For the second year in a row, Brown has held on to its No. 13 spot in the 2026 U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings.
Other than a brief stint in ninth place in 2024, the University has been unable to crack the top 10 since 1999.
The U.S. News and World Report’s national rankings, which were released early Tuesday morning, evaluate nearly 1,700 colleges and universities on 17 metrics of academic quality, including graduation rates and financial resources per student.
Over half of a school’s ranking is based on its outcome for students, or how successful the institution is at “preparing students for life after college,” according to the methodology described by U.S. News.
Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard remain the three top-ranked universities, respectively. Penn rose three places on the list to solidify its spot in the top 10, while Dartmouth ascended to tie with Brown for 13th place. Columbia is now ranked the lowest in the Ivy League, falling to 15th place.
The publication’s core methodology and weighting distribution remained the same as last year. But small portions of data — including “evolving admissions considerations, cohort representation and student involvement” — were adjusted to accurately represent developments within higher education, according to a U.S. News press release.
Brown remains highly ranked on the publication’s other lists, placing third in 2026 Top Schools for Veterans.
The University has also been boxed out of the top 10 in college rankings compiled by other publications, ranking 18th on the 2025-26 Forbes’ List of America’s Top Colleges.
Roma Shah is a senior staff writer covering University Hall and higher education. She's a freshman from Morgan Hill, CA and studies Neuroscience. In her free time, she can be found doing puzzles, hiking or curled up with a book.
