School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

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. 

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. 

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. 

In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, Prof. Evan Lieberman, director of the MIT Center for International Studies, spotlights how states, cities, corporations, and civil society are working to advance climate action. “Today, over 300 U.S. cities have made climate commitments, action plans, or are participating in co-operative initiatives,” Lieberman writes, “Large cities are connecting with global partners through organizations such as C40 Cities, a group of mayors representing some 700mn people worldwide.” 

In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Prof. Mai Hassan and her colleague Suliman Baldo highlight the impact of international communities in developing a “road map for peace in Sudan.” They write: “With further discussions expected to take place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week, who gets a seat at that negotiating table could either pave the way for democratic rule or solidify the grip of the very military leaders who derailed Sudan’s democratic transition.”

Forbes reporter Geri Stengel spotlights Black Opal Ventures, a women-led venture capital investment firm, founded by Tara Bishop '97 and Eileen Tanghal '97. “Whenever you see venture capital and tech, there are very few women,” says Tanghal. “It’s been my passion to bring more women into the venture capital ecosystem.”

Edwin Chen '08 speaks with Forbes reporter Pheobe Liu about his journey to founding Surge AI, a startup that “helps tech companies get the high-quality data they need to improve their AI models.” 

Boston Globe reporter Jon Chesto spotlights the kickoff event for the new MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance, which will “fund research initiatives, fellowships, and other programs with an eye toward improving energy technologies and decarbonization.” GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik emphasized that he has been impressed with the passion and talent for clean-tech among the students at MIT and other universities. “I started these discussions with the objective that we should inspire future leaders to come into our industry and ideally come to our company,” Strazik said. “They’ve probably inspired us more than we’ve inspired them.”

Forbes reporter Martina Castellanos spotlights Edwin Chen '08, founder of Surge AI, as one of the 10 youngest billionaires on the 2025 Forbes 400 list. After working in machine learning, Chen saw “the lack of quality training data for AI,” and “launched Surge AI in 2020 to fix the problem,” writes Castellanos. 

Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about the anticipated price increase in employer health benefit plans for the coming year. Due to higher costs, “some may stop taking up employer coverage altogether while others may move to less expensive plans,” explains Gruber. 

Wall Street Journal reporter Christoph Irmscher reviews “The Shape of Wonder: How Scientists Think, Work, and Live,” a new book by Prof. Alan Lightman and Britain’s former Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees. In their new book, Lightman and Rees assert that: “The pursuit of scientific knowledge is beautiful,” Irmscher notes. “Science is important, they explain, it is fun, and, if you’re a scientist, it might just hand you the keys to the deepest mysteries of the universe.”  

Prof. David Autor speaks with David Pogue of CBS Sunday Morning about how AI is impacting the labor market, in particular opportunities for entry-level job seekers. “My view is there is great potential and great risk,” Autor explains. “I think that it's not nearly as imminent in either direction as most people think." On the impacts for young job seekers, Autor emphasizes that “this is really a concern. Judgment, expertise, it's acquired slowly. It's possible that we could strip out so much of the supporting work, that people never get the expertise. I don't think it's an insurmountable concern. But we shouldn't take for granted that it will solve itself."

Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about the impact of rising health insurance costs in California. "This is disastrous for both economic security and health,” says Gruber. “Studies have shown that losing insurance is associated with enormous economic risk and worse health, including death."

In a new LinkedIn ranking, MIT has been named one of the best colleges for long-term career success “because of its place in the top 5 for entrepreneurship, C-suite experience (CEO, CFO, etc.), internships, and recruiter demand,” reports Madison Lucchesi for Boston.com. 

Writing for The Atlantic, Prof. Joshua Bennett explores the relationship between poetry and AI. “A large language model is a prediction machine. Crucially, it does not think or dream. It establishes the likeliest sequence of words based on its training data and relays it back to you,” writes Bennett. “A well-crafted poem performs a nearly opposite function. It is made from original, dynamic language choices, and it lives and dies on its ability to surprise. It is a means of preserving the particular.”