Best universities in the United States 2024

Top 10 universities in the US 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the United States

US rank 2024	World University Rank 2024	World University Rank 2023	University	City	State
1	2	=3	Stanford University	Stanford	California
2	3	5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Cambridge	Massachusetts
3	4	2	Harvard University	Cambridge	Massachusetts
4	6	7	Princeton University	Princeton	New Jersey
5	7	6	California Institute of Technology	Pasadena	California
6	9	8	University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley	California
7	10	9	Yale University	New Haven	Connecticut
8	13	13	The University of Chicago	Chicago	Illinois
9	15	15	Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore	Maryland
10	16	14	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania

Thinking about studying in the US can be overwhelming because there are so many options. Which US university is the best? Where are the top universities in the United States?

We thought you might like to know the top universities in the US based on the highly respected Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024.

There are 169 US universities and colleges among the world’s best, so wherever you want to study in the US, a top university will not be far away. Almost all states and about 130 cities are represented in the best US universities list.

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California is the most represented state among the best US universities for 2024, with 14 institutions, followed by 13 universities in New York, 12 universities in Texas and 10 universities in Massachusetts.

The universities at the very top of the table are concentrated in these popular destinations, which are well known for their higher education opportunities; the top three are based in California and in Massachusetts.

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Top 5 universities in the United States 2024

5. California Institute of Technology (CalTech)

Across the six faculties at CalTech, there is a focus on science and engineering.

CalTech has an impressive number of successful graduates and affiliates, including 39 Nobel laureates, six Turing Award winners and four Fields Medallists.

There are about 2,200 students at CalTech, and the primary campus in Pasadena, near Los Angeles, covers 124 acres (about 50 hectares). Almost all undergraduates live on campus.

In addition to Nobel laureates and top researchers, the CalTech graduate community includes a number of politicians and public advisers, particularly in the areas of science, technology and energy.

All first-year students belong to one of four houses as part of the university’s alternative model to fraternities and sororities. A number of traditions and events are associated with each house.

Caltech: ‘uniquely difficult but a wonderful place to study’

4. Princeton University

Princeton University is one of the oldest universities in the US. It is part of the prestigious group of Ivy League universities.

As well as high-quality teaching and research output, the university is known for its beautiful campus, with some buildings designed by some of America’s most well-known architects.

Notable alumni who have won Nobel prizes include the physicists Richard Feynman and Robert Hofstadter and the chemists Richard Smalley and Edwin McMillan.

Princeton has also educated two US presidents, James Madison and Woodrow Wilson. Other distinguished graduates include Michelle Obama, actors Jimmy Stewart and Brooke Shields, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad.

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3. Harvard University

Founded in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest higher education institution in the US.

About 21,000 students are enrolled, a quarter of whom are international.

Harvard University is probably the world’s best known university, topping the Times Higher Education Reputation Rankings most years.

Although tuition is expensive, Harvard’s financial endowment allows for plenty of financial aid for students.

The Harvard library system is made up of 79 libraries and is the largest academic library in the world.

Among many famous alumni, Harvard can count eight US presidents, 158 Nobel laureates, 14 Turing Award winners and 62 living billionaires.

Unlike some other universities at the top of the list, Harvard is at least equally reputed for arts and humanities as it is for science and technology, if not more so.

What is the Ivy League?

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

A third of MIT’s 11,000 students are international, hailing from 154 countries.

Famous alumni include astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and physicist Richard Feynman.

MIT cultivates a strong entrepreneurial culture, which has seen many alumni found notable companies such as Intel and Dropbox.

Unusually, the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at MIT are not wholly separate; many courses can be taken at either level.

The undergraduate programme is one of the country’s most selective, admitting only 8 per cent of applicants. Engineering and computer science are the most popular courses among undergraduates.

Women in STEM: stories from MIT students

2. Stanford University

Many faculty members, students and alumni have founded successful technology companies and start-ups, including Google, Snapchat and Hewlett-Packard.

Of the 16,000 students, most of whom live on campus, 22 per cent are international.

Based in Palo Alto, right beside Silicon Valley, Stanford University has had a prominent role in encouraging the region’s tech industry to develop.

