Top Colleges In The World

9. University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.

With 50,000 students and 5,500 faculty spread over three campuses, the University of Michigan is an extremely large research university with the expansive alumni networks that such numbers grant. Students have 17 distinct schools and colleges, roughly 600 majors, over 600 student organizations, and a staggering 350 concerts and recitals annually to choose from. The pleasant college town of Ann Arbor was listed as the number one college town in 2010 by Forbes Magazine. The University faculty include Pulitzer, Guggenheim, MacArthur, and Emmy recipients. The school’s alumni have produced 14 Nobel Prize winners and one Fields Medalist. Michigan also runs one of the world’s largest healthcare facilities, gives its students first-class computer access, and utilizes a library with over 13 million volumes. It is little wonder why the school attracts students from all 50 states and over 100 countries. Almost half of the student body graduated in the top five percent of their class, and two thirds graduated in the top 10. Michigan puts more students into medical school than any other school in America

10. Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.

Princeton University is one of the oldest, most historic universities in the United States. Its famous Nassau Hall still bears a cannon ball scar from the 1777 Battle of Princeton, and its former president, John Witherspoon, was the only university president to sign the Declaration of Independence. The school’s nearly three-century history has given it ample time to develop an impressive $18.2 billion endowment. But unlike the other big institutions it competes with, such as Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, Princeton spreads its considerable wealth across a far smaller number of students and programs. Princeton has no law school, medical school, business school, or divinity school. Instead of developing professional programs, it has self-consciously evolved into a massive, research-driven think tank. Whereas other schools typically drive their elite faculty’s attention towards graduate students, Princeton expects its professors to teach undergraduates, as well. Moreover, Princeton continues to challenge its students with a difficult grading scale, to a much greater degree than many other leading institutions. Even brilliant valedictorians need to focus on their studies if they come here.

11. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

In the century and a half since its beginning in 1861, MIT has become the world’s preeminent science research center. MIT is known for a focused approach that uses first-class methodologies to tackle world-class problems. This pragmatic creativity has produced legions of scientists and engineers, as well as 80 Nobel laureates, 56 National Medal of Science winners, 43 MacArthur Fellows, and 28 National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners. Nevertheless, the school’s more than $10 billion endowment still leaves plenty of room for the arts and humanities. That is why MIT’s university press can publish 30 journals and 220 academic books every year. Since 1899, the MIT Technology Review has continuously researched developing trends in the industrial sciences and other related fields, making their publications essential for anyone trying to understand where future innovation is headed. Notable people affiliated with MIT include Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, founder of modern linguistics Noam Chomsky, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

12. University of California – Berkeley

Berkeley, California, U.S.

Berkeley is unique among the elite universities of the world. Most of the schools it competes with are privately owned, but Berkeley is a state school with the elite status of a private school. The school is nestled in a pleasant city of the same name within easy commuting distance of San Francisco. With over 42,000 students, Berkeley is large for a school of its status. Such an impressive selection of talented students feeds its over 350 degree programs and produces more PhD’s annually than any other US institution. Student research is encouraged as each year 52% of seniors assist their professors in their research. Berkeley draws students from over 100 nations. During the previous decade, the National Science Foundation granted its students more graduate research fellowships than any other school. The school’s faculty, who benefit from a more than $4 billion endowment, include 42 members of the American Philosophical Society, 108 Faculty Fulbright Scholars, 31 Faculty MacArthur Fellows, and 30 Nobel Prize winners (seven of whom are current faculty members).

13. University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh, Scotland

Founded in 1583, the University of Edinburgh is one of the oldest schools in the English-speaking world. Its list of historic luminaries includes Adam Smith, David Hume, Charles Darwin, James Clerk Maxwell, and Alexander Graham Bell. The school has also produced heads of state for Malawi, Tanzania, Syria, South Korea, Nicaragua, Canada, and, of course, the United Kingdom. Edinburgh scientists cloned Dolly the sheep (the first cloned mammal). Peter Higgs created the Higgs Boson theory here. This university created the first genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccine, and helped design the first industrial assembly robot. Students can choose from among 500 degree programs spread throughout 100 disciplines. Edinburgh has the largest proportion of international students of any school in Scotland (two-thirds of the world’s nations are represented in the study body), as well as many foreign exchange programs. Students can enjoy all these opportunities right in the middle of Scotland’s beautiful capital. The school now has a £392 million endowment and a £905.8 million operating budget.

14. Cornell University

Ithaca, New York, U.S.

