Princeton’s 15-year run as the nation’s top college is over. A change in methodology in the U.S. News rankings helped boost schools where students have high earnings The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top spot in the U.S.
News & World’s report best colleges ranking this year. /iStock The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top spot in the U.S. News & World Report’s best colleges ranking this year, marking the first time since the 2012 edition that Princeton University hasn’t held the No. 1 spot. The change likely isn’t a sign of any major shifts in the education Princeton and MIT provide students, and instead is the result of a tweak in the methodology U.S.
News used to calculate the rankings. This year, the news organization introduced a metric that evaluates graduates’ earnings within majors. MIT was the strongest performer in this new category, Eric Brooks, U.S.
News’ director of education data analysis said. Copyright ©2026 MarketWatch, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 As the S&P 500 nears a new record high, there are signs of weakness below the surface Bitcoin hits an 8-month high — and sends a clear message about risk appetite right now Meta’s stock is enjoying its best month in 13 years thanks to the company’s hot new AI assistant ‘She says it’s just money’: My friend pays for everything.
I should be grateful, but I can’t stand her anymore. Jillian Berman is assistant managing editor, news and enterprise, at MarketWatch, where she covers student loans and consumer debt. Her book on the student-debt crisis, “Sunk Cost: Who's to Blame for the Nation's Broken Student Loan System and How to Fix It,” was published in 2025.
You can follow her on Twitter @JillianBerman. Intraday Data provided by FACTSET and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by FACTSET.
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