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Rankings / Research

Best Globally-Ranked American Universities

By David Krug, Co-Founder, CollegeRanker · Updated 2026-05-31 · 50 schools · Agent Insights
50
Schools Analyzed
$87,034
Avg. Earnings (10yr)
87%
Avg. Graduation Rate
$23,768
Avg. Net Price

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This ranking scores 50 institutions on graduation rates, graduate earnings, debt burdens, and social mobility data from Opportunity Insights. Every data point comes from federal sources. No surveys, no opinions.

Social mobility carries the heaviest weight in our algorithm. We use Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card — built on 30 million anonymized tax records — to measure whether a college changes a family's economic trajectory across generations. Schools that take low-income students and launch them into higher earnings rank higher than schools that admit wealthy students and take credit for their success.

The transparency penalty matters here. Schools that don't report their data get scored lower than schools that do. If an institution won't show you its numbers, we think you should know that before you write them a tuition check.

Quick Numbers

Schools ranked 50
Avg. earnings at 10yr $87,034
Avg. graduation rate 87%
Avg. net price $23,768
Avg. median debt $18,326

How We Ranked

Ranked by Times Higher Education World University Rankings composite score — the global standard for research university quality.

Read our full methodology →

Earnings vs. Cost

Each dot is a ranked school. Up = higher earnings. Right = higher cost. Top-left is the best value.

$15K$79K$143K$0$50KNET PRICEHarvard UniversityMassachusetts InstituteStanford UniversityPrinceton UniversityYale University

Graduation Rates

Longer bars = higher graduation rate.

Harvard University97%Massachusetts Institute …96%Stanford University92%Princeton University97%Yale University96%California Institute of …94%University of Chicago95%Johns Hopkins University94%Cornell University95%Carnegie Mellon Universi…93%Duke University96%Georgia Institute of Tec…93%Northwestern University96%The University of Texas …88%University of North Caro…92%University of Wisconsin-…89%University of Illinois U…85%Washington University in…94%Rice University95%Vanderbilt University93%

Top 3

#1

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA

Graduation97%
Earnings$101,817
Net Price$19,066

View full profile →
#2

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA

Graduation96%
Earnings$143,372
Net Price$20,111

View full profile →
#3

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Graduation92%
Earnings$124,080
Net Price$13,807

View full profile →

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Full Rankings

#1

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA · 7,601 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 97% graduate $101,817 earnings
Harvard's full profile
#2

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA · 4,535 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 96% graduate $143,372 earnings
Massachusetts's full profile
#3

Stanford University

Stanford, CA · 7,554 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 92% graduate $124,080 earnings
Stanford's full profile
#4

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ · 5,709 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 97% graduate $110,066 earnings
Princeton's full profile
#5

Yale University

New Haven, CT · 6,758 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 96% graduate $100,533 earnings
Yale's full profile
#6

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, CA · 987 students · Private nonprofit

3% accepted 94% graduate $128,566 earnings
California's full profile
#7

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL · 7,569 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 95% graduate $91,885 earnings
University's full profile
#8

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD · 5,693 students · Private nonprofit

6% accepted 94% graduate $87,555 earnings
Johns's full profile
#9

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY · 15,995 students · Private nonprofit

9% accepted 95% graduate $104,043 earnings
Cornell's full profile
#10

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA · 7,304 students · Private nonprofit

12% accepted 93% graduate $114,862 earnings
Carnegie's full profile
#11

Duke University

Durham, NC · 6,442 students · Private nonprofit

6% accepted 96% graduate $97,800 earnings
Duke's full profile
#12

Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus

Atlanta, GA · 18,785 students · Public

14% accepted 93% graduate $102,772 earnings
Georgia's full profile
#13

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL · 9,201 students · Private nonprofit

8% accepted 96% graduate $89,363 earnings
Northwestern's full profile
#14

The University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX · 42,855 students · Public

27% accepted 88% graduate $75,121 earnings
The's full profile
#15

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC · 20,752 students · Public

15% accepted 92% graduate $72,200 earnings
University's full profile
#16

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Madison, WI · 36,902 students · Public

45% accepted 89% graduate $73,792 earnings
University's full profile
#17

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, IL · 36,258 students · Public

42% accepted 85% graduate $81,054 earnings
University's full profile
#18

Washington University in St Louis

St. Louis, MO · 7,857 students · Private nonprofit

12% accepted 94% graduate $86,182 earnings
Washington's full profile
#19

Rice University

Houston, TX · 4,776 students · Private nonprofit

8% accepted 95% graduate $89,718 earnings
Rice's full profile
#20

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN · 7,208 students · Private nonprofit