Cornell University is a sprawling city of science that almost seems out of place amidst the rolling upstate New York countryside surrounding the village of Ithaca (town pop. approx. 10,000; gown pop. about twice that). Typically, schools numbering in the tens of thousands are integrated into much larger cities. Thus, Cornell in many ways has both the character of a quaint college nestled in the woods and the endless opportunity characteristic of urban centers. But Cornell is not limited by its beautiful campus. It runs one of the nation’s leading medical schools in New York City. It is also among the most active schools in seeking out international connections. In 2001 it started the first American medical school outside the United States, in Qatar, and continues to develop strong ties with China, India, and Singapore. Cornell is building itself into a transnational hub of intellectual inquiry. It has also developed multiple interdisciplinary research centers in nanotechnology, biotechnology, genomics, and supercomputing. Moreover, the university was the first to build entire Colleges for hotel administration, labor relations, and veterinary medicine.

15. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The University of Pennsylvania (“Penn”) is an Ivy League school dating back to 1740. To this day, it carries on the pragmatic curiosity of its illustrious founder, Benjamin Franklin, in a wide spectrum of fields, and has become an integral part of the history and character of Philadelphia. Penn is extremely diverse. Of the class of 2017, 50 percent of the student body is black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American. The school also has just under 500 international students. The faculty include 84 Academy of Arts and Sciences members, 81 Institute of Medicine members, 33 National Academy of Science members, 31 American Philosophical Society members, 175 Guggenheim Fellowship recipients, and 12 National Academy of Engineering members. These first-class thinkers empower the school’s over 100 research centers and institutes and direct much of its $8 billion endowment. The school has 357 buildings spread over 994 acres, in addition to its own teaching hospital.

16. Humboldt University of Berlin

Berlin, Germany

Humboldt University of Berlin is the oldest of Berlin’s four universities. Founded in 1810 by Wilhelm von Humboldt, it was the first university to emphasize the unity of research and teaching in addition to the value of research without restrictions. During the Cold War, the university split into the original university in East Berlin and a sister administration called the Free University of Berlin in West Berlin. Today, the two are still linked by a shared medical school. Humboldt prioritizes research in several disciplines and collaborates with other faculties through Integrative Research Institutes and Interdisciplinary Centres. The university has a long history as the preeminent university for the natural sciences. Today, in addition to natural sciences, Humboldt University is also considered one of the finest universities in the world for its 189 disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, cultural studies, mathematics, medicine, and agricultural sciences.

17. New York University

New York City, New York, U.S.

New York City is filled with great places of learning from secondary schools up through graduate research centers. Nevertheless, even in this extremely wealthy and competitive environment, New York University has earned an impressive reputation second only to Columbia’s. NYU pursues its academic excellence while striving to be as diverse as the city it resides in. Eighty-seven different foreign nations and 48 states are represented in its freshman class alone. NYU also sends more students abroad than any other American school. Even in the present time of economic unpredictability, 83 percent of the graduating class leave with jobs. This number increases to 94 percent employed or in graduate school within six months of commencement. Furthermore, the average starting salary is an impressive $53,350. Almost half of the graduating class will receive multiple job offers. NYU has also expanded into two foreign countries, with campuses in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi. Students can choose from over 230 areas of study and enjoy an intimate 10:1 student/faculty ratio.

18. Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois, U.S.

Northwestern University’s 21,000 students enjoy three campuses, two of which border Lake Michigan (one in suburban Evanston just north of Chicago, the other in the city itself), while the third is in Doha, Qatar. These campuses house 12 Schools and Colleges. The university employs a prestigious 3,400 full-time faculty members who currently include a Nobel Prize laureate and several MacArthur Fellowship and Tony Award winners. The university is also known for its 19 teams’ presence within the Big Ten athletic conference. Its $10.456 billion endowment is why the school can afford to utilize more than $500 million for research in a given year, and why its library holds over five million books. along with numerous journals and microforms. As is so often the case, this leading research university comes in a pair and benefits from its close proximity to the University of Chicago. The school also runs several major graduate research initiatives, including the Center for Global Health, the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern, and the Global and Research Opportunities at Northwestern.

