The best colleges in New England, ranked
MIT just took the No. 1 spot in the country for the first time ever, and New England schools swept the top of the liberal arts list. Here is where every region school landed in the 2027 U.S. News rankings.
The 30-second version: MIT is the best college in America, according to the newest U.S. News & World Report rankings, ending Princeton's 15-year run at the top. Harvard is No. 3, Yale is No. 4, and New England schools took the top three spots on the liberal arts list: Williams, Amherst, and Bowdoin. UMass Amherst is the region's highest-ranked public university.
The 2027 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, released September 22, evaluated roughly 1,700 schools on up to 17 measures, including graduation rates, post-graduate earnings, and social mobility for low-income students. Here is where New England landed.
National universities
1. MIT (Cambridge, MA), No. 1 in the country. For the first time ever, the Cambridge school tops the national list, bumping Princeton after its 15-year streak. U.S. News also ranked MIT No. 1 for undergraduate engineering, computer science, and economics.
2. Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), No. 3. Harvard holds third place for the fourth consecutive year.
3. Yale University (New Haven, CT), No. 4. Yale keeps its No. 4 spot for a second straight year.
4. Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), tied for No. 12. The Ivy in the woods climbed one spot.
5. Brown University (Providence, RI), tied for No. 16. Brown slipped three places into a four-way tie.
6. Boston College and Tufts University, tied for No. 31. Both jumped five spots this year.
7. Boston University, No. 34. BU rose eight places, one of the biggest climbs in the top 50.
8. Northeastern University, tied for No. 42. Up one spot.
9. Brandeis University and UMass Amherst, tied for No. 59. That makes UMass Amherst the highest-ranked public university in New England.
Liberal arts colleges
New England owns this list. The top three liberal arts colleges in the country are all here:
- Williams College (Williamstown, MA), No. 1 again
- Amherst College (Amherst, MA), No. 2
- Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME), No. 3
Also in the national top 50: Wellesley College at No. 10, Wesleyan University tied at No. 14, Middlebury College at No. 19, and Colby College, College of the Holy Cross, and Smith College tied at No. 22. Bates, Trinity, Mount Holyoke, and Connecticut College also made the top 50.
One more debut worth noting: Babson College, eligible for the overall rankings for the first time, opened at No. 1 among northern regional universities.
The fine print
Rankings are a starting point, not a verdict. U.S. News weighs factors like peer assessments and faculty resources alongside outcomes, and critics argue the methodology rewards wealth and selectivity as much as teaching. Fit, cost, and program strength matter more for any individual student than a one-spot move on a list.
Sources
- U.S. News & World Report: The 2027 Best Colleges rankings
- Boston Globe: See the New England schools ranked in the Top 50 by U.S. News
- Boston Globe: MIT bumps Princeton as top national college
- Boston.com: The best colleges in the country in 2027
- MIT News: MIT named the nation's top university
Cover image is an AI-generated illustration, not a photo of a specific campus.