| # | University | City | World rank | In-country | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | #1 (2026) | #1 | 76,799,943 | |
| 2 | Stanford University | California | #3 (2026) | #2 | 97,093,777 |
| 3 | Harvard University | Massachusetts | #5 (2026) | #3 | 147,623,675 |
| 4 | California Institute of Technology | #10 (2026) | #4 | 38,096,176 | |
| 5 | University of Pennsylvania | #12 (2026) | #5 | 56,773,952 | |
| 6 | Cornell University | #13 (2026) | #6 | 57,970,660 | |
| 7 | University of Chicago | #13 (2026) | #7 | 39,573,581 | |
| 8 | Columbia University | #14 (2026) | #8 | 48,922,971 | |
| 9 | Princeton University | #15 (2026) | #10 | 27,736,903 | |
| 10 | Yale University | #16 (2026) | #11 | 53,786,943 | |
| 11 | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor | #23 (2026) | #12 | 68,224,618 | |
| 12 | Johns Hopkins University | #24 (2026) | #13 | 78,513,190 | |
| 13 | Duke University | #26 (2026) | #14 | 31,069,815 | |
| 14 | University of California, Berkeley | #28 (2026) | #15 | 62,350,737 | |
| 15 | New York University | #38 (2026) | #16 | 27,645,621 | |
| 16 | University of California, Los Angeles | #40 (2026) | #17 | 67,096,936 | |
| 17 | Carnegie Mellon University | #65 (2026) | #18 | 17,727,847 | |
| 18 | University of California, San Diego | #66 (2026) | #19 | 56,035,445 | |
| 19 | The University of Texas at Austin | #68 (2026) | #20 | 24,605,290 | |
| 20 | Brown University | #69 (2026) | #21 | 15,825,691 | |
| 21 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | #70 (2026) | #22 | 33,306,613 | |
| 22 | University of Washington | #81 (2026) | #23 | 98,886,732 | |
| 23 | Boston University | #88 (2026) | #25 | 30,180,849 | |
| 24 | Purdue University | #88 (2026) | #26 | 20,995,043 | |
| 25 | University of Wisconsin - Madison | #110 (2026) | #28 | 44,392,721 | |
| 26 | University of California, Davis | #114 (2026) | #29 | 32,321,204 | |
| 27 | Rice University | #119 (2026) | #30 | 10,963,903 | |
| 28 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | #140 (2026) | #33 | 36,127,387 | |
| 29 | University of Southern California | #146 (2026) | #34 | 28,544,572 | |
| 30 | Texas A&M University - College Station | #154 (2025) | #35 | 19,394,355 | |
| 31 | Michigan State University | #161 (2026) | #36 | 20,634,210 | |
| 32 | Washington University in St Louis | St. Louis | #171 (2025) | #37 | 41,756,037 |
| 33 | Arizona State University | #173 (2026) | #38 | 14,403,451 | |
| 34 | University of California, Santa Barbara | #179 (2026) | #41 | 18,597,851 | |
| 35 | Emory University | #182 (2026) | #42 | 24,345,546 | |
| 36 | Ohio State University - Columbus | #190 (2026) | #43 | 30,354,807 | |
| 37 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | #190 (2026) | #43 | 30,354,807 | |
| 38 | Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute | #190 (2026) | #44 | 30,354,807 | |
| 39 | University of Minnesota - Crookston | #203 (2025) | #46 | 44,929,596 | |
| 40 | University of Minnesota - Morris | #203 (2025) | #46 | 44,929,596 | |
| 41 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | #203 (2025) | #46 | 44,929,596 | |
| 42 | University of Minnesota | #203 (2025) | #46 | 44,929,596 | |
| 43 | University of Minnesota - Duluth | #203 (2025) | #48 | 44,929,596 | |
| 44 | University of Maryland, College Park | #207 (2026) | #51 | 24,955,508 | |
| 45 | University of Florida-Online | #215 (2025) | #52 | 31,441,503 | |
| 46 | University of Florida | #215 (2025) | #52 | 31,441,503 | |
| 47 | University of Rochester | #236 (2026) | #54 | 16,165,770 | |
| 48 | University of Massachusetts at Amherst | #247 (2026) | #55 | 11,497,562 | |
| 49 | Dartmouth College | #247 (2026) | #57 | 7,242,918 | |
| 50 | Vanderbilt University | #250 (2026) | #58 | 20,118,894 |
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What the two columns mean
In-country is the position the ranking record gives the university among those in its own country, and it is often the more useful number: a university ranked 480th in the world may still be third at home. It is carried over as published, so it does not always follow the order of the other two columns. World rank is the university's QS World University Rankings position. Citations are the number of times work published by the university has been cited, as recorded in OpenAlex; it is the measure used to order universities that QS does not rank at all.
The two do not always agree. A large research university can out-cite a smaller one that sits above it in QS, because QS weighs reputation surveys and staff ratios as well as research.