Happy Fourth of July! In honour of Independence Day in the United States, we’ve compiled a list of the ten best universities in this behemoth of education.
When we’re talking about a country of more than 330 million inhabitants that has won by far and away more Nobel Prizes than any other country on Earth, it’s no surprise that many of the best universities in the world can be found in the United States. If you’d like to study at a university in the USA, you’ve got a huge amount of options, whether you’re looking to complete your whole degree there, or do a year abroad in the “land of the free”.
Check out this article for some of the best options out there, and once you’ve found what university you’d like to attend, send in your application. Once you’ve gotten your place, your next job is to find accommodation. You’re in luck, because here at Student.com we list hundreds of options for student housing in the United States, in dozens of cities across the country.
The rankings in this article are based on the well-known and widely respected QS World University Rankings for the year 2023.
Make sure to also check out our article about the best public universities in the United States.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Global university rank: 1st
The best university not just in the United States, but also in the whole world, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or MIT for short) is located in the Greater Boston suburb of Cambridge. Established in 1861, MIT is especially notable for its science and technology programs, but that’s not all MIT excels in. In 2023 MIT was among the top three universities in the world in areas such as linguistics, economics and marketing. Among MIT’s alumni are founders of notable companies, many heads of state for different countries around the world, and no fewer than 100 Nobel Prize winners.
2. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Global university rank: 3rd
Leland Stanford Junior University, or Stanford University for short, is located in the small town of Stanford, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Especially famous for its many great engineering programs, Stanford also ranks highly in subjects such as biological sciences, sociology and archaeology. Known affectionately among its students as Nerd Nation, Stanford is not just about academics though. This fairly small university of about 17,000 students has won more NCAA championships than any other university and its alumni have won the most Olympic gold medals of any US university (tied with the University of Southern California). Stanford’s notable alumni include Larry Page and Sergei Brin, the founders of Google; former US president John F. Kennedy; Elon Musk and the current UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.
3. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Global university rank: 5th
The fifth best university in the world, and the third best located in a city named Cambridge, Harvard University is also the oldest university in the United States, having been founded in 1636. In addition to first-class teaching, Harvard is also known for publishing and keeping academic knowledge: the Harvard University Press is one of the most famous academic publishing companies in the world and the Harvard Library is the world’s largest academic library system with about 20 million items. Harvard also has 48 Pulitzer Prize winners among its alumni, as well as 10 Academy Award winners.
4. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Location: Pasadena, California
Global university rank: 6th
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a university that, as the name suggests, is heavily focused on the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Caltech campus is located only 11 miles (18 kilometres) from downtown Los Angeles, so when you’re not studying, it’s easy to enjoy your free time in the City of Angels. A small university of only just over 2,000 students, there are nevertheless 79 Nobel Prize winners associated with the university, a testament to just how high-quality the teaching and research at Caltech are. These days one of Caltech’s most well-known claims to fame is that the main characters of the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory work at Caltech.
5. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Global university rank: 10th
The highest-rated American university that is not in Massachusetts or California, the University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the famous business magnate John D. Rockefeller. Chicago ranks highly in a wide range of subjects and has produced 97 Nobel Prize winners associated with the university, either as alumni or staff, one of the most famous of whom is the economist Milton Friedman. Friedman and George Stigler were the leading members of the group of University of Chicago scholars whose work led to a whole school of economic thought to be named the Chicago school of economics.
6. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Global university rank: 13th
The University of Pennsylvania was founded in the 1740s, making it one of the oldest universities in the United States. A well-versed Ivy League school with a campus in West Philadelphia, UPenn’s alumni, faculty and trustees include eight signers of the Declaration of Independence, three US presidents and 32 US senators, but also 36 Nobel laureates, nine foreign heads of state and four Academy Award winners. As this list of notable alumni suggests, UPenn has excellent programs in many different subjects, including the best programs in the world in marketing and nursing.
7. Princeton University
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Global university rank: 16th
Princeton University is an Ivy League university located in the small town of Princeton in New Jersey. Princeton is especially well-known for many high-level programs in the natural sciences, but they also have programs that are listed as being in the top 10 in the world in areas such as Politics, English language and literature and History. Among Princeton’s alumni and faculty are 76 Nobel Prize winners, 16 Fields medalists and 16 Turing Award winners. The prestigious Rhodes Scholarship has been awarded to a whopping 217 Princeton students.
8. Yale University
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Global university rank: 18th
Founded in 1701, Yale University is the fourth-oldest university in the United States. Located in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale is known for many good programs, but is perhaps the most famous for its excellent law school. The university ranks among the top five in the world in the areas of Law, English language and literature, History, Arts and humanities, and Modern languages. Despite having only about 12,000 students, among the people affiliated with Yale University there are 65 Nobel Prize winners, five US presidents and ten Founding Fathers.
9. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Global university rank: 20th
The best university in the state of New York, Cornell University was founded in 1865. Situated in a beautiful, small city campus, Cornell excels in subjects such as Veterinary science, Agriculture and forestry, and Data science. More than 20% of students at Cornell are from outside the United States, meaning you’ll be studying in a university with an international atmosphere and a cosmopolitan outlook. Notable Cornell alumni include American football pioneer Pop Warner, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and former US Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci.
10. Columbia University
Location: New York City, New York
Global university rank: 22nd
Columbia University was founded in 1754 and with a location in Manhattan in New York City, it has the most urban location of the universities on this list. Columbia is a university that offers programs of the highest quality in many different areas. It’s among the best ten universities in the world in for example Art history, Anatomy and physiology, and English language and literature. Columbia scientists also played a major role in for example the creation of laser, the first evidence for plate tectonics, the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas, and research and planning for the Manhattan Project. Columbia’s notable alumni include for example the US presidents Barack Obama, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt.
So that’s it, the 10 best universities in the United States. Massachusetts, California and New York are the only states with two universities in the list, with Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut having one each. All of these universities are also among the top 25 universities in the world, so if you end up studying at any of the universities on this list, you’ll be in one of the best institutions of higher learning anywhere on the planet. So what are you waiting for, start preparing your application and hopefully you’ll get accepted!
