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Princeton loses U.S. News rankings top spot
dailyprincetonian.com

Princeton loses U.S. News rankings top spot

The gist

MIT ranked No. 1 in U.S. News' 2027 Best Colleges, ending Princeton's 15 years on top.
The list's new earnings metric shifts how families weigh a degree's payoff.

How it unfolded

  1. 2021 -10Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber '83, in a PAW column titled "The Rankings Mishegoss," envisioned an alternative model in which publications "might treat colleges more like Consumer Reports treats cars."
  2. Sep 22, 2026U.S. News & World Report released its 2027 Best Colleges rankings: MIT ranked No. 1, Princeton fell to No. 2 after 15 consecutive years at the top, and Harvard ranked No. 3.
  3. Sep 22, 2026MIT scored 100, Princeton 99 and Harvard 96 on the 100-point scale; Caltech rose from No. 11 to tie Stanford at No. 5, and Yale ranked No. 4.

Sources

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