19. Johns Hopkins University

Many of the schools in this ranking were founded amid humble ambitions; they may have begun as small colleges or places aimed primarily at religious instruction. In contrast, from its very inception its founders wanted Johns Hopkins to be at the forefront of scientific discovery. That is one reason why the school has blossomed into the elite vanguard of research that it now is. Located in Baltimore, the university operates what is widely regarded as the leading medical school in the world, and has received more extramural National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards than any other medical school. This is also why it receives more federal research funds than any competitor. But Johns Hopkins is much more than just a medical school. The university at large also receives more federal research and development funds than any other school, which helps further its prestigious School of Advanced International Studies, Carey Business School, and Whiting School of Engineering. The faculty include 51 American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellows, 61 Institute of Medicine Members, 28 National Academy of Science members, and four Nobel Prize winners.

20. University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The University of Toronto is the leading Canadian research university. Even by the standards of large state schools, this institution is utterly massive with over 80,000 students, 20,000 faculty and staff, and 530,000 alumni around the world. Students can choose from 215 graduate, 60 professional, and more than 700 undergraduate degree programs spread over three different campuses. The student body represents over 150 nations. The school has 44 libraries with over 21 million holdings, and an operating budget of $1.9 billion; it contributes $15.7 billion to the Canadian economy every year. Toronto has produced no fewer than 10 Nobel Prizes, including the first two from Canada. Given its immense size and resources coupled with the world-class intellects it attracts, it should come as no surprise that Toronto ranks second in North American publications and third in North American citations. Its ample research leads to dozens of new patents every year and many new technological spin-offs.

21. City University of New York

New York City, New York, U.S.

As its name suggests, City University of New York (CUNY) has actively tried to integrate itself into arguably the world’s most-influential city. It began life in 1961 when the school combined the city’s 114-year-old municipal college system into an overarching university. Today, with 24 campuses, 6,700 full-time faculty, more than 10,000 part-time faculty, and roughly 273,000 students spread across a city with easy access to the United Nations, Wall Street, and a diverse cultural capital, this $3 billion — endowment university exposes its pupils to a world of opportunity. With approximately 160 centers and institutes, the school has produced a Fields Medalist, 13 Nobel laureates, and 21 MacArthur Fellows. The school is also associated with many famous individuals, such as the political figures Secretary of State General Colin Powell and Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the scientist Charlotte Friend, discoverer of the Friend leukemia virus, and the inventor Eli Friedman, developer of the portable dialysis machine.

22. University of Vienna

Vienna, Austria

Founded in 1365 by Rudolph IV, Duke of Austria, the University of Vienna is one of the oldest universities in the world, and one of the most respected among the German-speaking peoples. Over its six-and-a-half-century existence, it has grown large enough to serve 94,000 students, about a third of whom are international students from over 140 different nations. It offers 174 different degree programs and about 40 continuing education programs. The university also benefits from its location: It is spread across 70 different venues intertwined throughout the Austrian capital. The school has produced 15 Nobel Prizes and maintains a library that houses well over seven million volumes. Not surprisingly, the University of Vienna is the largest university in Austria. Famous alumni and professors include Protestant reformer Huldrych Zwingli; physicists Ernst Mach, Ludwig Boltzmann, Paul Ehrenfest, Erwin Schrödinger, and Lise Meitner; philosophers Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Alexius Meinong, and the “Vienna Circle” (Moritz Schlick, Rudolph Carnap, Otto Neurath, and Karl Popper, among others); mathematician Kurt Gödel; psychologists Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich; writers Adalbert Stifter, Stefan Zweig, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Arthur Schnitzler; composer Gustav Mahler; and the economists now known as the “Austrian School of Economics” (principally Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich A. Hayek), as well as Joseph Schumpeter.

23. University of Washington

Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Washington’s $2.968 billion endowment combines with 56,000 students paying state school tuition via a combination of three campuses and distance learning. This makes the school a profound research center available to the masses. Located in Seattle, the school runs several highly respected professional schools in medicine, engineering, business, and law. But unlike many schools of its size and caliber, Washington does not forget about its undergraduates. They enjoy a low 11:1 student/teacher ratio, participate in an annual undergraduate research symposium, and boast an impressive 93 percent freshman retention rate. The school has launched multiple prominent social research centers such as the Diversity Research Institute, the Center for Women’s Health and Gender Research, the Institute for Ethnic Studies in the US, and the West Coast Poverty Center. Washington has produced 35 Rhodes Scholars and seven Marshall Scholars. The school spends some $331.4 million on research annually, and has 24 small business development centers and four research and extension centers to help further state-wide agriculture.

24. Duke University

Durham, North Carolina, U.S.

