Each year, people avidly examine the results of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Maybe we’re proud to see our alma mater on the list or maybe we’re trying to decide where to attend. The Times list ranks more than 2,000 institutions in 115 countries and world territories, using metrics such as ratio of staff to students, gender equivalence and how many students attend full-time. Here in the U.S. we’re lucky that the second, third and fourth spots are all based here.
In first place is the University of Oxford in England; it’s held that spot for nine years! Maybe next year MIT can wrest that honor away—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is at No. 2. MIT already rose from spot No. 3 last year, bumping Stanford down to No. 6. Lodged in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, MIT boasts academic excellence and leadership in innovation. It’s first in the world in the list’s social sciences and business and economics categories. Its overall score is 98.1, compared to Oxford’s 98.5.
In third place is another university in the same town: Harvard. Dating to 1636, Harvard is the oldest college in the U.S. and attracts a high caliber of faculty and students. Like MIT, Harvard is known for groundbreaking research. Last year, it was in fourth place. It’s first in the world in engineering, law, and life sciences. Its overall score is 97.7.
The fourth-place university in the world is Princeton, located in New Jersey, with an overall score of 97.5. It didn’t capture any “firsts” in the categories. Last year, it was in the No. 6 position. (And interestingly, fifth place, flanking our U.S. winners, is another university in Cambridge, although it is quite a different Cambridge! It’s the University of Cambridge in the U.K.)
All of the U.S. universities in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2025
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Harvard University
4. Princeton University
6. Stanford University
7. California Institute of Technology
8. University of California, Berkeley
10. Yale University
14. Tie: University of Chicago & University of Pennsylvania
16. Johns Hopkins University
18. Tie: Columbia University & University of California, Los Angeles
20. Cornell University
22. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
24. Carnegie Mellon University
25. University of Washington
27. Duke University
31. Northwestern University
33. New York University
34. University of California, San Diego
40. Georgia Institute of Technology
46. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
50. University of Texas, Austin
56. University of Wisconsin, Madison
58. Brown University
62. University of California, Davis
67. University of California, Santa Barbara
69. Washington University in St. Louis
70. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
72. University of Southern California
75. Boston University
79. Purdue University, West Lafayette
84. University of Massachusetts
87. University of Minnesota
90. Tie: University of California, Irvine & Vanderbilt University
98. Emory University
100. Penn State (main campus)
112. Tie: Rice University & University of Maryland, College Park
116. Ohio State University (main campus)
122. Michigan State University
127. University of Rochester
130. University of Florida
136. University of Arizona
141. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
143. Texas A&M University
144. University of Colorado, Boulder
159. Case Western Reserve University
163. University of Virginia (main campus)
168. Dartmouth College
179. Tufts University
189. Indiana University
196. Tie: University of California, Santa Cruz & University of Notre Dame