UCLA is No. 2 among the country’s national public universities and No. 24 overall in the 2017 U.S. News and World Report “Best Colleges” rankings.
The report, published today, places UCLA in a tie with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Virginia.
The U.S. News methodology emphasizes factors that tend to favor private universities, such as endowment size, rate of alumni giving and student–faculty ratio.
Five other University of California campuses were among the top 10 public universities in the overall rankings: Berkeley (No. 1), Santa Barbara (No. 8) Irvine (No. 9), and Davis and San Diego (tied for No. 10). At the top of the overall list, which includes public and private institutions, were Princeton and Harvard, with the University of Chicago and Yale tied for third, and Columbia and Stanford tied for fifth.
U.S. News also issues rankings of more specific measures. UCLA received the highest score for economic diversity among the top 25-ranked universities, based on number of UCLA undergraduate students receiving Pell Grants (39 percent).
In addition:
Among the “best colleges for veterans,” the publication chose UCLA as the No. 2 public institution (tied for No. 14 overall).
UCLA tied for the No. 5 public university (tied for No. 28 overall) among “high school counselors’ top college picks,” which is based on academic advisers’ impressions of the quality of undergraduate education at each institution.
UCLA tied for the No. 10 best public engineering school (tied for No. 18 overall) among engineering schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.
UCLA consistently performs well in a broad range of national and international rankings. In August, UCLA was ranked No. 8 overall in the annual Washington Monthly rankings and No. 4 among American public universities, and 12th among all universities globally in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. In May, London’s Times Higher Education’s World Reputation Rankings 2016, which assess the international prestige of institutions of higher learning, placed UCLA No. 2 among all U.S. public universities. In addition, U.S. News and World Report rankings had UCLA at No. 8 on its 2016 Best Global Universities list.