Applying to college is a journey that involves finding the right school, submitting applications and then – if you’re lucky – choosing among the acceptance letters and financial aid awards to find that place you’ll call home for the next few years. 

To steer you in the right direction, U.S. News surveys colleges and universities each year and ranks nearly 1,400 of them in different categories according to our methodology. 

Right here on Collegelearners, you are privy to a litany of relevant information on best colleges in 2018, top colleges in the world, top colleges and universities to study international relations, and so much more. Take out time to visit our catalog for more information on similar topics.

Best Colleges In 2018

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/— U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in education rankings, today announced the 2018 Best Colleges rankings to help prospective students and their families research more than 1,800 U.S.-based universities. Princeton University is No. 1 for Best National Universities for the seventh year in a row. For the 15^th consecutive year, Williams College takes the top spot for Best National Liberal Arts Colleges.

California schools and military academies perform strongly in this year’s top public universities rankings. For the first time, the University of California—Los Angeles moves up to No. 1 for Top Public Schools among National Universities, tying with the University of California—Berkeley. The United States Military Academy ranks No. 1 for Top Public Schools among National Liberal Arts Colleges. 

The U.S. News rankings methodology focuses on academic excellence, with schools evaluated on hundreds of data points and up to 15 measures of academic quality. Overall, the rankings emphasize student outcomes – such as graduation and freshman retention rates – which carry the most weight at 30 percent. The top National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges have significantly higher graduation and freshman retention rates than other schools.

• The average six-year graduation rate is 96 percent for the top 10 National Universities and 92.5 percent for the top 10 National Liberal Arts Colleges.
• The average freshman retention rate is 98.3 percent for the top 10 National Universities and 96.5 percent for the top 10 National Liberal Arts Colleges.
• For comparison, the average six-year graduation rate among all numerically ranked schools on the National Universities list is 71.7 percent, and the average freshman retention rate is 87.2 percent.
• For comparison, the average six-year graduation rate among all numerically ranked schools on the National Liberal Arts Colleges list is 75.7 percent, and the average freshman retention rate is 85.7 percent.

“Before taking out student loans or writing a tuition check, families should research graduation and retention rates. These are important indicators of how well a school supports its students both academically and financially,” said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News. “Colleges that saddle students with debt but do little to support them through graduation are contributing to a vicious cycle – without that valuable degree, students will have a difficult time landing well-paying jobs and repaying their loans, which puts them in a precarious financial situation early on in their careers.”

New this year:

• For the first time, U.S. News is offering postgraduate salary information on 1,000 schools. Using data provided by PayScale, U.S. News is displaying alumni salary information on school profile pages. Subscribers to the U.S. News College Compass, which provides access to the complete rankings and data, will also see salaries broken down by major per school. Additionally, the Compass tool includes salary data U.S. News collected directly from colleges on the 2015-16 graduating class. Salary was not a factor in determining the rankings.

“We’ve previously provided rich information on college location, size, academic programs, student life, cost, diversity, campus safety and more, but families and students have increasingly asked for more data on salary and potential earnings,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News. “We wanted to make this information easily available to them, but stress that it should be considered as one factor among many when deciding where to attend college.”

• U.S. News made a slight change in the methodology for National Universities to better predict graduation rates. In determining whether a school is graduating students at the expected level, U.S. News incorporated the proportion of degrees awarded in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. This was done to better reflect research showing that students in STEM fields generally graduate at lower rates compared with those in other majors.
• U.S. News altered the methodology for the Best Colleges for Veterans rankings to more accurately capture the schools that serve veterans and active service members in making college more affordable. New this year, a school must have enrolled a minimum of 20 veterans and active service members in the 2016-17 academic year to qualify for the rankings.

Beyond the overall rankings, students can research schools with the most Economic Diversity and Campus Ethnic Diversity, as well as the Most International Students. The rankings also encompass the Best Value Schools, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Most Innovative Schools and a list of the A-plus Schools for B Students. For students with specific career paths in mind, U.S. News ranks the top schools in undergraduate engineering and business.

In an exclusive arrangement, the launch of the 2018 Best Colleges is being sponsored by Fidelity Investments. To learn more about the U.S. News College Compass, or to order a copy of the “Best Colleges 2018” guidebook (ISBN 978-1-931469-87-6), visit the online U.S. News store.

National Universities – Top 5 
1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA)
3. University of Chicago (tie)
3. Yale University (CT) (tie)
5. Columbia University (NY) (tie)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (tie) 
5. Stanford University (CA) (tie)

National Liberal Arts Colleges – Top 5
1. Williams College (MA) 
2. Amherst College (MA) 
3. Bowdoin College (ME) (tie) 
3. Swarthmore College (PA) (tie)
3. Wellesley College (MA) (tie)    

Top Public Schools

National Universities – Top 5 
1. University of California—Berkeley (tie)
1. University of California—Los Angeles (tie)
3. University of Virginia
4. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
5. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

National Liberal Arts Colleges – Top 5 
1. United States Military Academy (NY)
2. United States Naval Academy (MD)
3. United States Air Force Academy (CO)
4. Virginia Military Institute
5. St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Top Colleges In The World

If the best colleges in the U.S. is not expansive enough for your search for where you’ll study next, then turn your attention to the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of the best universities across the globe.

The list includes 2,000 top universities from 95 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and China.

Among the schools surveyed for the ranking, China had the most universities on the list, with 338. The U.S. followed closely behind with 280 universities.

The U.S. and China were followed by Japan with 105 universities, the United Kingdom with 92, and India with 81.

The top 10 best universities globally are predominately schools in the United States, with the UK being the only other country represented on the list.

Notably, of all the schools in the top 10, only four of them are public universities.

Best university in the world: Harvard University

Harvard University is the top school in the world, according to the U.S. News ranking.

