US News 2020 Top Universities List: Which University was #1?

The list is out! USNews - one of the most respected university ranking systems on the planet - has just released it’s long-awaited best colleges list for 2020.

For 35 years, the USNews and World Report’s National University Rankings has acted as a benchmark for college reputation and calibre with the Ivy League 8, Stanford, MIT and others such as the University of Chicago vying for that coveted top sport.

The rankings often reflect a colleges top reputation for excellence and as a result it’s high number of annual applications and low admission rates - many of which reached all time lows in the latest Class of 2023 admissions round.

So which university trumped the rest for the title of the best university in America?

For the 9th consecutive year in row Princeton University has been named Number 1 on the ‘gold standard’ list - keeping the world famous Ivy League, Harvard in the second spot. At third there was a three-way tie between two Ivies Columbia and Yale, and leading tech university - MIT, with Stanford coming in at the next spot of number 6.

Crimson Students are 4x more likely to gain admission to Princeton University.

If you would like help with your admission to Princeton University, Crimson Education can help navigate the admission process and make you a top applicant.

The rankings are based on a number of key criteria including graduation and retention rates, social mobility, graduation rate performance, undergraduate academic reputation, class sizes, faculty resources, student selectivity (based on factors like SAT/ACT scores and high school class ranking), financial resources per student and annual alumni giving rate.

USNews analyses data from over 1,400 universities to compile their lists, which they break down into categories such as National Universities overall, National Liberal Arts Colleges and Top Public Schools.

Below are the results for 2020!

Overall National Universities

#1. Princeton University - Princeton New Jersey

#2. Harvard University - Cambridge Massachusetts

= #3. Yale University - New Haven Connecticut

= #3. Columbia University - New York, New York

= #3. MIT - Cambridge, Massachusetts

= #6. Stanford University - Stanford, California

= #6. University of Chicago - Chicago Illinois

= #6. University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

9. Northwestern University - Evanston, Illinois

= #10. Duke University - Durham, North Carolina

= #10. Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland

If you are want to know if you can get into any of these top US Universities with your current scores, use our US College Admissions Calculator

Top Public Universities

#1. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) - Los Angeles, California

#2. University of California - Berkeley - Berkeley, California

#3. University of Michigan - Ann Arbour, Michigan

#4. University of Virginia - Charlottesville, Virginia

= #5. Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) - Atlanta Georgia

= #5. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, North Carolina

= #7. University of California - Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara - California

= #7. University of Florida - Gainesville, Florida

#9. University of California - Irvine - Irvine, California

#10. University of California - San Diego, California

If you are want to know if you can get into any of these top US Universities with your current scores, use our US College Admissions Calculator

Top National Liberal Arts Colleges

#1. Williams College - Williamstown, Massachusetts

#2. Amherst College - Amherst, Massachusetts

= #3. Swarthmore College - Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

= #3. Wellesley College - Wellesley, Massachusetts

#5. Pomona College - Claremont, California

#6. Bowdoin College - Brunswick, Maine

= #7. Carleton College - Northfield, Minnesota

= #7. Claremont McKenna College - Claremont, California

= #7. Middlebury College - Middlebury, Vermont

#10. Washington and Lee University - Lexington, Virginia

If you are want to know if you can get into any of these top US Universities with your current scores, use our US College Admissions Calculator