6% accepted 93% graduate $91,565 earnings
Vanderbilt's full profile
#21

University of Wisconsin-Stout

Menomonie, WI · 5,842 students · Public

88% accepted 54% graduate $58,084 earnings
University's full profile
#22

Tufts University

Medford, MA · 7,061 students · Private nonprofit

11% accepted 93% graduate $83,214 earnings
Tufts's full profile
#23

Brown University

Providence, RI · 7,226 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 96% graduate $93,487 earnings
Brown's full profile
#24

Boston University

Boston, MA · 18,248 students · Private nonprofit

11% accepted 89% graduate $83,238 earnings
Boston's full profile
#25

New York University

New York, NY · 28,663 students · Private nonprofit

9% accepted 88% graduate $82,509 earnings
New's full profile
#26

Emory University

Atlanta, GA · 7,298 students · Private nonprofit

11% accepted 91% graduate $80,137 earnings
Emory's full profile
#27

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN · 8,818 students · Private nonprofit

11% accepted 96% graduate $99,980 earnings
University's full profile
#28

Wheaton College (Massachusetts)

Norton, MA · 1,773 students · Private nonprofit

68% accepted 74% graduate $67,725 earnings
Wheaton's full profile
#29

Case Western Reserve University

Cleveland, OH · 6,437 students · Private nonprofit

37% accepted 87% graduate $87,989 earnings
Case's full profile
#30

Virginia State University

Petersburg, VA · 5,074 students · Public

89% accepted 40% graduate $45,543 earnings
Virginia's full profile
#31

Yeshiva University

New York, NY · 2,852 students · Private nonprofit

56% accepted 83% graduate $71,353 earnings
Yeshiva's full profile
#32

William & Mary

Williamsburg, VA · 7,055 students · Public

34% accepted 90% graduate $73,490 earnings
William's full profile
#33

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA · 20,443 students · Private nonprofit

10% accepted 92% graduate $92,498 earnings
University's full profile
#34

University of Colorado Boulder

Boulder, CO · 31,939 students · Public

78% accepted 75% graduate $69,738 earnings
University's full profile
#35

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, UT · 27,264 students · Public

86% accepted 64% graduate $67,170 earnings
University's full profile
#36

Stony Brook University

Stony Brook, NY · 18,101 students · Public

49% accepted 77% graduate $74,502 earnings
Stony's full profile
#37

Wake Forest University

Winston-Salem, NC · 5,485 students · Private nonprofit

22% accepted 90% graduate $78,158 earnings
Wake's full profile
#38

George Washington University

Washington, DC · 11,182 students · Private nonprofit

47% accepted 85% graduate $90,873 earnings
George's full profile
#39

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH · 4,541 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 96% graduate $97,434 earnings
Dartmouth's full profile
#40

University of Rochester

Rochester, NY · 6,331 students · Private nonprofit

40% accepted 85% graduate $79,042 earnings
University's full profile
#41

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, NY · 5,714 students · Private nonprofit

63% accepted 83% graduate $102,051 earnings
Rensselaer's full profile
#42

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA · 10,650 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 97% graduate $111,371 earnings
University's full profile
#43

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI · 40,922 students · Public

85% accepted 81% graduate $67,253 earnings
Michigan's full profile
#44

University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA · 22,264 students · Public

84% accepted 74% graduate $64,762 earnings
University's full profile
#45

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL · 35,629 students · Public

24% accepted 91% graduate $71,588 earnings
University's full profile
#46

University of Delaware

Newark, DE · 19,071 students · Public

71% accepted 80% graduate $72,950 earnings
University's full profile
#47

Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA · 10,085 students · Private nonprofit

16% accepted 91% graduate $103,937 earnings
Boston's full profile
#48

Indiana State University

Terre Haute, IN · 6,188 students · Public

81% accepted 42% graduate $48,387 earnings
Indiana's full profile
#49

Iowa State University

Ames, IA · 25,367 students · Public

89% accepted 75% graduate $63,386 earnings
Iowa's full profile
#50

Georgetown University

Washington, DC · 7,569 students · Private nonprofit

13% accepted 95% graduate $103,494 earnings
Georgetown's full profile

Sources & Citations

[1]

U.S. Department of Education. College Scorecard Data. Federal Student Aid, National Center for Education Statistics. →

[2]

National Center for Education Statistics. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). →

[3]

Times Higher Education. World University Rankings Methodology. →

DK

David Krug

Co-Founder, CollegeRanker

David Krug is the co-founder of CollegeRanker and a data systems architect focused on making institutional research accessible to families. He builds the data pipelines and ranking algorithms that power CollegeRanker, drawing from federal datasets and Raj Chetty's Opportunity Insights research to measure what traditional rankings ignore: whether a college actually changes a family's economic trajectory.

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