The best college in every US state

At a time when AI is reshaping classrooms and raising questions about the future of work, some young people are questioning the value of pursuing higher education at all. While some founders encourage promising students to go into ambitious startups and forgo traditional education, high-earning tech execs continue to champion the value of a college degree, even if it's for completely different reasons. For families, choosing a school can be one of the biggest financial and personal decisions teenagers make right out of high school, shaping their access to alumni networks, research, and internship opportunities. For some students, moving away for a stronger academic program or better long-term earnings potential is worth the cost. For others, the sticker shock of tuition costs in out-of-state schools makes in-state options much more appealing. The good news is that quality education is available across the US, whether it's in the big cities or charming college towns. Every year, US News & World Report ranks schools across the US, from large public institutions to private research universities, and compares their offerings to students across categories, like different academic disciplines and overall value. Rather than providing a definitive college list, it ranks institutions by type. For this story, Business Insider consulted the publication's 2026 Best National Universities ranking, which evaluated 434 schools using up to 17 measures of academic quality, drawing on data reported by schools and third-party sources. The ranking looked at data like graduation and retention rates, graduates' debt loads and earnings, faculty and financial resources, and admissions selectivity, among others. The list, while broad, doesn't include liberal arts colleges focused on undergraduate education, like Amherst College or Pomona College, or regional universities with limited doctoral programs. College rankings have faced criticism over the years. Critics of US News & World Report's lists have said they can put pressure on schools to perform well in certain categories to boost their perceived prestige, and its ranking methodology has been questioned by skeptics who emphasize the importance of non-quantifiable factors — which may not be well represented in the publication's method — in determining how good a school is. US News has defended its rankings as a useful resource for students and families. "Our rankings don't capture every nuance," US News & World Report executive chairman and CEO Eric Gertler wrote in a 2023 Wall Street Journal op-ed after a coalition of law and medical schools decided to boycott the list by not submitting their data. "Academic institutions aren't monolithic or static; comparing them across a common data set can be challenging," Gertler continued. "But we reject our critics' paternalistic view that students are somehow incapable of discerning for themselves from this information which school is the best fit." The rankings have also been at the center of legal controversies. In one case, the former dean of Temple University's business school was convicted of fraud after prosecutors said false and manipulated data was submitted to the publication to boost the school's online MBA ranking. Still, its rankings remain one barometer for school standards and can indicate particular strengths at institutions across the country. We identified the highest-ranking school in each state on the 2026 list. See which university topped the list in your state.