the following two conditions:
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our ranking methodology here.
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
92%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1545/35
View profile
California Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
98%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
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Harvard University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1540/35
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
95%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/33
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Stanford University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1535/34
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University of Chicago’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
6%
Graduation
98%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
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Princeton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
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Columbia University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
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Yale University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
94%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
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Johns Hopkins University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
8%
Graduation
96%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1525/34
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Duke University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
97%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1460/33
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Swarthmore College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
95%
Student body
19K
Median SAT/ACT
1495/34
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Northwestern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
12%
Graduation
95%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1415/32
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Amherst College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
94%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1520/34
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Rice University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
93%
Student body
17K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
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Carnegie Mellon University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
95%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1480/33
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Cornell University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
55%
Graduation
72%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1331/29
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Sarah Lawrence College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
42%
Graduation
77%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1422/32
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Reed College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
View profile
University of Pennsylvania’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
8%
Graduation
95%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
View profile
Brown University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
90%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/32
View profile
Barnard College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
33%
Graduation
89%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/31
View profile
Brandeis University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
92%
Student body
43K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/33
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University of California, Berkeley’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
91%
Student body
4K
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Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
25%
Graduation
88%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
View profile
Vassar College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
66%
Student body
<1K
View profile
Hampshire College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
95%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1500/33
View profile
Dartmouth College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
94%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
View profile
Georgetown University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
94%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
View profile
Tufts University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
20%
Graduation
94%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
View profile
Wellesley College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
15%
Graduation
96%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1480/33
View profile
Williams College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
18%
Graduation
79%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1417/32
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Cooper Union’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
94%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
View profile
Pomona College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
86%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1380/31
View profile
Oberlin College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
85%
Student body
2K
View profile
Bryn Mawr College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
77%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/27
View profile
Yeshiva University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
88%
Student body
49K
Median SAT/ACT
1440/32
View profile
New York University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
57%
Graduation
74%
Student body
3K
View profile
Bard College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
18%
Graduation
93%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1460/33
View profile
Haverford College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
94%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1520/34
View profile
Washington University in St. Louis’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
12%
Graduation
93%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
View profile
Vanderbilt University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
43%
Graduation
85%
Student body
21K
Median SAT/ACT
1375/31
View profile
George Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
37%
Graduation
87%
Student body
3K
View profile
Smith College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
93%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
View profile
University of Michigan’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
69%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1265/27
View profile
The New School’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
13%
Graduation
92%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
View profile
Claremont McKenna College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
19%
Graduation
90%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
View profile
Emory University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
74%
Student body
5K
View profile
The Catholic University of America’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
86%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1405/32
View profile
University of Rochester’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
56%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1081/20
View profile
Morehouse College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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