College rankings 2025: Five schools that gained places and five that plummeted

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Washington Bureau Chief

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Students and alumni rushed to the US News and World Report’s annual college ranking on Tuesday (September 24) to see where their schools ranked.

Each year, the publication ranks the best colleges in the county, determined by the resources offered to students and faculty, and the bachelor’s degrees students graduate with. Rankings are also calculated by the number of graduates from each school who have entered the workforce with strong starting salaries and manageable debt.

There was little movement at the top of the 2025 list with Princeton University retaining its title at No 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the second-best college in the nation for 2025, followed by Harvard University, Stanford University, and then Yale University.

Other schools have fallen in the rankings. For example, Stanford University dropped to fourth place after being tied with Harvard University for the third-best school in the country last year. The University of Pennsylvania was ranked number 10 on the latest list, going down four spots from last year. Meanwhile, the prestigious Brown University went from being tied for ninth place in the 2024 list to being tied for 13th on the 2025 list.

Both the University of Connecticut and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute fell in the rankings, as they are tied for the 70th spot in the 2025 list. In the 2024 ranking of best schools, Rensselaer was originally at number 60, while UConn was at number 58.

However, there were quite a few schools that had an impressive jump towards the front. For example, Howard University is now in the top 100 best schools, going from number 115 in the 2024 list to number 86 – tied with five other schools – in 2025. Florida International University is in the top 100, tied with six other schools for the number 98 spot, after being tied at number 124 in the 2024 ranking.

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Tulane University also went up on the list by 10 spots this year after being ranked number 73 on the 2024 ranking. Duke University and Johns Hopkins University, which were already in the top 10 best colleges last year, climbed up on the 2025 list and are now tied for the number six spot.

The US News and World Report’s methodology was revised this year after facing criticism in recent years for disincentivizing programs that “support public interest careers, champion need-based aid, and welcome working-class students into the profession.”

This year, “Pell Grant-recipient graduation performance and graduation rates among National Universities,” were factored in for the first time.

More than 50 percent of each school’s rank is “made up of outcome measures related to how successful an institution is at enrolling and graduating students from different backgrounds with manageable debt and post-graduation success,” according to the publication.