Yet another college ranking has arrived, and it, too, boasts its unique methodology on the backdrop of the U.S. News’ recent wallop of criticisms.
Washington Monthly’s 2023 National University Rankings analyzed over 1,500 higher education institutions registered with the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). They divided them into four major categories: doctoral degree-granting national universities, liberal arts colleges, master’s universities and bachelor’s colleges.
Instead of relying on institutions offering their internal data, which Washington Monthly posits as “crude and easily manipulated measures of wealth, exclusivity, and prestige,” the ranking primarily measured each university’s outward societal impact. For example, it measures schools’ student outcomes of its Pell recipients and their ability to function as a conduit for social mobility. It additionally emphasizes providing opportunities for public service.
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Top 20 national universities, ranked
This list specifically pulls from its grouping of national universities, which Washington Monthly defines as institutions that award a considerable number of doctoral degrees.
Washington Monthly’s university rankings are distinguished for holding public universities in such high regard to prestigious private universities; seven colleges in this top 20 are state institutions. While Florida International University’s research and service ranks fall outside the top 100, it benefits from its strong performance of Pell Grant recipients and a top-five social mobility rank.
The University of California system features three campuses on this ranking thanks to its impressive research ranks.
| Rank | Name | Pell performance rank | Net price of attendance for families making >$75,000 | Social mobility rank | Research rank | Service rank |
| 1 | Harvard University (Mass.) | 281 | $1,758 | 15 | 3 | 19 |
| 2 | Stanford University (Calif.) | 130 | $355 | 6 | 2 | 169 |
| 3 | Mass. Institute of Technology | 78 | – $853 | 3 | 1 | 274 |
| 4 | University of Pennsylvania | 189 | $3,722 | 2 | 9 | 73 |
| 5 | Princeton University (Pa.) | 84 | $4,618 | 5 | 5 | 138 |
| 6 | Duke University (N.C.) | 153 | $3,068 | 23 | 15 | 8 |
| 7 | Columbia University (N.Y.) | 56 | $3,027 | 8 | 14 | 174 |
| 8 | Yale University (Conn.) | 81 | $2,810 | 12 | 7 | 201 |
| 9 | University of Calif. – Berkeley | 54 | $10,260 | 48 | 6 | 33 |
| 10 | Cornell University (N.Y.) | 205 | $6,362 | 35 | 12 | 44 |
| 11 | University of Wis. – Madison | 185 | $7,406 | 62 | 17 | 6 |
| 12 | University of Notre Dame (Ind.) | 179 | $12,578 | 39 | 58 | 2 |
| 13 | Johns Hopkins University (Md.) | 138 | $4,751 | 70 | 8 | 27 |
| 14 | University of Wash. – Seattle | 196 | $6,802 | 52 | 13 | 40 |
| 15 | Georgetown University (D.C.) | 360 | $8,233 | 11 | 101 | 35 |
| 16 | University of Calif. – L.A. | 331 | $9,286 | 43 | 16 | 118 |
| 17 | University of N.C. – Chapel Hill | 270 | $7,273 | 58 | 21 | 13 |
| 18 | Vanderbilt University (Tenn.) | 92 | $6,462 | 47 | 30 | 17 |
| 19 | Florida International University | 21 | $4,931 | 4 | 121 | 179 |
| 20 | University of Calif. – San Diego | 20 | $10,698 | 29 | 10 | 295 |