In total, companies founded by Stanford alumni make $2.7 trillion (£2.2 trillion) each year.

The university is often referred to as “the Farm” because the campus was built on the site of the Stanford family’s Palo Alto stock farm. The campus covers 8,180 acres (3,300 hectares), but more than half of the land is not yet developed.

With its distinctive sand-coloured, red-roofed buildings, Stanford’s campus is thought to be one of the most beautiful in the world. It contains a number of sculpture gardens and art museums, as well as a public meditation centre.

As might be expected from one of the best universities in the world, Stanford is highly competitive. The admission rate stands at just over 5 per cent.

Video: how I got into Stanford University as a low-income international student

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Top universities in the United States 2024

Click each institution to view its full World University Rankings 2024 profile

US rank 2024	World University Rank 2024	World University Rank 2023	University	City	State
1	2	=3	Stanford University	Stanford	California
2	3	5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Cambridge	Massachusetts
3	4	2	Harvard University	Cambridge	Massachusetts
4	6	7	Princeton University	Princeton	New Jersey
5	7	6	California Institute of Technology	Pasadena	California
6	9	8	University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley	California
7	10	9	Yale University	New Haven	Connecticut
8	13	13	The University of Chicago	Chicago	Illinois
9	15	15	Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore	Maryland
10	16	14	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania
11	17	=11	Columbia University	New York City	New York
12	18	21	University of California, Los Angeles	Los Angeles	California
13	20	20	Cornell University	Ithaca	New York
14	23	23	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	Ann Arbor	Michigan
15	24	28	Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania
16	25	=26	University of Washington	Seattle	Washington
17	26	25	Duke University	Durham	North Carolina
18	27	24	New York University	New York City	New York
19	28	=26	Northwestern University	Evanston	Illinois
20	34	32	University of California, San Diego	San Diego	California
21	36	38	Georgia Institute of Technology	Atlanta	Georgia
22	42	48	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Champaign	Illinois
23	52	50	University of Texas at Austin	Austin	Texas
24	59	63	University of California, Davis	Davis	California
25	63	81	University of Wisconsin-Madison	Madison	Wisconsin
26	=64	61	Brown University	Providence	Rhode Island
27	68	57	Washington University in St Louis	St Louis	Missouri
28	69	64	University of California, Santa Barbara	Santa Barbara	California
29	72	69	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Chapel Hill	North Carolina
30	74	65	University of Southern California	Los Angeles	California
31	78	=71	Boston University	Boston	Massachusetts
32	85	=101	University of Minnesota	Minneapolis	Minnesota
33	86	127	Purdue University West Lafayette	West Lafayette	Indiana
=34	=92	=95	University of California, Irvine	Irvine	California
=34	=92	98	Vanderbilt University	Nashville	Tennessee
36	=99	112	Ohio State University (Main campus)	Columbus	Ohio
37	=106	=82	Emory University	Atlanta	Georgia
38	114	=104	University of Maryland, College Park	College Park	Maryland
39	=116	106	Michigan State University	East Lansing	Michigan
40	118	181	Texas A&M University	College Station	Texas
41	=119	147	Rice University	Houston	Texas
42	122	=151	Penn State (Main campus)	State College	Pennsylvania
43	=123	191	University of Massachusetts	Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, Worcester	Massachusetts
44	132	=151	University of Florida	Gainesville	Florida
45	133	154	University of Rochester	Rochester	New York
46	=138	=148	University of Colorado Boulder	Boulder	Colorado
47	=145	144	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania
48	=155	180	University of Arizona	Tucson	Arizona
49	=161	123	Dartmouth College	Hanover	New Hampshire
50	=164	134	Case Western Reserve University	Cleveland	Ohio
