Brown University dropped to 13th in the 2025 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings after remaining at 9th place for one year, making it the only school to fall out of the top 10 this year.
The national rankings, published by U.S. News and World Report, are based on a variety of metrics, including graduation rates and research output. According to U.S. News, more than half of a school’s ranking has to do with “how successful a college is in enrolling and graduating students from diverse backgrounds with manageable debt and post-graduation success.”
Brown University returned to the same position it had in the magazine’s 2023 rankings. Last year, U.S. News ranked the school ninth, its highest annual ranking since 1997. Brown is now tied with Columbia University for 13th place, the second-lowest ranking among the Ivy League universities behind Dartmouth College. Both Brown and the University of Pennsylvania fell four spots, the biggest drop among the top 20 universities.
The top three schools remained the same as last year, with Princeton taking the top spot, followed by MIT and Harvard. Earlier this month, The Daily Pennsylvanian leaked the list of the top 10 schools, marking the first sign that Brown University would not be able to maintain its place in the top 10.
Last year, the publication made major changes to its methodology, including adding first-generation graduation rates to its ranking calculations and then removing them in the 2025 rankings. Other than removing first-generation graduation rates, the methodology has remained largely unchanged.
Brown continued to receive high marks in the magazine’s other rankings, ranking first in “disciplinary writing” and third in undergraduate programs, the same positions it held in last year’s rankings.
Although it has fallen out of the top 10, Brown University still performs better in the U.S. News rankings than it does in college rankings from other publications.
The Wall Street Journal ranked Brown University 36th in its rankings, measuring how well universities prepare students for economic success. Brown moved up 31 spots in this year’s Wall Street Journal rankings from 67th place previously.
Kate Latimer
Kate Latimer is a senior staff writer covering teaching and higher education. She’s an English and urban studies major from Portland, Oregon. In her spare time, she enjoys playing ultimate Frisbee and rewatching episodes of Parks and Recreation.