Why US News Named Harvard The Best College In The World, But Not In America

U.S. News & World Report released their inaugural “Best Global Universities Ranking” on Tuesday, naming Harvard University the best school in the world — somewhat of a surprise, considering that Harvard ranked second on the publication’s recent list of top American universities.

U.S. News is known for its national universities and liberal arts college rankings, which this year named Princeton University and Williams College as the top schools in America. Last year, U.S. News changed its methodology to emphasize “outcome-related measures” — such as graduation and retention rates — which now account for 30% of a school’s ranking.

As The Washington Post points out, it’s a little odd for U.S. News to have Princeton at the top of its national universities list, but only ranked 13 for global universities, while former number two Harvard tops the list. For their new ranking, U.S. News emphasized research prowess and global reputation, while omitting factors such as undergraduate admissions data and graduation rates.

“This is about faculty productivity and prestige … It is meaningful for certain things and not necessarily meaningful for other things. We get that. This is about big muscular research universities doing what research universities claim is their mission,” U.S. News Editor Brian Kelly told The Washington Post.

Here are the top 2o universities in the world, according to U.S. News & World Report:

1. Harvard University

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. University of California, Berkeley

4. Stanford University

5. University of Oxford (United Kingdom)

6. University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)

7. California Institute of Technology

8. University of California, Los Angeles

9, University of Chicago

10. Columbia University

11. Johns Hopkins University

12. Imperial College London (United Kingdom)

13. Princeton University

14. University of Michigan

14. University of Toronto (Canada)

14. University of Washington

17. Yale University

18. University of California, San Diego

19. University of Pennsylvania

20. Duke University

SEE ALSO: Princeton, Williams Top New US News & World Report List Of America’s Best Colleges

FOLLOW US! Check Out BI Colleges On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

Education

Why US News Named Harvard The Best College In The World, But Not In America