Often called the Ivy League of the South, Duke University has some 14,600 students who enjoy a first-class education in the city of Durham, North Carolina, one of the three vertices of that state’s “research triangle” (the other two being the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh). Duke is especially well known for its two most prestigious professional programs: the first is Duke’s medical program, which includes Duke University Health System, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Duke Hospital, all which work in partnership; the second is its well-rated law school, which consistently ranks among the top 10 in the country, and has never dropped out of the prestigious top 14. Given these two areas of expertise, it is not surprising that Duke runs one of the world’s most sought-after dual JD/MD programs. The school also operates Duke University Press, which publishes about 120 new books each year and maintains 30 academic journals. Duke also preserves 700 acres of pristine woods called Duke Forest, which serves as a natural laboratory.

25. University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has more people than most armies in history had soldiers. With just under 70,000 people studying under its instruction, 25,000 faculty administering that instruction, and an alumni network of over 400,000, Minnesota’s web of influence has encircled the globe. The giant school, sprawling along the boundary between the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, now impacts Minnesota’s economy to the tune of $8.6 billion annually. This combination of massive financial resources and legions of brilliant minds is why Minnesota has no fewer than 325 research centers and institutes, giving students the opportunity to pursue their passions no matter where they lead. The school has developed an especially successful medical research program through its children’s hospital and biomedical library. Typically, one would expect a school of such size and prominence to be driven solely by publications and patents. The University of Minnesota, however, has maintained a compassionate touch with its giant hands. In addition to its children’s hospital, the school also runs an extremely successful education program for pupils in grades K-12. This allows children and parents, as well as future educators, to learn about learning while learning about everything else; as a result, Minnesota stands at the forefront of education research.

26. King’s College London

London, England, U.K.

Historically, King’s College London (King’s, or KCL) stood at the forefront of extending higher education to women, as well as to men from the lower social and economic classes. The school has developed and merged with several other respected academic institutions, including the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals (the latter of which created the world’s first professional school for nursing), Chelsea College, Queen Elizabeth College, and the Institute of Psychiatry. Today, this unified conglomerate forms a first-class research university with an endowment exceeding £154 million. KCL is connected to 12 Nobel Prizes. It was here that the great Romantic poet John Keats received his training, the civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu began his fight against apartheid, and the distinguished Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell conducted his research proving that light, electricity, and magnetism are all different aspects of the same phenomenon.

27. The University of Texas at Austin

Austin, Texas, U.S.

Texas is one of the fastest-growing regions in the US with an ever -increasing population and business potential. The University of Texas at Austin has become the flagship university of the larger, state-wide University of Texas System, which contains nine universities and six medical schools. It is considered one of the public Ivy League schools. Its endowment is $3.7 billion, and its research allowance approaches $700 million. There are 17 libraries and seven museums on campus. Moreover, the university, which is affiliated with nine Nobel Prize winners, runs the McDonald Observatory. The school’s faculty have also earned honors such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Wolf Prize, and the National Medal of Science. The University of Texas is very successful in the athletic arena, as well, where it competes within the well-known Big 12 Conference. Here, 51,000 students and 24,000 faculty and staff pursue the love of learning.

28. University College London

London, England, U.K.

With almost 39,000 students from over 150 countries, University College London (UCL) is the third-largest school in the U.K., and its more than 20,000 graduate students give it the largest collection of such students in the country. Founded in 1826, it is also the third-oldest U.K. school. It was founded on the principles of social philosopher Jeremy Bentham, one of the principal creators of modern Utilitarianism. Not surprisingly, it became the first university to admit women on an equal basis with men, in 1878. It was also the first university in Britain to welcome students of any religious creed. UCL is affiliated with 30 Nobel Prizes — making it the leading school in that category within the University of London network of schools — as well as three Fields Medals. Famous alumni include five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Mohandas K. (“Mahatma”) Gandhi, and co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA, Francis Crick. University College London also operates campuses in the countries of Qatar and Australia.

29. London School of Economics

London, England, U.K.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (to give its full name) is the U.K.’s only social science — based university. As its name suggests, the school produces substantial research related to money and society. It has an entire department dedicated to the specialist field of economic history and runs many research centers such as the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, the International Growth Centre, the Financial Markets Group, and the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion. The university is exceptionally cosmopolitan with over 100 languages spoken on campus, 155 nations represented, and over 70 percent international students (the highest in Britain), thus making it arguably the most diverse school in the world. Furthermore, the London School of Economics has access to the vibrant city lifestyle and numerous neighboring schools surrounding it. The school was founded in 1895 and now serves well over 10,000 students and employs almost 1,700 academic staff.