51	166	=156	University of Virginia (Main campus)	Charlottesville	Virginia
52	182	=156	Arizona State University (Tempe)	Tempe	Arizona
53	=187	136	Georgetown University		Washington DC
54	=191	=151	Tufts University	Medford	Massachusetts
55	198	=170	Indiana University	Bloomington	Indiana
56	=199	201–250	University of Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Indiana
=57	201–250	=192	University of California, Santa Cruz	Santa Cruz	California
=57	201–250	201–250	George Washington University		Washington DC
=57	201–250	251–300	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	Honolulu	Hawai'i
=57	201–250	251–300	University of Illinois Chicago	Chicago	Illinois
=57	201–250	301–350	University of Iowa	Iowa City	Iowa
=57	201–250	=194	University of Miami	Coral Gables	Florida
=57	201–250	=168	Northeastern University, US	Boston	Massachusetts
=57	201–250	201–250	Rutgers University – New Brunswick	New Brunswick	New Jersey
=57	201–250	251–300	University of Utah	Salt Lake City	Utah
=66	251–300	251–300	Boston College	Boston	Massachusetts
=66	251–300	301–350	Brandeis University	Waltham	Massachusetts
=66	251–300	251–300	University of California, Riverside	Riverside	California
=66	251–300	301–350	Florida State University	Tallahassee	Florida
=66	251–300	351–400	North Carolina State University	Raleigh	North Carolina
=66	251–300	201–250	University of South Florida	Tampa	Florida
=66	251–300	301–350	Stony Brook University	Stony Brook	New York
=66	251–300	251–300	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	Blacksburg	Virginia
=74	301–350	301–350	University at Buffalo	Buffalo	New York
=74	301–350	301–350	Drexel University	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania
=74	301–350	251–300	Oregon Health and Science University	Portland	Oregon
=74	301–350	301–350	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville	Knoxville	Tennessee
=74	301–350	351–400	Washington State University	Pullman	Washington
=79	351–400	301–350	University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus	Denver	Colorado
=79	351–400	401–500	University of Connecticut	Mansfield	Connecticut
=79	351–400	601–800	University of Georgia	Athens	Georgia
=79	351–400	401–500	Illinois Institute of Technology	Chicago	Illinois
=79	351–400	401–500	Iowa State University	Ames	Illinois
=79	351–400	401–500	University of Kansas	Lawrence	Kansas
=79	351–400	301–350	Temple University	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania
=79	351–400	351–400	University of Texas at Dallas	Richardson	Texas
=87	401–500	301–350	University of California, Merced	Merced	California
=87	401–500	601–800	University of Central Florida	Orlando	Florida
=87	401–500	401–500	Colorado State University, Fort Collins	Fort Collins	Colorado
=87	401–500	351–400	University of Delaware	Newark	Delaware
=87	401–500	501–600	Florida International University	Miami	Florida
=87	401–500	301–350	George Mason University	Fairfax	Virginia
=87	401–500	401–500	Georgia State University	Atlanta	Georgia
=87	401–500	501–600	University of Kentucky	Lexington	Kentucky
=87	401–500	501–600	Missouri University of Science and Technology	Rolla	Missouri
=87	401–500	601–800	Mizzou - University of Missouri	Columbia	Missouri
=87	401–500	401–500	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	Lincoln	Nebraska
=87	401–500	601–800	New Jersey Institute of Technology	Newark	New Jersey
=87	401–500	NR	University of Oregon	Eugene	Oregon
=87	401–500	601–800	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Troy	New York
=87	401–500	301–350	Saint Louis University	Saint Louis	Missouri
=87	401–500	501–600	University of South Carolina-Columbia	Columbia	Colorado
=87	401–500	501–600	Stevens Institute of Technology	Hoboken	New Jersey
=87	401–500	401–500	Syracuse University	Syracuse	New York
=87	401–500	351–400	Tulane University	New Orleans	Louisiana
=87	401–500	501–600	Virginia Commonwealth University	Richmond	Virginia
=87	401–500	351–400	Wake Forest University	Winston-Salem	North Carolina
=108	501–600	401–500	University of Alaska Fairbanks	Fairbanks	Alaska
=108	501–600	601–800	Auburn University	Auburn	Alabama
=108	501–600	401–500	University of Denver	Denver	Colorado
