Princeton University has been named the best institution in the United States in WalletHub’s 2027 college rankings, ahead of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.
The annual assessment compared 738 colleges and universities across 30 measures, including admissions standards, cost, teaching resources, campus safety, student experience, graduation rates and career prospects.
Princeton also topped the separate university table, with a five per cent acceptance rate and 93 per cent of incoming students having finished in the top 10 per cent of their secondary-school classes.
The New Jersey university has one member of faculty for every five students and a graduation rate of 98 per cent, the highest recorded in the ranking. Its graduates earn, on average, about $1.05 million more over the 20 years after leaving than people whose education ended with high school.
Median earnings for former Princeton students reached more than $110,000 a decade after they enrolled, according to the study.
MIT graduates record highest median salary
MIT took second place overall and among universities. It had the same five per cent acceptance rate as Princeton, while 96 per cent of its new students had graduated in the top 10 per cent of their school year.
The institute recorded the strongest student-to-faculty ratio in the study, at three students per member of faculty. Its graduates also had the highest median salary 10 years after enrolment, at more than $143,000.
WalletHub said MIT alumni earned nearly $1.4 million more than high-school graduates, on average, during the first two decades after leaving the institute.
Yale, the California Institute of Technology and Harvard completed the top five universities. Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University and the Georgia Institute of Technology made up the remainder of the top 10.
Wellesley College in Massachusetts was ranked the best college, placing 20th in the combined table. It has a 14 per cent acceptance rate, a seven-to-one student-to-faculty ratio and a 96 per cent first-year retention rate.
Pomona College in California came second among colleges and 21st overall. Its acceptance rate is seven per cent, while 85 per cent of its students had been in the top 10 per cent of their school classes.
Harvey Mudd College, Amherst College and Colby College completed the top five colleges.
WalletHub said its ranking was designed to assess not only academic performance but also the longer-term value of a degree. The data included student-loan debt, default rates, employment outcomes and median earnings 10 years after students entered an institution.
Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst, said universities generally performed better in the combined rankings because they offered graduate programmes, broader campus opportunities and higher post-graduation earnings. Smaller colleges, he added, could offer more personalised teaching, smaller classes and safer campuses.