30. University of Wisconsin – Madison

Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison is a large public school of 40,000 students in 13 Schools and Colleges; it has a more than $2 billion endowment, which has enabled it to rank as high as third in the US for research expenditures. Speaking of its impressive budget, the school has recently invested a lot of money into building new facilities. In 2010 it built the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, which is designed for biomedical research. In 2012 it added a 200,000-square-foot addition to its Human Ecology Building. And in 2013 it opened the Wisconsin Energy Institute for advancing alternative energy technology. But the University of Wisconsin at Madison represents more than state-of-the-art facilities. For over 100 years this school has developed a tradition of public service. Moreover, from a vast collection of research programs directed towards solving important empirical problems, the school’s Morgridge Center for Public Service has also engaged numerous social issues, such as poverty, inequality, and globalization.

31. University of Göttingen

Göttingen, Germany

The University of Göttingen was founded in 1734 in the German city of the same name. It supports 31,500 students and 4,500 academic staff. The school is connected to no fewer than 40 Nobel Prizes and has a more than €1.1 billion budget. It participates in multiple prestigious university affiliations, such as the German Universities Excellence Initiative and the Coimbra Group. The school also maintains close ties with the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (the pioneering physicist was associated with the university and is buried in the town of Göttingen) and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community. Its eight-million-unit library is one of the largest in all Germany. Numerous luminaries from intellectual history have graced its halls, from sociologist Max Weber, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and mathematician Emmy Noether, to statesman Otto von Bismarck and the pioneering folklorists, the Brothers Grimm. The school has 13 facilities and 47 centers and institutes.

32. University of Glasgow

Glasgow, United Kingdom

Founded by Pope Nicholas V in 1451, Scotland’s University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world. It was one of the first universities in the 19th century to educate students from the urban and middle classes instead of only the wealthy. The University of Glasgow is currently a member of Universitas 21, the Russell Group, and the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities. The university comprises four colleges: The College of Arts; the College of Science and Engineering; the College of Medical, Veterinary, and Life Sciences; and the College of Social Sciences. Students from over 140 countries attend the University of Glasgow; they are drawn by its focus on interdisciplinary education and research.

33. University of California – Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

With over 72,000 applications for the fall 2012 alone, UCLA receives more applications than any other school in America. This is all the more impressive when one considers that the institution was only founded in 1919, as a two-year, undergraduate teacher training program. Now, the university has produced 13 Nobel laureates, 12 Rhodes Scholars, 12 MacArthur Fellows, 10 National Medal of Science winners, three Pulitzer Prize winners, and a Fields Medalist. UCLA has also produced numerous athletic achievements, with over 111 NCAA championships, 110 professional athletes, dominance over the No. 1 pick in the major league drafts, and 250 Olympic medals. With a roughly $3 billion endowment and a budget exceeding $4.5 billion, UCLA has recovered rapidly from the 2008 financial crisis. Its substantial research funds are part of the reason why over 100 companies have been created based on technology developed at UCLA.

34. Trinity College Dublin

Dublin, Ireland

Trinity College Dublin was first established by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. Although modeled after the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, only one college was established. Graduates of Trinity College can receive equivalent degrees at either Oxford or Cambridge without further examination. Trinity College boasts a liberal environment with diverse interdisciplinary fields of study. Students who attend Trinity can choose from over 170 societies and sports clubs as well as pursuing a degree in any of the major disciplines in the arts and humanities, business, law, engineering, science, and health sciences. The college also houses the Book of Kells, a medieval manuscript that documents the four Gospels of Jesus Christ; visitors from around the world come to view it. The Library of Trinity College is also a legal deposit library for Ireland and Great Britain and contains over 6.2 million books and manuscripts.

35. California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California, U.S.

Any school can assign you a textbook to read on your own. Real research universities pride themselves on giving you the opportunity to work alongside the leaders in their respective fields who write those textbooks. Of course, in order to do this efficiently, a school needs a decent student/faculty ratio. Few schools can beat Caltech’s 3:1 ratio, which is one of the many reasons why this relatively young institution, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, has risen so quickly to international prominence. Its faculty includes 37 Nobel laureates, 58 National Medal of Science recipients, 13 National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipients, and 115 National Academies members. But to gain access to this prestigious collection of brilliant professors, you will have to be the best of the best. Nearly 7,000 applicants compete to be one of the 200 to 250 members of the freshman class, which is why 98 percent of the student body graduated in the top 10 percent of their class. These students and teachers also study and conduct research at some of the school’s world-famous research centers, such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Seismological Laboratory, and the International Observatory Network.

