{"id":165414,"date":"2025-09-23T07:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T07:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/uc-berkeley-named-top-public-school-in-the-country-by-us-news-berkeley-news\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T07:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T07:45:12","slug":"uc-berkeley-named-top-public-school-in-the-country-by-us-news-berkeley-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/uc-berkeley-named-top-public-school-in-the-country-by-us-news-berkeley-news\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley named top public school in the country by \u2018US News\u2019 – Berkeley News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the more than 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities evaluated, Berkeley claimed the No. 1 spot of all public schools in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report rankings.<\/em>
\t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t By Anne Brice<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Keegan Houser\/UC Berkeley
\t\t\t\t September 22, 2025 \t\t\t\t
UC Berkeley has been named the top public school in the country, according to new rankings released today<\/a> (Monday, Sept. 22) by U.S. News & World Report<\/em>.
It is the 16th time over the past two decades that Berkeley has claimed the top spot in the annual U.S. News<\/em> Best Colleges rankings. Berkeley has consistently been one of the highest-ranked public schools nationally since the magazine\u2019s rankings began in 1983.
\u201cWe are honored to once again be recognized as the nation\u2019s top public university,\u201d said Chancellor Rich Lyons. \u201cThe data affirm all that Berkeley does as a powerful engine of economic mobility, and provider of affordable world-class education, accessible to all. We are proud of our pioneering research on society\u2019s top challenges, shaping solutions that directly support our economy and the health, well-being and security of the American people.\u201d
Berkeley also came in No. 1 among all ranked colleges again for its data analytics\/science programs, and for its civil engineering and electrical\/electronic\/communications engineering programs, both up from the No. 2 slot last year. 
The 2026 U.S. News<\/em> rankings evaluated more than 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities, using up to 17 key factors to measure academic quality, including graduation rates, peer assessment, financial resources per student and social mobility. While the rankings primarily evaluate institutions based on their undergraduate programs, they also consider aspects of graduate education and research, aiming to provide a holistic assessment of the institution. 
All together, Berkeley landed in the top five in 23 of 43 ranked categories, including undergraduate economics programs, artificial intelligence, theory and best colleges for veterans.  
U.S. News<\/em> also separately evaluates graduate programs every year, in which Berkeley\u2019s professional schools and doctoral programs consistently rank among the nation\u2019s best. Of the 50 programs ranked last April<\/a>, nine nabbed the top spot, including English, psychology and computer engineering. Thirty-two placed in the top five. 
After Berkeley, other top public universities in the 2026 U.S. News<\/em> rankings include UCLA (2nd), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (3rd), and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and University of Virginia, which tied for fourth. Of all universities in the nation, which includes public and private institutions, Berkeley tied with Columbia University for 15th place. 
Berkeley is routinely recognized as the nation\u2019s top public university, most recently in Forbes\u2019 <\/em>rankings of America\u2019s Top Colleges<\/a> and U.S. News\u2019<\/em> Best Global Universities rankings<\/a>. It also earned the distinction as the leading public university in North America in the QS World University Rankings 2026<\/a> and topped the PitchBook university rankings<\/a> earlier this month for generating more startups founded by undergraduate alumni than any other university worldwide.
\t\t\t\t \t\tCopyright \u00a9 2025 UC Regents; all rights reserved \t\t\t\t \t
\t\t\t\t \t\tCopyright \u00a9 2025 UC Regents; all rights reserved \t\t\t\t \t<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of the more than 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities evaluated, Berkeley claimed the No. 1 spot of all public schools in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report rankings. By Anne Brice Keegan Houser\/UC Berkeley September 22, 2025 UC Berkeley has been named the top public school in the country, according to new rankings released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}