How these universities are ranked
68 of these universities hold a QS World position, from #1 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to #596 (University of Iowa); they are listed first, in that order. The rest are ordered by research impact. Harvard University has the largest research record in this group, with 146,555,275 citations and an h-index of 2,809. 46 universities have neither a QS position nor a research record yet and appear at the end, marked "Not yet ranked".
Public, private and where they are
The split is 1,120 public to 10 private institutions. By location, Massachusetts (5), New York (5) and California (3) account for the most of those we can place. The oldest is Harvard University, founded in 1636. University of the People is the largest, with 270,000 students.
What the courses look like
By level: 2,874 bachelor's, 997 master's, 435 diploma and 189 professional. Within the subject, the largest areas are Business & Management (5,454), Business Administration (MBA) (67), Accounting (38) and Marketing (14). The usual length is 4 years and 1–2 years. 89% are full-time and 563 can be studied online. Start dates lean to Fall (98% of courses with a stated intake) and Spring (94% of courses with a stated intake). Columbia College (MO) offers the widest choice, with 42 of these courses.
What it costs
We hold indicative fees for 38 of these universities. University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez is the least expensive at USD 5,274 a year and Yale University the most at USD 64,000; the middle of the range is about USD 22,326. Check each university's own fee page before you budget — figures change every year.
