Caltech Rises to No. 5 in the U.S. News Best Colleges Ranking
The Institute is recognized for its exceptional students, generous financial aid, experiential opportunities, graduates' earnings, and faculty research, among other areas.
Caltech has been recognized among the nation's top universities, ranking fifth, in a tie with Stanford University, in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges list, released September 22. The placement is the Institute's largest single-year climb in more than 25 years on the widely cited U.S. News list.
Caltech earned the top national placement in four of the 17 metrics behind the rankings: per-student financial resources; share of faculty publications in the top 25 percent of journals; graduate earnings relative to high school graduates; and standardized testing scores (Caltech resumed reporting scores this year after ending its four-year test-blind admissions policy). It placed second in a new metric of graduate earnings by major.
Caltech is among the most selective universities in the world, enrolling roughly 1,000 undergraduate students and 1,400 graduate students. The rankings recognize the caliber of these students and the contributions of Caltech's faculty to their fields and reflect the Institute's robust investments in the undergraduates' academic experience, research opportunities, and long-term success.
Caltech also ranked fifth in the U.S. News Best Value Schools list, which is based on indicators of net price and student financial aid. In recent years, the Institute has expanded financial aid to ensure the affordability and accessibility of a Caltech education. Students with family incomes below $200,000 and typical assets receive financial aid that fully covers tuition, and students with family incomes below $100,000 and typical assets are offered aid that fully covers the cost of tuition, fees, housing, and food.
The Institute ranked second, for the second consecutive year, in a ranking reflecting the creative educational and research opportunities available to students, based on peer assessments of undergraduates' opportunities to complete "intensive and self-directed research or creative projects that results in an original scholarly paper or other product." Close collaboration with world-leading faculty and participation in hands-on research projects is a hallmark of a Caltech education, with more than 90 percent of undergraduates conducting research before they graduate. Each summer, hundreds of undergraduates are supported on campus and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages for NASA, in developing and executing their own 10-week research project through the 47-year-old Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Caltech is the top pipeline to JPL internships.
Further reflecting the value of a Caltech education for graduates is the Institute's second-place ranking in the new earnings by major metric. Using College Scorecard earnings data from the U.S. Department of Education, the metric evaluates whether an institution's employed graduates earn more during the four years after their graduation than peers from the same academic field at comparable institutions. According to U.S. News, this "reduces the influence of pre-existing financial advantages and family networks, offering a clearer picture of the value an institution adds."
Other metrics that contributed to the Institute's placement included a rise—from eighth to seventh—in faculty salary, and a rise—from ninth to seventh—in its peer assessment ranking. The peer assessment ranking is a measure of overall excellence based on a reputation survey of presidents, provosts, and deans of admission at peer institutions, that is worth 20 percent of a school's total score, the largest weighted metric.