36. Pennsylvania State University

State College, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Even by the standards of world-class state-run research universities, the Pennsylvania State University System (“Penn State”) is utterly massive. It takes 24 campuses to fit its nearly 100,000 students and 9,000 faculty statewide. Its flagship campus alone, University Park, with an enrollment of about 48,600 undergraduate and graduate students, is one of the largest in the country. The university also runs one of the largest graduate schools in the US, and cycles through more than $2 million in research every day. In addition to the over $800 million spent annually on research, Penn State also generates $100 million in industry and private funding each year. It has a $3.64 billion endowment and a $3.602 billion budget. Its hospital, with integrated medical school, treats over one million patients each year. Penn State’s over half-million alumni have access to the largest dues-required alumni association in the US with over 275 branches across the globe. The school also runs an online campus and the world’s largest student-organized and -led philanthropic society.

37. LMU Munich

Munich, Germany

The University of Munich — or, to give it its official name, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — is a leading European research university over half a millennium in age. It was chosen by the German government’s Excellence Initiative as a “university of excellence.” Six thousand academic staff members conduct research via its many laboratories and medical facilities. Unlike many younger schools, which have a far stronger tendency to focus on the hard sciences, the University of Munich also maintains an impressive emphasis on the humanities. For example, it has two separate theology departments, one Protestant and the other Catholic, that work side by side with its philosophy department. Half of Munich’s 18 faculties are dedicated to studying various aspects of culture. The school offers 150 subjects for its 51,000 students, five percent (about 6,800) of whom are foreign students. The school’s operating budget is an impressive €1.727 billion, which leaves plenty of room to still focus on the hard sciences. This is why Munich has produced 36 Nobel Prizes, and has 1,800 doctors treating over 500,000 patients each year.

38. Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio, U.S.

Ohio State University’s main campus is in the state capital of Columbus, one of the most prosperous places in the US. The school is also one of the top public universities in the US with 59,000 students (plus an additional 7,000 spread across other campuses) in 175 majors, 492 specializations, various graduate and professional schools, and over 1,000 extracurricular activities and internships. This makes Ohio State the third-largest university in the United States. The school has a $3.6 billion endowment, and is one of the few schools with land, sea, and space grants. It also runs several major medical research centers, such as the Arthur James Cancer Hospital and the Heart and Lung Research Institute. Its faculty includes a Nobel Prize winner, and since 2002 the university has always been either first or second among American schools for the number of faculty members affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Athletes from Ohio State University have won 100 Olympic medals, including 44 gold, 35 silver, and 21 bronze.

39. Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.

Nestled in the historic town of Providence, Rhode Island, Brown University is the seventh-oldest school in the US. This beautiful community is a federally listed architectural district with a high concentration of vintage buildings, which gives Brown a collegial atmosphere. But despite its long history, this Ivy League school has maintained a relatively small, intimate setting with over 9,300 undergraduate, graduate, and medical school students, as well as more than 730 faculty members. The university nevertheless boldly marches into the future: Brown files for close to 100 patents a year. Given the school’s small student size, its impressive $3.5 billion endowment produces a tremendous amount of resources per student. Brown Library’s special collections alone hold over three million items of rare and historic value. The university is affiliated with eight Nobel Prize laureates, five National Humanities medalists, 10 National Medal of Science winners, 55 Rhodes Scholars, 52 Gates Cambridge Scholars, 49 Marshall Scholars, 19 Pulitzer Prize winners, 12 MacArthur Fellows, and 54 members of Congress.

40. Leipzig University

Leipzig, Germany

Leipzig University, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, emphasizes three strategic research fields that cover the humanities and social sciences, the life sciences, and the natural sciences. The university was initially founded in 1409 and has been engaged in teaching and research since its creation. It houses one of the oldest German university libraries, the University Library of Leipzig, which contains historical and special collections that are nationally and internationally renowned. The university itself comprises 38 locations in Leipzig; the main buildings remain located in the same spots as the original buildings built in 1409. Students at Leipzig University can earn degrees in over 190 study programs. The student body is diverse, due to not only the range of available subjects, but also due to multiple colleges and universities located in the city of Leipzig. Student activities and organizations include an annual dance festival, a book fair, and sports training opportunities.

41. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Although the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, is a relatively young school among such prestigious company, it is the oldest private school in the western US, and has become one of the premier universities in America. USC enrolls more international students than any other American university. It has 42,000 students, almost 24,000 of whom are seeking graduate or professional training, and has an impressive $5.1 billion endowment, which leads to a $4.9 billion budget. USC has produced many noteworthy alumni, such as Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. It is also affiliated with 288 Olympic medals. The school’s faculty can boast of six Nobel Prizes, three National Medals of Science, three National Medals of Technology, and five MacArthur Fellowships, and has contributed 97 Members to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Also, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has nominated at least one USC graduate every year since the creation of the Academy Awards in 1929.

42. University of Manchester

Manchester, England, U.K.

The University of Manchester’s 38,000 students and over 4,400 academic and research staff make this school the largest single-campus university in the United Kingdom. The school has many illustrious honors to its name, including 25 Nobel laureates. Several famous scientific experiments were performed here, including Ernest Rutherford’s celebrated experiment demonstrating the nuclear model of the atom by bouncing alpha particles off of the nuclei of the atoms in a sheet of gold foil. Also, Alan Turing continued his earlier foundational work in the theory of computation and artificial intelligence here, while also developing software for one of the world’s first true computers, which was built at Manchester. This university is also responsible for the discovery of graphene. The Research Assessment Exercise found nearly two-thirds of Manchester’s work to be either world-leading or internationally excellent. Over 90 percent of graduates directly enter employment or further studies. And as if all this success were not enough, Manchester has just invested £750 million into upgrading its facilities, and plans to spend a further £1 billion by 2022. This will be the greatest amount of money ever invested into any British university.

43. Heidelberg University

Heidelberg, Germany

Founded in 1386, Heidelberg is Germany’s oldest research university. The school has also used a combination of research-based teaching and effective doctoral training to become one of Europe’s most respected science schools. Heidelberg focuses on four broad areas of research: molecular and cellular biology; material structure and pattern formation; global culture; and self-organization and -regulation. The university also runs the interdisciplinary Marsilius Kolleg (MK) center for advanced study, and works alongside independent research centers, including the German Cancer Research Center and the Max Plank Institute. The school’s 30,000 students study and work in 12 different faculties and can choose from 160 different programs. This incredibly wide range of topics of study is unparalleled in Germany, and further enhances the institution’s ability to do interdisciplinary research. Heidelberg is also plugged into a worldwide collection of over 400 research universities. It is a member of the League of European Research Universities, the Coimbra Group, and the European University Association. The school also has a satellite campus in Chile, and offers courses in various other locations. Roughly 20 percent of both the student body and the researchers are international. The school is also connected to a staggering 56 Nobel Prizes, as well as numerous other faculty awards.

44. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.

As the oldest public school in America, the University of North Carolina (UNC) combines the long-standing traditions and prestige of a private school with the large-scale appeal of a big state school. It has roughly 30,000 students served by nearly 4,000 faculty and over 8,000 administrative staff and spread out across 17 campuses. Students at the flagship campus of Chapel Hill routinely partake in 325 study abroad programs in 70 countries. UNC also cycles through a staggering number of research dollars. The National Institutes of Health gave North Carolina over $428 million in 2014, while another $141.5 million was awarded to various UNC centers and institutes. Altogether, the university spends close to a billion dollars on research supporting over 10,000 researchers, professors, scientists, and various other UNC staff. Chapel Hill has a $2.7 billion annual operating budget. The UNC School of Medicine partners with NC Memorial Hospital, NC Children’s Hospital, NC Neurosciences Hospital, NC Women’s Hospital, and NC Cancer Hospital.

45. University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

University of Pittsburgh (“Pitt”) is an urban campus with more than 100 buildings on 132 acres of land. At the center of the campus lies the Cathedral of Learning, a 42-story, Gothic-style tower that is also the tallest school building in the Western Hemisphere. Almost 5,000 faculty train roughly 29,000 pupils here, including over 10,000 graduate students. The school’s classrooms enjoy an impressive 14:1 student/faculty ratio. Pitt has a long list of scientific accomplishments: Its research is responsible for developing the polio vaccine, synthesizing insulin, performing the world’s first double transplant operation, and identifying the most-distant known galaxy. The university has also benefited greatly from a close relationship with the Pittsburgh Medical Center, and stands near the internationally renowned Carnegie Mellon University. The university has an annual operating budget of $3.53 billion, about $1 billion of which is dedicated to research. The University of Pittsburgh is a member of the Association of American Universities.

