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Website ranks top U.S. universities for 2021

Oct. 20, 2020
Harvard University tops the list put together by the WalletHub website.

Harvard University ranks as the top higher education institution in the United States for 2021, according to the WalletHub website.

The Cambridge, Mass.,-based institution supplanted its neighbor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), at the top of the WalletHub list.

WalletHub's 2021 Best College & University Rankings compiles and analyzes data in an effort to determine which institutions provide the best education experience for students.

To determine the top-performing schools at the lowest possible costs to undergraduates, WalletHub compared more than 1,000 higher-education institutions in the United States across 30 key measures.

The data set is grouped into seven categories—Student Selectivity, Cost & Financing, Faculty Resources, Campus Safety, Campus Experience, Education Outcomes and Career Outcomes.

The metrics range from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary. Analysts compile a score based on a 100-point scale for each college or university.

For 2021, Harvard, with a score of 78.6, edged out Yale University, which received a score of 78.57. MIT, which ranked first in the WalletHub 2020 list, placed third in 2021.

Here are the 10 colleges and universities ranked the highest by WalletHub:

School                                                                        Location                    Score

1. Harvard University                                               Cambridge MA         78.6

2. Yale University                                                     New Haven CT           78.57

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology           Cambridge MA        78.44

4. Princeton University                                            Princeton NJ              78.41

5. California Institute of Technology                     Pasadena CA             77.65

6. Stanford University                                              Stanford CA                77.12

7. Rice University                                                     Houston TX                  76.96

8. Northwestern University                                     Evanston IL                   75.4

9. Duke University                                                    Durham NC                    75.18

10. University of Pennsylvania                              Philadelphia PA               74.95

About the Author

Mike Kennedy | Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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