Interested in attending a STEM school? Our ranking of top research universities for bachelor’s degrees displays schools that will best prepare you for STEM careers.
A research university is a great option for students interested in obtaining STEM degrees. Such students benefit from engaging in experimental inquiry, exploring cutting-edge technologies, and pursuing innovation in a rich and dynamic campus atmosphere. The top research universities give students a chance to work closely with influential professors and choose from a wide range of well-funded degree programs and research opportunities.
A research university is any university that invests heavily in research, and which consequently provides meaningful and extensive opportunities for its students and faculty to participate in research. The best research universities are classified into different tiers based on their quantifiable commitment to research activities. This tiered ranking is called the Carnegie Classification. This is where terms like R1 university
and tier one university
come from.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
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 – 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, will 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 freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to the schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
If you would like to see this ranking without school size considered, visit our best universities in the US ranking.
The following list of research universities is composed of both private and public schools. We’ve identified 394 research universities in the US. Of those, there are 185 private research universities in the US. In order to be included in this list of best research universities, a school must be a fully accredited university, offer doctoral degrees across the range of STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), and it must report high levels of research activity based upon the number of research and/or practice doctorates awarded each year.
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
92%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1545/35
California Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
98%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
Harvard University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1540/35
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
Stanford University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
6%
Graduation
98%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
Princeton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1535/34
University of Chicago’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
Yale University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$64K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
Columbia University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
93%
Student body
17K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Carnegie Mellon University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
94%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Johns Hopkins University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
94%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
Georgetown University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
University of Pennsylvania’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
8%
Graduation
96%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1525/34
Duke University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
95%
Student body
19K
Median SAT/ACT
1495/34
Northwestern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
95%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1480/33
Cornell University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
92%
Student body
43K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/33
University of California, Berkeley’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
8%
Graduation
95%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
Brown University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
94%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1520/34
Rice University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
95%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1500/33
Dartmouth College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
77%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/27
Yeshiva University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
33%
Graduation
89%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/31
Brandeis University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
93%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
University of Michigan’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
88%
Student body
49K
Median SAT/ACT
1440/32
New York University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$63K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
94%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
Tufts University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
86%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1405/32
University of Rochester’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
94%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1520/34
Washington University in St. Louis’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
12%
Graduation
93%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Vanderbilt University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
30%
Graduation
85%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1425/32
Case Western Reserve University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
19%
Graduation
97%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1475/33
University of Notre Dame’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
92%
Student body
40K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
University of Southern California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Student body
4K
Graduate Center, CUNY’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
72%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1295/29
Illinois Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
91%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1415/32
University of California, Los Angeles’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
23%
Graduation
94%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/32
University of Virginia’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
19%
Graduation
90%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
Emory University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
74%
Student body
5K
The Catholic University of America’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
82%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
University of Washington’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
43%
Graduation
85%
Student body
21K
Median SAT/ACT
1375/31
George Washington University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
47%
Graduation
75%
Student body
4K
Clark University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
39%
Graduation
79%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1300/29
American University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
84%
Student body
27K
Median SAT/ACT
1350/30
University of Pittsburgh’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
20%
Graduation
89%
Student body
32K
Median SAT/ACT
1425/32
Boston University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
33%
Graduation
83%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1355/30
University of Miami’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
39%
Graduation
64%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1205/24
Howard University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
25%
Graduation
91%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1405/30
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
92%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1420/32
Boston College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Student body
1K
California Institute of Integral Studies’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
86%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1440/32
Tulane University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
69%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1265/27
The New School’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
60%
Student body
12K
City College of New York’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
In pursuing a bachelor’s degree, you will need to choose between three kinds of schools: research universities, liberal arts colleges, and online colleges.
Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. These schools offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students.
Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines. Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you. If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel.
Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree.
Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available. Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degress you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no disctinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online. Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whehter you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college.
If you interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.
Back to TopPhoto Credit: California Institute of Technology, Beckman Institute. By Canon.vs.nikon, via CC BY-SA 3.0.
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