Are you looking for the best universities to study in the United States? In this list we are going to give you some important details about the top 10 top rated US universities worldwide.
What are the best Universities in the United States? Top 10
Before we go into detail on each of the universities, here is a summary list of the best Universities in the United States:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stanford University
- Harvard University
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- University of Chicago
- University of Pennsylvania
- Princeton University
- Yale University
- Cornell University
- Columbia University
1- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1861, MIT has since played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, ranking among the world’s leading academic institutions.
Founded in response to the growing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. The institute has an urban campus that stretches more than a mile (1.6 km) along the Charles River, and encompasses a number of important off-campus facilities, including MIT Lincoln Laboratory , Bates Center, and Haystack Observatory, as well as affiliated laboratories such as the Broad and Whitehead Institutes.
As of December 2021, 98 Nobel laureates, 26 Turing Award winners, and 8 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. In addition, 58 National Medal of Science recipients, 29 National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipients, 50 MacArthur Fellows, 80 Marshall Fellows, 41 astronauts, 16 U.S. Air Force Chief Scientists, and numerous heads of state have been affiliated with MIT
The institute also has a strong entrepreneurial culture and MIT alumni have founded or co-founded many notable companies MIT is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and has received more Sloan research grants than any other university in North America.
2- Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university located on the census-designated site of Stanford, California, near the city of Palo Alto. The campus occupies 3,310 hectares (8,180 acres), one of the largest in the United States, and enrolls more than 17,000 students. Stanford is ranked among the top universities in the world.
Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only son, Leland Stanford Jr. who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Leland Stanford was a U.S. senator and former governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon
The school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational, non-denominational institution. Stanford University struggled financially after the death of Leland Stanford in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
After World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported the entrepreneurial spirit of faculty and graduates to build a self-sustaining local industry in what would later become known as Silicon Valley.
The university is organized around seven schools on the same campus: three schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate level, as well as four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in law, medicine, education and business. The university also houses the public policy think tank, the Hoover Institution
Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in Division I of the Pac-12 Conference
As of May 26, 2022, Stanford has won 131 NCAA team championships, more than any other university, and was awarded the NACDA Directors’ Cup for 25 consecutive years, beginning in 1994-1995. In addition, as of 2021, Stanford students and alumni had won at least 296 Olympic medals, including 150 gold and 79 silver.
As of April 2021, 85 Nobel laureates, 29 Turing laureates, and eight Fields medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty, or staff. In addition, Stanford is particularly notable for its entrepreneurial spirit and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups.
Stanford alumni have founded numerous companies, which collectively produce more than $2. 7 trillion in annual revenue and have created 5.4 million jobs as of 2011, roughly equivalent to the world’s seventh largest economy (as of 2020) Stanford is the alma mater of one U.S. president (Herbert Hoover), 74 living billionaires and 17 astronauts It is also a top producer of Fulbright Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Rhodes Scholars and members of the U.S. Congress.
3- Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named after its first benefactor, Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world[6].
The colonial legislature of Massachusetts authorized the founding of Harvard, “fearing to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust”; although never formally affiliated with any denomination, in its early years Harvard College trained mainly Congregational clergy. Its curriculum and student body gradually became secularized during the eighteenth century, and in the nineteenth century it became the cultural center of Boston’s elite
After the Civil War, the long tenure of President Charles William Eliot (1869-1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900[9].
The university consists of ten academic faculties plus Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers studies in a wide range of academic disciplines for undergraduate and graduate students, while the other faculties offer only graduate degrees, mostly professional.
Harvard has three main campuses: the 85-acre Cambridge campus, centered in Harvard Yard; an adjoining campus across the Charles River in Boston’s Allston neighborhood; and the medical campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area.
Harvard’s endowment is valued at $53.2 billion, making it the largest of any academic institution. [Endowment income enables the university to admit students without financial need and to offer generous non-loan financial aid The Harvard Library is the largest academic library system in the world, with 79 individual libraries containing some 20.4 million items.
