The University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper released the leaked list of the top 10 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 rankings of the best U.S. universities two weeks early, showing the University of Pennsylvania sinking to its lowest ranking this century.
The Daily Pennsylvanian released a preliminary version of the top 10 US universities rankings on Tuesday (September 10th). According to the results, Princeton University is ranked 1st for the 10th consecutive year, MIT is ranked 2nd for the 4th consecutive year, and Harvard University is ranked 3rd for the 3rd consecutive year. Stanford University dropped from 3rd place in 2023-2024 to 4th place, and Yale University remained in 5th place, the same as last year. See the rest of the top 10 below.
The University of Pennsylvania dropped from sixth to tenth, its lowest ranking since 13th in 1997. The university is home to the Wharton School, which ranked first in Poets & Quant’s most recent undergraduate business program rankings and was ranked fourth in the 2010 U.S. News college rankings.
US NEWS 2024-2025 Top 10 Best National Universities
University
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
Princeton University
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2
2
2
2
4
3
3
5
7
7
7
Harvard University
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Stanford University
4
3
3
6
6
6
7
5
5
4
4
Yale University
5
5
3
5
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
Johns Hopkins University
6
9
7
9
9
10
10
11
10
10
12
California Institute of Technology
6
7
9
9
9
12
12
10
12
10
10
Duke University
6
7
10
9
12
10
8
9
8
8
8
Northwestern University
6
9
10
9
9
9
10
11
12
12
13
University of Pennsylvania
10
6
7
8
8
6
8
8
8
9
8
Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian
Magazine comment: The top 10 is “tentative”
U.S. News’ 2024-2025 rankings of the best national colleges aren’t scheduled to be released until September 24. In this article by reporter Katie Bartlett, The Daily Pennsylvanian did not reveal its sources, saying only that the paper “exclusively obtained a preliminary copy of the top 10 schools in the 2024-25 rankings.” The article noted that Penn’s ranking would put it fourth among Ivy League schools, behind Princeton, Harvard and Yale.
However, the rankings may change between now and the official announcement date.
“US News provides preliminary information to each institution for its Best Colleges rankings,” a spokesperson for the magazine reportedly told DP. “The information provided is not considered final until or until the publication date on USNews.com, which this year is September 24th.”
Report: University of Pennsylvania used ‘inconsistent underlying metrics’ for a decade and a half
In 2023, DP reported that “according to multiple higher education experts, the University of Pennsylvania likely inaccurately listed the student-to-faculty ratio metric used in the U.S. News rankings. The experts spoke with DP about the inconsistent underlying metric that the University of Pennsylvania has listed as its student-to-faculty ratio for more than 15 years and what it means for the university’s U.S. News rankings.”
It is unclear whether this affected the University of Pennsylvania’s position in the new rankings, DP reported.
If the rankings remain unchanged, four schools would join the top five in a tie for sixth place (Penn holds this position in 2023-2024). California Institute of Technology and Duke University both move up from a tie for seventh place. Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University both tied for ninth place last year.
Brown University, another Ivy League school, was tied for ninth in last year’s rankings but fell out of the top 10.
Don’t overlook the cost of getting an MBA from a top business school