46. University of Maryland

College Park, Maryland, U.S.

The University of Maryland is the premier public school in its state. The school’s flagship College Park campus benefits from its location just four miles outside of Washington, DC. Thirty-nine thousand students study there alongside of 10,000 faculty and staff. The school’s alumni network includes over 350,000 people. The school is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university. These grants integrate the university into funding and research opportunities connected to agriculture, marine life, and space exploration, all which feed into the school’s impressive $280 million endowment and $2.1 billion budget. Students here can study 127 different undergraduate degrees and 112 graduate degrees. Maryland runs several research initiatives relevant to politics and social issues, such as the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism and the Center for American Politics and Citizenship. Maryland also spearheads research in the hard sciences through the Space Systems Laboratory and the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering.

47. Leiden University

Leiden, Netherlands

Leiden University is a well-respected school in the Netherlands. The university, which has 27,000 students coming from 110 nations, along with 1,300 academic staff, offers 46 bachelor’s and 73 master’s programs. Seven different graduate schools offer the Ph.D. degree, as well. Leiden focuses on 11 broad disciplines: Asia; bioscience, neuroscience, and the fundamentals of science; global community; historical culture and power; health and the human life cycle; legal systems; language; political legitimacy; institutions and identities; drug development; vascular and regenerative medicine. Leiden University has gained inclusion in the prestigious League of European Research Universities. It also collaborates with Leiden’s Bio Science Park, which includes more than 70 specialized life science businesses. Leiden has produced a long list of leaders, including US President John Quincy Adams, Ghana Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia, and U.K. Prime Minister John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute. Sixteen individuals affiliated with Leiden University have won the Nobel Prize, 21 have won Spinoza Prizes, and a dozen have become Vici Award laureates.

48. University of Bucharest

Bucharest, Romania

The second oldest university in Romania is the University of Bucharest, a public university founded in 1864. The Romanian Ministry of Education classifies it as an advanced research and education university. Students there can obtain a bachelor’s degree in one of almost 100 majors. There are 20 faculties that cover fields such as the natural sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, and theology. Acceptance is competitive, with 30,000 candidates vying for only 8,000 places. Graduate students may wish to undertake Bucharest’s master’s or doctoral programs, which are internationally recognized and accepted. The university does not have a single campus but rather has multiple buildings throughout Bucharest. This allows students to see many aspects of the city on their way to their classes. The University of Bucharest also has partnership agreements with over 50 other universities and participates in European programs that include ERASMUS, UNICA, Lingua, and TEMPRA. The university contains a publishing house and various research institutes and groups, such as the Institute for Political Research, the Center for Byzantine Studies, and the Center for Nuclear Research.

49. The University of Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan

The University of Tokyo is not only the leading school in Japan, it is also one of the leading schools in all Asia. It has made many strides to become an internationally renowned research center: for example, in 2012 the university developed PEAK, or “Programs in English at Komaba,” and now attracts students from over 100 nations. It also runs numerous research institutes studying multiple fields, including medical science, earthquakes, Asian cultures, molecular bioscience, cosmic ray research, solid-state physics, and environmental science, and has produced 11 Nobel Prize winners and one Fields Medalist. The university has also fully utilized its strategic location in the world’s largest city, and has had a major impact on the domestic front. Fifteen Japanese prime ministers have come from here. In fact, the school’s influence on the Japanese government has been so extensive that former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa felt the need to order government agencies to reduce the percentage of University of Tokyo alumni on their staffs to under 50 percent in order to promote diversity.

66. Boston University

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

As its name implies, Boston University (BU) lies squarely in the middle of America’s college mecca. The greater Boston area is home not just to BU, but also to Boston College, Brandeis, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, and Tufts (to name only the best-known schools), which form the highest concentration of academic institutions in the US. This gives BU students innumerable opportunities to study with as diverse a group of scholars as can be found. But BU does more than just network with its prominent neighbors. It also equips its over 33,000 pupils, almost half of whom are graduate students, with 324 academic buildings, 23 libraries, and a staggering 2,285 laboratories in both its Charles River Campus and its Medical Campus. It attracts students from all 50 states and over 130 nations. It boasts an impressive 12.6:1 student/faculty ratio, and holds close to $5 billion in assets. Its faculty include eight Nobel laureates, 23 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 10 Rhodes Scholars. The school has also produced famous alumni such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.