Harvard’s alumni, faculty and researchers include numerous Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, members of the U.S. Congress, MacArthur Fellows, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Fellows and Fulbright Fellows, arguably the most numerous among all institutions of higher learning in the world, depending on the metric adopted in the list.
Its alumni include eight U.S. presidents and 188 living billionaires, the most of any university. Fourteen Turing Award recipients have been Harvard alumni. Students and alumni have won 10 Academy Awards, 48 Pulitzer Prizes and 110 Olympic medals (46 gold), and have founded many notable companies.
Examples of prominent people who have studied at Harvard include:
- Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook)
- Barack Obama (President of the United States)
- Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft)
4- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a private research university located in Pasadena, California
The university is known for its strength in the field of science and engineering, and is part of a small group of U.S. technology institutes that focus primarily on teaching pure and applied sciences. Caltech is ranked among the top academic institutions in the world and is among the most selective in the United States.
The institution was founded as a preparatory and professional school by Amos G. Throop in 1891 and began attracting influential scientists such as George Ellery Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes and Robert Andrews Millikan in the early 20th century
The professional and preparatory schools were dissolved and spun off in 1910 and the university adopted its current name in 1920. In 1934, Caltech was elected a member of the Association of American Universities, and the antecedents of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech continues to manage and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under the direction of Theodore von Kármán.
Caltech has six academic divisions with a strong emphasis on science and engineering, and managed $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research.
Its main 50-hectare (124-acre) campus is located about 18 km northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Freshmen are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduate students remain in Caltech’s on-campus house system. Although Caltech has a strong tradition of pranks and pranks, student life is governed by an honor code that allows professors to assign take-home exams
The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division III Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).
Scientists and engineers at the university have played an essential role in many modern scientific breakthroughs and innovations, such as advances in sustainability science, quantum physics, earthquake monitoring, protein engineering and soft robotics
As of October 2020, there are 76 Nobel laureates who have been affiliated with Caltech, including 40 alumni and faculty members (41 awards, with chemist Linus Pauling being the only individual in history to win two unshared awards); in addition, 4 Fields Medalists and 6 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with Caltech. There are 8 Crafoord Laureates and 56 non-emeritus faculty members (as well as many emeritus faculty members) who have been elected to one of the U.S. National Academies, 4 U.S. Air Force Chief Scientists, and 71 have won the U.S. National Medal of Science or Technology
According to a 2015 study conducted by Pomona College, Caltech ranks first in the United States in the percentage of its graduates earning a PhD.
5- University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago or UChi) is a private research university located in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world and is among the most selective in the United States.
The university is composed of a college and five graduate research divisions, which contain all of the university’s graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees
Chicago has eight professional schools: the School of Law, the Booth School of Business, the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Crown School of Social Work, Family Policy and Practice, the Harris School of Public Policy, the School of Theology, the Graham School of Liberal and Continuing Professional Studies, and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
It has other campuses and centers in London, Paris, Beijing, Delhi and Hong Kong, as well as downtown Chicago.
University of Chicago scholars have played an important role in the development of many academic disciplines, such as economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology and political science, establishing Chicago schools in various fields.
The Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory produced the first self-sustaining man-made nuclear reaction in Chicago’s Pile-1, under the bleachers of the university’s Stagg Field
Advances in chemistry led to the“radiocarbon revolution” in carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university’s research work includes administration of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university also houses the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States.
The University of Chicago ‘s students, faculty and staff include 94 Nobel laureates, one of the highest in the world. The university’s faculty members and alumni also include 10 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 52 MacArthur Fellows, 26 Marshall Fellows, 53 Rhodes Scholars, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists, 29 living multimillionaire graduates, and eight Olympic medalists.
6- University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Founded in 1740, it is the fourth oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the top-ranked universities in the world. It is also one of nine colonial universities founded before the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin, the university’s founder and first president, advocated for an educational institution that would develop leaders in academics, commerce and public service.
