SoCal Dominates U.S. News & World Report's Best Schools List

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles County is home to two of the nation's top 20 universities, according to U.S. News & World Report's list of the 50 best national universities. release Monday. In all, a whopping nine California schools made the top 20 list, including five in the Southland.

The nine are Stanford at No. 6, Caltech at No. 12 along with Dartmouth, UCLA at No. 20, USC at No. 22 along with UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara at No. 34, UC Irvine at No. 36, UC San Diego at No. 37, and UC Davis at No 39.

The 2020 rankings include the overall best national universities rankings, as well as rankings for the best liberal-arts colleges, the top public schools, the best value schools and more.

Along with being featured on the national list, California colleges also placed on other lists, including UCLA, which was ranked the number one national public university and California Polytechnic State University--San Luis Obispo, which was named the West's top regional public university.

For the 2020 rankings, U.S. News made some changes to help prospective students with their college search. A new set of rankings looks at the top performers in social mobility, evaluating which schools best serve underrepresented students. The 2020 methodology also factors in which schools support first-generation college students through graduation.

A total of 1,400 colleges are included in the 2020 rankings.The publication says that 90 percent of those reading the best-colleges list are looking for schools outside the top 10. (You can read the full methodology here)

“For more than three decades, we’ve collected and analyzed data on thousands of colleges and
universities across the country and helped put schools on the map,” Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News, said in a news release. “We’ve found the best institutions to be ones committed to academically and financially supporting their students through graduation. They draw in high-quality professors and set students up for postgraduate success.”

Overall, Princeton University once again stayed in the No.1 spot. Williams College was the top liberal-arts college and the University of California-Los Angeles was the No.1 public school.

Below are the top 5 national universities:

1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA)
3. Columbia University (NY) (tie)
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (tie)
3. Yale University (CT) (tie)

Below are the top 3 liberal arts colleges:

1. Williams College (MA)
2. Amherst College (MA)
3. Swarthmore College (PA) (tie)
3. Wellesley College (MA) (tie)

Below are the top 3 public universities:

1. University of California—Los Angeles
2. University of California—Berkeley
3. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor