Add The California Post on Google A Northern California private college took the number one spot in a new national ranking of the best colleges and universities, with three others in the state landing in the top 10.
TIME’s roundup inaugural issue of America’s Best Colleges of 2026-2027 ranked Stanford University the best out of 500 colleges it looked at across the country.
The private research university in the heart of Silicon Valley dominated the competition, earning sky-high marks for its learning environment, student outcomes and appeal to prospective students.
The school scored 95.21% for student outcomes, the most heavily weighted category, accounting for 75% of an institution’s overall score.
It also racked up a 99.82% score for its learning environment, worth 15% of the total, and a 99.75% attractiveness score, which makes up the remaining 10%.
The elite California school was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford, a former California governor and US senator, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, as a memorial to their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., according to the university’s website.
More than 120 years later, Stanford has become a powerhouse in medicine, research and academics, with more than 17,000 students currently enrolled.
“World-class researchers in Stanford School of Medicine and across the university are responsible for groundbreaking discoveries that are focused on predicting, preventing, and curing disease by tailoring health care to the unique biology and life circumstances of each of us,” the school’s website read.
“Our long history of innovation and achievement includes the world’s first successful heart and lung transplant, and development of one of the first in-house COVID-19 diagnostic tests.”
“Our medical enterprise, Stanford Medicine, provides access to unparalleled patient care across the San Francisco Bay Area,” it added.
Three other schools in the golden state were recognized in the new national ranking, all three are private schools in Southern California: Harvey Mudd College, the California Institute of Technology and Claremont McKenna College.
Harvey Mudd, tucked away in Claremont, took the No. 3 spot nationwide. The tiny liberal arts college was founded in 1955 and has just 900 students, with its majors focused exclusively on STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“If anything, this is the time that the world needs more liberal arts colleges, because we need people to question what’s happening,” Thyra Briggs, Harvey Mudd’s VP of admission and financial aid, told TIME.
Meanwhile, Pasadena’s famed California Institute of Technology — better known as Caltech — landed at No. 6.
Founded in 1891, the elite science and engineering school has roughly 2,500 students and has long punched far above its weight in the academic world.
Claremont McKenna College also made the cut, coming in at No. 9 nationwide.
The liberal arts college, founded in 1946, specializes in non-STEM fields and has a student population of nearly 1,400.
For the ranking, TIME partnered with Statista, analyzing the federal data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
It is the latest ranking showing universities in the Golden State are finding ways to compete against historic prominent colleges on the East Coast
Stanford ranked 10th overall in LinkedIn’s Top Colleges 2026, a ranking that analyzes undergraduate schools across the country that best prepare graduates for long-term career success.
Four other institutions –– University of California, Berkeley, Caltech, University of Southern California and McKenna –– represented the state in this year’s top 40.