Penn has four undergraduate schools, as well as twelve graduate and professional schools. Among the undergraduate schools are the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Wharton School, and the School of Nursing. Penn’s “one-university policy” allows students to enroll in any of Penn’s twelve schools
Among its top-ranked graduate and professional schools are a law school whose first professor wrote the first draft of the U.S. Constitution, the first medical school in North America in 1765, and the first collegiate business school(Wharton School, 1881)
It is also home to the first“student union” building and organization(Houston Hall, 1896), the first Catholic student club in North America (Newman Center, 1893),[20] the first two-story college soccer stadium (Franklin Field, 1924 when the second deck was built), and the Morris Arboretum, the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
As of June 30, 2021, the university had an endowment of $20.5 billion and in 2019 had a research budget of $1.02 billion. The university’s athletics program, the Quakers, has varsity teams in 33 sports as a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference.
As of 2018, distinguished alumni and trustees include three U.S. Supreme Court justices, 32 U.S. senators, 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 12 U.S. Cabinet secretaries, 46 U.S. governors, eight signers of the Declaration of Independence and seven signers of the U.S. Constitution, 24 members of the Continental Congress, nine foreign heads of state,ambassadors to 51 different countries, and two U.S. presidents.
As of October 2019, 36 Nobel laureates, 80 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 64 living billionaire alumni (and with 28 billionaire undergraduate alumni has the second largest number of living billionaire alumni [one behind Harvard’s 29, but with Penn’s billionaire alumni amassing over 65 billion more in wealth than Harvard’s of any university in the world), 21 Marshall Scholars,33 Rhodes Scholars, 16 Pulitzer Prize winners, alumni who have won 20 Tony Awards, 16 Grammy Awards, 11 Emmy Awards and 4 Academy Awards (Oscars), one EGOT recipient, 43 Olympic medalists (who won 81 medals, 26 of them gold),and five U.S. Medal of Honor recipients have been affiliated with the university.
7- Princeton University
Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university located in Princeton, New Jersey
Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of nine colonial colleges founded before the American Revolution.
The institution moved to Newark in 1747 and , nine years later, to its present site. It officially became a university in 1896 and was subsequently renamed Princeton University. Princeton is often ranked among the best and most prestigious universities in the world.
The university is governed by the Princeton University Board of Trustees and has an endowment of $37.7 billion, the largest per-student endowment in the United States. Princeton teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering to about 8,500 students on its 1,000-square-mile main campus
It offers graduate degrees through Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Architecture, and the Bendheim Center for Finance. The university also manages the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and is home to NOAA‘s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. It is ranked among the “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity” and has one of the largest university libraries in the world.
Princeton uses a residential college system and is known for its dining clubs for upperclassmen. The university has more than 500 student organizations. Princeton students embrace a wide variety of traditions from the past and present. The university is an NCAA Division I school and competes in the Ivy League. The school’s track and field team, the Princeton Tigers, has won the most titles in its conference and has sent many students and alumni to the Olympics.
As of October 2021, 75 Nobel laureates, 16 Fields medalists and 16 Turing awardees have been affiliated with Princeton University as alumni, faculty members or researchers. In addition, Princeton has been associated with 21 National Medal of Science recipients, 5 Abel Award recipients, 11 National Humanities Medal recipients, 215 Rhodes Scholars, and 137 Marshall Scholars. Two U.S. presidents, 12 Supreme Court justices (three of whom serve on the court), and numerous industry and media moguls and foreign heads of state are among Princeton’s alumni.
Princeton has graduated many members of Congress and the U.S. Cabinet, including eight Secretaries of State, three Secretaries of Defense, and two Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
8- Yale University
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world.
Incorporated by the Colony of Connecticut, the Collegiate School was created in 1701 by the clergy to educate Congregational ministers before moving to New Haven in 1716. Initially limited to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate the humanities and sciences at the time of the American Revolution
In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional education, granting the first doctorate in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale’s faculty and student population grew after 1890 with the rapid expansion of the physical campus and scientific research.
Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and twelve professional schools. Although the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, the faculty of each school oversees its curriculum and degree programs
In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university has athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, and forests and nature preserves throughout New England
As of 2021, the university’s endowment was valued at $42.3 billion, the second largest of any educational institution The Yale University Library, which serves all constituent schools, has more than 15 million volumes and is the third largest academic library in the United States. Students compete in intercollegiate sports as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I – Ivy League.
