The university or college you choose to go to can have a major impact on the rest of your life, so it's probably a good idea to do some research first. To help with the process, we've compiled a ranking of the best 100 US universities and colleges, according to the recently released QS World University Rankings: USA 2021.
We've also broken down the complete list of top US universities by state, so you can find a leading study destination that's close to home (and probably more affordable than expensive out-of-state options).
Top 100 US Universities 2020
1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
4. University of California Berkeley (UCB)
5. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
6. Yale University
7. Columbia University
8. Princeton University
9. New York University (NYU)
10. University of Pennsylvania
11. University of Chicago
12. Cornell University
13. Duke University
14. Johns Hopkins University
14. University of Southern California
16. Northwestern University
17. Carnegie Mellon University
18. University of Michigan
19. Brown University
20. Boston University
21. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
22. Emory University
23. Rice University
24. University of Washington, Seattle
25. Washington University in St. Louis
26 . Georgetown University
27. University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
28. Vanderbilt University
29. University of Texas at Austin
30. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
30. University of Rochester
32. Dartmouth College
32. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
34. University of California, Davis (UCD)
35. University of Florida
36. Tufts University
36. University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC)
38. Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
39. Stony Brook University
40. University of Virginia
41. Case Western Reserve University
42. Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
43. University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
44. Pennsylvania State University, University Park
45. George Washington University
45. University of California, Irvine (UCI)
47. University of Notre Dame
48. University of Miami
49. Northeastern University
50. Ohio State University, Columbus
50. University at Buffalo SUNY
52. University of Maryland, College Park
53. Purdue University
54. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
55. Boston College
55. Michigan State University
57. University of Massachusetts, Amherst
58. University of Wisconsin-Madison
59. Syracuse University
60. Lehigh University
60. University of Pittsburgh
62. Arizona State University, Tempe
62. Brandeis University
63. Temple University
64. Texas A&M University
64. University of Arizona
66. University of Houston
67. Binghamton University, SUNY
67. Drexel University
67. North Carolina State University
67. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
71. University of Connecticut
72. University of Georgia
73. Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech)
74. University of New Mexico
75. Indiana University Bloomington
76. Tulane University
77. University of Colorado at Boulder
78. Florida State University
78. University of South Florida
80. Illinois Institute of Technology
80. University of California, Riverside (UCR)
80. University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)
83. Howard University
83. University of Texas Dallas
85. Santa Clara University
85. Wake Forest University
87. University of Maryland, Baltimore County
87. University of Utah
89. George Mason University
90. New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
90. University of Massachusetts, Boston
92. University of Kansas
93. University at Albany SUNY
94. Oregon State University
95. University of Delaware
96. University of the Pacific
97. Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, Newark
97. University of Hawai'i at Manoa
99. San Diego State University
99. University of Iowa
99. University of Oklahoma, Norman