Top Schools in the USA

Top Universities in the United States

The US News and World Report Best Global Universities Rankings or US News Best Global Universities Rankings are among the international university rankings. They have been published online every year since 2014. The publisher is US News & World Report in collaboration with Clarivate Analytics.

There are 1372 universities in the preselection for the US News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings. The preselection consists of:

  • the 250 universities in the Global Reputation Survey of Clarivate Analytics best-performing (a survey of scientists).
  • the 1,385 universities with over 1,500 publications in the period 2012-2016 relevant for the evaluation of the bibliometric data.

The final ranking list includes 1250 universities from 75 countries.

Methodology of the US News Best Global Universities Rankings

Three categories with a total of 12 indicators are used to evaluate the universities.

  • Research Reputation: Based on the results of the Academic Reputation Survey over the past five years
    • Research reputation worldwide (12.5%)
    • Reputation of research from universities located in the region in which the interviewed scientist lives (12.5%)
  • Bibliometric indicators: Based on data from the Web of Science (from 2012-2016)
    • Number of publications in scientific journals (10%)
    • Number of published books (2.5%)
    • Number of published conference proceedings (2.5%)
    • Citation frequency of individual scientific papers (10%)
    • Total citation frequency: Based on the indicators “Number of publications in scientific journals” and “Citation frequency of individual scientific papers” (7.5%)
    • Number of publications that are among the 10 percent of the most cited publications in their field worldwide (12.5%)
    • Publications that are among the 10 percent of the most cited publications in their field worldwide, in percent (10%)
    • International collaboration: Based on the number of academic papers with international co-authors at a university in relation to the number of academic papers with international co-authors nationwide (5%)
    • Share of publications with international co-authors in relation to all publications of the institution (5%)
  • Scientific excellence:
    • Number of publications that are among the 1% of the most cited publications in their field (5%)
    • Percentage of all publications that are among the 1% of the most frequently cited publications (5%)

Based on these indicators, a ranking is created for the best 1,250 universities. The US News Best Global Universities Ranking can be filtered by region, country and city. This is especially useful for students, for example, a semester abroad or a full Bachelor – or Master’s degree would like to do abroad and already for a study region or country of study have decided. A subject-specific view of the ranking is also possible. In the university profiles on the ranking website you can also see which positions the universities were able to achieve for individual indicators.

Best Global Universities Subject Rankings

The US News Best Global Universities Rankings include the Best Global Universities Subject Rankings and subject-specific rankings in 22 areas. The indicators are essentially the same as in the Best Global Universities Rankings. However, the indicators for the number of doctorates are not used here and not all indicators are used for all subjects. The weighting of the indicators also differs depending on the subject. What are the indicators used and how strong they are weighted, depends on which of the following three categories is classified a subject: Exact Sciences (hard sciences), soft sciences (soft sciences) or humanities (Arts and Humatities).

There are universities that did not make it into the Best Global Universities Ranking, but did make it into the Best Global Universities Subject Rankings. This is due, for example, to the fact that some universities concentrate on certain areas of focus. These subject rankings are therefore always worth a look.

Rating of the US News Best Global Universities Rankings

The US News Best Global Universities Rankings focus entirely on research when evaluating universities. The quality of teaching is not included. Conclusions about the study situation at the universities cannot be drawn on the basis of this ranking. In general, however, university rankings that include teaching quality should not be used as the sole basis for making decisions when choosing a university . Such rankings can only provide clues.

The many filter options offered by the US News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings should be positively emphasized. The many subject-specific rankings in the Best Global Universities Subject Rankings are also positive. In addition, interested parties can see the placements that a university was able to achieve for each of the indicators in the university profiles on the ranking website. In general, it is therefore possible to obtain very good and very detailed information about the results of the US News Best Global Universities Rankings.

List of Best Universities in the United States in alphabetical order