As of October 2020, 65 Nobel laureates, five Fields medalists, four Abel laureates and three Turing laureates have been affiliated with Yale University. In addition, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including four Founding Fathers, five U.S. Presidents, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 31 living billionaires, and many heads of state. Hundreds of members of Congress and many U.S. diplomats, 78 MacArthur Fellows, 252 Rhodes Scholars, 123 Marshall Fellows, 102 Guggenheim Fellows, and nine Mitchell Fellows have been affiliated with the university. Yale is a member of the Big Three
Yale’s current faculty includes 67 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 55 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Engineering, and 187 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The university is, after normalization for the size of the institution, the 10th largest source of baccalaureate recipients of doctoral degrees in the United States, and the largest source within the Ivy League. It is also one of the top 10 (seventh), after normalization for number of graduates, baccalaureate source of some of the most notable scientists (Nobel laureates, Fields, Turing, or members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, or the National Academy of Engineering).
9- Cornell University
Cornell University is a private Ivy League and statutory research university based in Ithaca, New York
Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention of teaching and making contributions in all fields of knowledge – from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied.
These ideals, unconventional for the time, are embodied in Cornell’s founding principle, a popular 1868 quote from founder Ezra Cornell:“I wish to found an institution where anyone can find instruction in any study.”
The university is organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions on its main campus in Ithaca, with each college and division defining its admissions standards and specific academic programs in a quasi-autonomous manner. The university also operates two satellite campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City (Qatar).
Cornell is one of the few private land-grant universities in the United States. Of its seven undergraduate colleges, three are state-chartered or state-contracted colleges through the State University of New York (SUNY) system, including its colleges of agriculture and human ecology, as well as its school of industrial labor relations.
Of Cornell’s graduate schools, only the veterinary school is state-supported. As a land-grant university, Cornell operates a cooperative extension program in all New York counties and receives annual funding from New York State for certain educational missions
Cornell University’s main campus in Ithaca, New York, spans 745 acres (more than 4,300 acres when taking into account the Cornell Botanical Gardens and numerous university-owned lands in New York City).
As of September 2021, 61 Nobel laureates, four Turing Award winners and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Cornell. Cornell has more than 250,000 living alumni, and its past and present faculty and alumni include 34 Marshall Scholars, 33 Rhodes Scholars, 29 Truman Scholars, 7 Gates Scholars, 63 Olympic medalists, 10 current Fortune 500 CEOs, and 35 billionaire alumni
Since its founding, Cornell has been a coeducational, nonsectarian institution where admission has not been restricted by religion or race.
The diverse student body consists of more than 15,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students from all 50 American states and 119 countries.
10- Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private Ivy League research university in New York City
Founded in 1754 as King’s College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York and the fifth oldest in the United States, and is considered one of the most prestigious in the world. It is one of nine colonial universities founded before the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. Columbia is ranked among the top universities in the world.
Columbia was founded by royal charter under George II of Great Britain. After the American Revolution, it was renamed Columbia College in 1784, and in 1787 it became a private board of trustees led by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus moved to its present location in Morningside Heights and was renamed Columbia University.
Columbia scientists and scholars have played a key role in scientific breakthroughs such as the brain-computer interface; the laser and the maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear battery; the first nuclear fission reaction in America; the first tests of plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II
It is organized into twenty schools, including four undergraduate and 16 graduate schools. The university’s research includes the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and accelerator labs with high-tech companies such as Amazon and IBM.
Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to award the M.D. degree. The university also administers the Pulitzer Prize annually. With more than 14.5 million volumes, the Columbia University Library is the third largest private research library in the United States.
The university’s endowment is $14.35 billion in 2021, one of the largest of any academic institution
As of December 2021, its alumni, faculty and staff included: seven U.S. Founding Fathers; four U.S. presidents; 29 foreign heads of state; 10 U.S. Supreme Court justices, one of whom is currently serving; 99 Nobel laureates; 125 members of the National Academy of Sciences; 53 living billionaires; 22 Olympic medalists; 33 Academy Award winners; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients.
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