=108	501–600	601–800	University of Houston	Houston	Texas
=108	501–600	401–500	University of Nebraska Medical Center	Omaha	Nebraska
=108	501–600	351–400	Rush University	Chicago	Illinois
=108	501–600	601–800	The University of Texas at San Antonio	Arlington	Texas
=108	501–600	401–500	The University of Tulsa	Tulsa	Oklahoma
=108	501–600	501–600	Wayne State University	Detroit	MIchigan
=117	601–800	801–1000	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa	Alabama
=117	601–800	601–800	American University		Washington DC
=117	601–800	601–800	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville	Arkansas
=117	601–800	601–800	Baylor University	Waco	Texas
=117	601–800	NR	The Catholic University of America		Washington DC
=117	601–800	601–800	Clark University	Worcester	Massachusetts
=117	601–800	801–1000	Kansas State University	Lawrence	Kansas
=117	601–800	601–800	Lehigh University	Bethlehem	Pennsylvania
=117	601–800	601–800	Louisiana State University	Baton Rouge	Louisiana
=117	601–800	601–800	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	Baltimore	Maryland
=117	601–800	801–1000	Mississippi State University	Starkville	Mississippi
=117	601–800	601–800	University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Las Vegas	Nevada
=117	601–800	601–800	University of North Carolina at Charlotte	Charlotte	North Carolina
=117	601–800	801–1000	Northern Illinois University	DeKalb	Illinois
=117	601–800	801–1000	Ohio University (Main campus)	Athens	Ohio
=117	601–800	601–800	Oklahoma State University	Stillwater	Oklahoma
=117	601–800	801–1000	Old Dominion University	Norfolk	Virginia
=117	601–800	801–1000	University of Rhode Island	South Kingstown	Rhode Island
=117	601–800	601–800	SUNY Binghamton University	Binghamton	New York
=117	601–800	601–800	University of Texas at Arlington	Arlington	Texas
=117	601–800	801–1000	Texas Tech University	Lubbock	Texas
=117	601–800	601–800	University of Toledo	Toledo	Ohio
=117	601–800	401–500	William & Mary	Williamsburg	Virginia
=117	601–800	801–1000	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	Worcester	Massachusetts
=117	601–800	801–1000	University of Wyoming	Laramie	Wyoming
=142	801–1000	801–1000	Chapman University	Orange	California
=142	801–1000	1001–1200	Clarkson University	Potsdam	New York
=142	801–1000	801–1000	Florida Atlantic University	Boca Raton	Florida
=142	801–1000	1001–1200	Florida Institute of Technology	Melbourne	Florida
=142	801–1000	351–400	Howard University		Washington DC
=142	801–1000	801–1000	Marquette University	Milwaukee	Wisconsin
=142	801–1000	801–1000	University of Memphis	Memphis	Tennessee
=142	801–1000	801–1000	Montana State University	Bozeman	Montana
=142	801–1000	801–1000	The New School	New York City	New York
=142	801–1000	801–1000	New Mexico State University (Main campus)	Albuquerque	New Mexico
=142	801–1000	401–500	Nova Southeastern University	Fort Lauderdale	Florida
=142	801–1000	1001–1200	Portland State University	Portland	Oregon
=142	801–1000	1001–1200	Rochester Institute of Technology	Rochester	New York
=142	801–1000	601–800	San Diego State University	San Diego	California
=142	801–1000	801–1000	University of Texas at El Paso	El Paso	Texas
=157	1001–1200	1001–1200	Bowling Green State University	Bowling Green	Ohio
=157	1001–1200	NR	Central Michigan University	Mount Pleasant	Michigan
=157	1001–1200	801–1000	Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University	Tallahassee	Florida
=157	1001–1200	1001–1200	Oakland University	Rochester	Michigan
=157	1001–1200	1001–1200	Rowan University	Glassboro	New Jersey
=157	1001–1200	1001–1200	University of South Dakota	Vermillion	South Dakota
=157	1001–1200	1201–1500	Texas State University	San Marcos	Texas
=157	1001–1200	1201–1500	Western Michigan University	Kalamazoo	Michigan
=157	1201–1500	1201–1500	Georgia Southern University	Statesboro	Georgia
=157	1201–1500	1001–1200	Morgan State University	Baltimore	Maryland
=157	1201–1500	1001–1200	University of Texas Rio Grande Valley	Brownsville	Texas
=168	1501+	NR	Adelphi University	Garden City	New York
.=168	1501+	NR	College of Charleston	Charleston	South Carolina