Northwestern fell one place to No. 7 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report’s annual National Universities rankings. 

NU tied with Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania in 7th place. The University of Chicago now holds the 6th place spot. 

In April, U.S. News released its latest rankings on specialized schools. The University retained its No. 2 spot among business graduate schools. The School of Education and Social Policy and the Pritzker School of Law both fell one spot, landing at No. 6 and No. 10. in their respective rankings. 

Among global universities, NU ranks at No. 24, a metric that combines academic research performance with reputation on both the global and regional scale.

NU’s social mobility ranking rose from 82nd to 69th, reflecting its improved success in enrolling and graduating economically disadvantaged students awarded Pell Grants. Near the top of this list are mostly public institutions.

Yet, the University dropped from 15th to 19th place in Best Value Schools, which is calculated from a school’s ranking and the net cost for an “out-of-state student who received the average level of need-based scholarship or grant aid.”

The undergraduate economics program retained its spot at 8th. Additionally, the University ranked 17th for its undergraduate engineering program, one spot lower than last year.

NU is ranked 28th for most innovative schools and 35th for undergraduate teaching.

Princeton University retained its spot at No. 1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and Yale University retained their spots in the top five.

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