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard has over 6 million students from more than 193 countries that attend the school through its online program, HarvardX.

The university is made up of the undergraduate college and 11 other schools, including the famous Business School, Graduate School of Education, Law School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

For the 2022-2023 school year, Harvard University’s tuition and fees total $57,261—making it much more expensive than the national average cost of $41,568, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

Top 10 universities in the world in 2022-2023

1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
3. Stanford University
4. University of California Berkeley
5. University of Oxford
6. University of Washington Seattle
7. Columbia University
8. University of Cambridge
9. California Institute of Technology
10. Johns Hopkins University

The university that landed second place is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), also located in Cambridge.

MIT contains five schools and has an attendance of about 11,000 students, with 60% of them studying at the graduate level, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

According to MIT’s website, the total cost to attend the university in the 2022-2023 academic year is approximately $79,850, which includes money for personal expenses.

Stanford University ranked third on the list. The California Bay Area university comprises seven schools, with three offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees and four offering only graduate-level degrees.

According to Stanford University’s website, the total cost of attending in the 2022-2023 academic year is approximately $82,162. That number includes tuition, room and board, student fees, and other related expenses.

Top Colleges And Universities To Study International Relations

Are you planning a career in international relations? Want to help shape the future of national or international policy? Start out by studying at one of the world’s best institutions for politics and international studies, as highlighted in the Foreign Policy magazine’s best international relations schools in the world for 2018.

The Harvard University was listed 1st for the “Top U. S. Undergraduate Institutions to Study International Relations,” and 2nd for the “Top Master’s Programs for Policy Career in International Relations

Harvard’s PhD programme was also listed 1st for the “Top PhD Program for Academic Career in International Relations,” by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine.

Responses from 1,541 International Relations scholars at U.S. colleges and universities determined rankings for their field’s leading Ph.D., terminal master’s, and undergraduate programs. The scholars were asked to list the top 5 institutions in each category.

Rankings: Top U. S. Undergraduate Institutions to Study International Relations

1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Stanford University
4. Georgetown University
5. Columbia University
6. Yale University
7. University of Chicago
8. George Washington University
9. American University
10. University of California—Berkeley
11. University of California—San Diego
12. Dartmouth College
13. Tufts University
14. University of Michigan
15. Johns Hopkins University
16. College of William & Mary
17. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
18. Cornell University
19. University of Pennsylvania
19. Ohio State University4
21. Williams College
22. Brown University
23. University of Virginia
24. Swarthmore College
24. University of California—Los Angeles
26. Duke University
27. New York University
28. Middlebury College
29. University of Denver
30. University of Southern California
30. Wellesley College
32. University of Notre Dame
33. Pomona College
34. University of Texas—Austin
34. University of Wisconsin
36. University of Washington
37. Amherst College
37. Macalester College
37. University of Minnesota
40. Syracuse University
41. Boston University
42. Brigham Young University
42. Michigan State Univeristy
42. University of Florida
42. Vassar College
46. Claremont McKenna College
46. Emory University
46. London School of Economic
46. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hil
50. Oberlin College0
50. Pennsylvania State University—University Park
50. University of Colorado

Rankings: Top Master’s Programs for Policy Career in International Relations

1. Georgetown University
2. Harvard University
3. Johns Hopkins University
4. Princeton University
5. Columbia University
6. Tufts University
7. George Washington University
8. American University
9. London School of Economics
10. University of Chicago
11. Stanford University
12. University of Oxford
13. Yale University
14. University of Denver
15. University of California—San Diego
16. Syracuse University
17. University of Cambridge
18. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
18. University of Michigan
20. University of California—Berkeley
20. University of Pittsburgh
22. New York University
22. Sciences Po—Paris
24. Duke University
25. School of Oriental and African Studies
26. King’s College London
26. Texas A&M University
28. Cornell University
29. University of Virginia
29. Graduate Inst. of Int’l and Dev. Studies
31. University of California—Los Angeles
31. University of Texas1. 01%
33. Middlebury Institute of Int’l Studies at Monterey
33. University of Sussex0. 88%
33. University of Washington
36. Carleton University
36. George Mason University
36. University of St. Andrews
39. Florida International University
39. Indiana University
39. University of Maryland
39. University of Notre Dame
39. Ohio State University
44. Aberystwyth University
44. Arizona State University
44. Boston University
44. Georgia Institute of Technology
44. Northeastern University
44. University of Kent
44. University of Southern California
44. University of Toronto—Downtown Toronto

Rankings: Top Ph. D. Programs for Academic Career in International Relations

1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Stanford University
4. Columbia University
5. University of Chicago
6. Yale University
7. University of California—San Diego2
8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9. University of Michigan
10. University of California—Berkeley
11. Georgetown University
12. University of Oxford
13. Cornell University
14. London School of Economics
15. Ohio State University
16. Johns Hopkins University
17. George Washington University
18. University of Cambridge
19. American University
20. Duke University
21. New York University
22. Tufts University
22. University of Minnesota
24. University of Wisconsin—Madison
25. University of California—Los Angeles
26. University of Rochester
27. University of Pennsylvania
28. Brown University
29. Emory University
29. University of Texas
31. University of Virginia
32. Aberystwyth University
32. Pennsylvania State University
34. University of Denver
35. Northwestern University
35. School of Oriental and African Studies
35. University of Maryland
35. University of Sussex
35. Sciences Po—Paris
40. Texas A&M University
40. University of Southern California
40. University of Washington
43. Australian National University
43. King’s College London
43. Syracuse University
43. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
47. George Mason University
47. Rice University0. 36%
47. University of Arizona
47. University of Edinburgh
47. University of Georgia
47. University of Iowa
47. University of Toronto—Downtown Toronto
47. Graduate Institute of Intl. and Development Studies