Introduction to the Top 200 Institutions

The following tables list the top 200 universities and colleges on each of the nine performance measures, along with National Merit and Achievement Scholars. (The Source Notes section provides detailed information on each of the ten data elements.) Unlike the previous tables, this section includes data for all academic institutions regardless of their federal research activity level.

The Center for Measuring University Performance provides each institution’s rank nationally among all universities as well as its rank by institutional control (i.e., rank among private or public peers). In cases where several institutions tie for last place, we use a different cutoff point. For National Academy members, we list all institutions with at least one member among their faculty. In the case of faculty awards, we limit institutions to those with at least three faculty awards. Tables in this section include:

Data found in these tables may not always match the figures published by the original source: The MUP Center makes adjustments, when necessary, to ensure that the data reflect the activity at a single campus rather than totals from the locations of a multiple campus institution or a state university system. When data are missing from the original source, The MUP Center may substitute another figure if available.  The published Top American Research Universities report includes an extensive table identifying adjustments to any of the data included in the report or these tables.

In this section, prior year tables are not updated to reflect changes due to revised figures or estimates from the data source or institution since our last report. Tables located in the Universities Reporting Any Federal Research in the Past Five Years section are a better source for historical data.