By Historical Society,Michaela Althouse
Copyright phillyvoice
After a tumultuous year that included a number of battles with the Trump administration, the University of Pennsylvania was ranked No. 7 in U.S. News & World Report’s annual analysis of America’s colleges and universities, which was published Tuesday.
The West Philly institution bounced back from last year when it fell to 10th — its lowest ranking since 1997. In the national universities category, which measures 1,700 schools across the country, Penn was behind only Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Chicago, and it was tied with Duke, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern.
In other metrics, Penn was tied with MIT for the top spot in business programs and landed as No. 13 for best value schools with a $25,315 price tag (cost after receiving grants).
U.S. News, which has seen its fair share of criticism over the years for its methodology, used 17 factors to determine the 2026 rankings, including graduation rates, first-year retention rates, borrower debt and peer assessment. To qualify, schools need to grant bachelor’s degrees, hold regional accreditation, accept applicants for first-year, full-time students and offer an on-campus-based education.
The release of the report comes during a combative year between the White House and universities. Within a few days of taking office in January, President Donald Trump said schools receiving federal funding needed to end diversity, equity and inclusion programming. As a result, Penn eventually scrubbed diversity mentions from its website, closed its office of equal opportunity in the Carey Law School and paused the Sadie Alexander scholarship for students studying racial justice, although it recently launched a fellowship named after the prominent alumnus.
A few months later, Trump paused $175 million in federal funding to Penn after the Department of Education said the school violated Title IX for allowing transgender graduate Lia Thomas to compete on the women’s NCAA swimming and diving team during the 2021-2022 school year. Penn later agreed to restore Division I records and titles to female athletes who lost to Thomas, and the school banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Other local schools
In the U.S. News rankings for national universities, Villanova was the next highest Philly-area school at No. 57. Drexel also cracked the top 100, rising six spots to No. 80, and Rutgers University in Camden was No. 97. Meanwhile, Temple fell four slots to No. 102, a further drop from its high of No. 89 in 2023, Thomas Jefferson University was No. 132, and La Salle tied for No. 257.
Schools were also ranked based on groupings for National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges. Locally in those categories, Saint Joseph’s University was ranked No. 6 in Regional Universities North, and Swarthmore College in Delaware County was fourth in National Liberal Arts Colleges.
