Skip to content ↓

MIT named No. 2 university by U.S. News for 2025-26

Undergraduate engineering, computer science, and business programs are all No. 1.

Press Contact:

MIT Media Relations
Phone: 617-253-2700

Media Download

Group of students meet on the grass on campus.
Download Image
Credits: Photo: Gretchen Ertl

*Terms of Use:

Images for download on the MIT News office website are made available to non-commercial entities, press and the general public under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license. You may not alter the images provided, other than to crop them to size. A credit line must be used when reproducing images; if one is not provided below, credit the images to "MIT."

Close
Group of students meet on the grass on campus.
Credits:
Photo: Gretchen Ertl

MIT has placed second in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of the nation’s best universities, announced today. 

As in past years, MIT’s engineering program continues to lead the list of undergraduate engineering programs at a doctoral institution. The Institute also placed first in five out of 10 engineering disciplines.

U.S. News placed MIT first in its evaluation of undergraduate computer science programs, ranking it No. 1 in four out of 10 computer science disciplines.

MIT also topped the list of undergraduate business programs, a ranking it shares with the University of Pennsylvania. Among business subfields, MIT is ranked first in two out of 10 specialties.

Within the magazine’s rankings of “academic programs to look for,” MIT topped the list in the category of undergraduate research and creative projects. The Institute also ranks as the second most innovative national university and the fourth best value, according to the U.S. News peer assessment survey of top academics.

MIT placed first in five engineering specialties: aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering; chemical engineering; computer engineering; materials engineering; and mechanical engineering. It placed within the top five in two other engineering areas: biomedical engineering and electrical/electronic/communication engineering.

Other schools in the top five overall for undergraduate engineering programs are Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Caltech, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

In computer science, MIT placed first in four specialties: artificial intelligence (shared with Carnegie Mellon University); biocomputing/bioinformatics/biotechnology; computer systems; and theory. It placed in the top five of six other disciplines: cybersecurity; data analytics/science; game/simulation development (shared with Carnegie Mellon); mobile/web applications; programming languages; and software engineering.

Other schools in the top five overall for undergraduate computer science programs are Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Princeton University, and Georgia Tech.

Among undergraduate business specialties, the MIT Sloan School of Management leads in production/operations management and quantitative analysis. It also placed within the top five in five other categories: analytics; entrepreneurship; finance; management information systems; and supply chain management/logistics.

Other undergraduate business programs ranking in the top five include UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and New York University.

Recently, U.S. News & World Report ranked medium to large undergraduate economics programs based on a peer assessment survey; MIT’s economics program has placed first in this ranking.

Press Mentions

Boston.com

According to the U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2025-2026, MIT has been named the No. 2 best university in the United States, reports Madison Lucchesi for Boston.com

New York Times

MIT has been named the second best university in the United States, according to the U.S. News and World Report rankings for 2025-2026, reports Alan Blinder for The New York Times

Newsweek

MIT has been named the number two college in the United States in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking, reports Alia Shoaib for Newsweek. “U.S. News & World Report ranks more than 1,700 colleges using a weighted formula that considers factors such as graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, academic reputation, financial resources and student selectivity,” explains Shoaib. 

The Boston Globe

U.S. News & World Report has named MIT the number two best university in the United States for 2025-2026, reports Emily Sweeney for The Boston Globe. The rankings “evaluated more than 1,700 colleges and universities in the United States, using up to 17 measures of academic quality and graduate success,” adds Sweeney. 

Related Links

Related Topics

Related Articles

More MIT News

Photo of Sili Deng seated in a small office with shelves behind her

Burning things to make things

Sili Deng, the Doherty Chair in Ocean Utilization and associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, is driving research into sustainable and efficient combustion technologies.

Read full story