(NewsNation) — More than a dozen of the United States’ higher education institutions ranked in the top 20 of global universities.
The 2025-26 ranking from U.S. News & World Report included 2,250 top universities from more than 100 countries and considered factors like the school’s international opportunities, student makeup and research opportunities.
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16. Cornell, Princeton and University of California, San Francisco
FILE – People walk on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Three American universities tied for 16th place in the ranking: Cornell University, Princeton University and the University of California, San Francisco.
New York-based Cornell — one of the Ivy League schools under the Trump administration’s microscope — earned its rank through its diverse student population and programs.
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On the other hand, Princeton and the University of California’s wide variety of centers, programs and research opportunities were mentioned in their ranking.
15. University of Pennsylvania
A Pennsylvania-based public school, the University of Pennsylvania has Penn Abroad, which allows students to take part in “study abroad, service learning, summer internships and short-term programs each year.”
14. Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University in Maryland partners with international universities to offer more than 400 study abroad programs in more than 50 countries, with opportunities at Johns Hopkins Medicine International, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Advanced International Studies.
13. University of California, Los Angeles
Though Los Angeles is known as a city of fun, its University of California chapter is all business. The university has 28 centers for multidisciplinary research, with more than 192 research, teaching and student exchange agreements worldwide.
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10. Columbia University
Despite problems with the Trump administration over student protests and subsequent job cuts, Columbia capped off the Top 10 of the ranking for its “study abroad programs, global internships and international service learning and research opportunities,” U.S. News & World Report said.
9. Yale University
The campus of Yale University is seen, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New Haven, Conn.
Another university with a heightened international student population, the Connecticut college is home to the Yale Young African Scholars program, which helps African high school students to apply to U.S. universities.
8. University of Washington, Seattle
With more than 500 study abroad options and more than 8,000 international students, the University of Washington, Seattle offers a global approach to health and environmental studies.
6. University of California, Berkeley
The final University of California campus to make the list, the “International House at Berkeley is home to nearly 600 students and scholars from more than 70 countries,” according to U.S. News & World Report.
3. Stanford University
Stanford University’s ranking is reliant on its summer opportunities like the Global Studies Internship Program, which sends students to more than 20 countries on six continents for a wide variety of disciplines.
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2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known for its STEM focus and low acceptance rate, MIT is a thoroughly global school.
“More than 3,430 international students are currently enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyand during academic year 2023-2024 the school hosted 2,247 international scholars from 100 countries,” U.S. News & World Report writes.
1. Harvard University
Dunster House across the Charles River on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Monday, May 5, 2025. President Donald Trump said Harvard University would lose its tax-exempt status, stepping up his attack on the Ivy League school with a threat that was decried as out of his jurisdiction. Photographer: Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Perhaps the most well-known U.S. university, Harvard has faced challenges from the White House over its campus protests and policies, but it still tops the list of best global universities.
Harvard offers courses in more than 100 languages, and international students made up 27.2% of the university population in the 2024-2025 academic year.
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