MIT Ousts Princeton From Top Of U.S. News Rankings

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report's 2027 national university rankings, released September 22, 2026, ending Princeton University's 15-year run at the top. Princeton fell to second place, followed by Harvard University at third and Yale University at fourth, while the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University tied for fifth. The rankings, built on up to 17 weighted measures of academic quality and success, include graduation and retention rates, social mobility for low-income students, postgraduate earnings, academic peer assessment and faculty resources. In the final scoring, MIT received a perfect 100, compared with 99 for Princeton and 96 for Harvard. One of the most significant changes in this edition was the introduction of an "earnings by major" metric, which replaced a previous measure focused on graduate student loan debt. Using data from the Department of Education's College Scorecard, the metric examines median earnings four years after graduation for students who received federal financial aid, comparing graduates with typical earners in the same fields of study. U.S.