The 10 Best Universities in the U.S., According to New Rankings From the U.K.
- The 46 Best Colleges for Getting Big Merit Scholarships
- Researchers Say You Should Go to College in a Big City. Here's Why
- The Best Colleges for Your Money
- Only 12% of Private College Students Actually Pay Those Crazy-High Tuition Prices. Here's Why
- The 15 Colleges Where Studying Liberal Arts Pays Big
Universities do, well, a universe of different things: They give professors a chance to do groundbreaking research. They train graduate students. And, oh yes, they educate undergraduates.
Just because a college is great at one or two of these tasks, doesn't mean it's great at all three. And it certainly doesn't mean that attending the school will be affordable.
But it turns out that many of the U.S. schools that produce the most important research and have the best international reputations also provide high-quality and comparatively affordable educations to undergraduates
That's what you discover when you compare the Times Higher Education World University Rankings released today with Money's best value college analyses.
The THE judges schools on things like the impact of their professors' research and their international reputation. Money, on the other hand, rates colleges on the quality, affordability, and return on investment of undergraduate education.
Related: The World's Best University Isn't in the U.S., According to a New Ranking
Here are the 10 American universities that score the highest on the new Times Higher Education's research and prestige rankings, compared with the schools' rankings on Money's value and payoff analysis, along with their estimated sticker prices and net prices, as calculated by Money.
(To find a college that exactly fits your needs and wallet, try Money's new "build-your-own rankings" tool.)
| College | T.H.E. World University ranking | Money Best Value Ranking | Estimated sticker price* | % who receive aid | Est. avg. net price for those who receive aid* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Institute of Technology | 2 | 24 | $63,500 | 55% | $29,300 |
| Stanford University | 3 | 10 | $65,300 | 51% | $19,600 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 5 | 11 | $63,500 | 56% | $24,200 |
| Harvard University | 6 | 3 | $64,800 | 56% | $16,500 |
| Princeton University | 7 | 1 | $61,300 | 62% | $20,600 |
| University of California-Berkeley* | 10 | 6 | $35,700 | 53% | $18,200 |
| University of Chicago | 10 | 83 | $70,300 | 62% | $37,400 |
| Yale University | 12 | 12 | $66,600 | 50% | $21,100 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 13 | 26 | $66,800 | 50% | $24,700 |
| University of California-Los Angeles* | 14 | 20 | $34,300 | 53% | $13,600 |
*Prices for public universities are for in-state students.