US News college rankings are back. How did OSU, other Ohio schools fare?

Love ’em or hate ’em, the latest U.S. News & World Report 2026 college rankings are here.

Many universities tout the annual recognition. Critics say the list wrongly values prestige more than social mobility. All the while, students and parents often lean on them to help determine what college is right for them.

U.S. News & World Report published its annual college rankings on Sept. 23, ranking more than 1,500 four-year colleges and universities nationwide in categories like geographic region, academic major and the best bang for your buck.

The for-profit magazine’s annual rankings have been the target of backlash for years. Critics say the rankings, which began in 1983 and have long been considered the gold standard, are biased toward selective private universities, are too easily manipulated by the schools themselves and fail to capture the breadth of a school’s offerings.

More recently, several elite universities publicly stepped away from U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. Columbia University, one of the few undergraduate schools to abstain, said in 2023 that concern about the ranking’s “outsized influence” in the undergraduate admissions process was a major factor in their decision.

U.S. News & World Report adjusted its methodology for ranking schools over the last couple of years, increasing the weight of a schools’ success in graduating students from different backgrounds, and eliminating factors like alumni giving, class size and high school standing.

This year’s rankings will reflect greater stability than recent editions due to two key factors: graduate outcomes data and ranking categories.

This year, the rankings will “reflect greater stability” than recent editions, U.S. News & World Report said. That’s in part because the College Scorecard — a U.S. Department of Education dashboard that provides data to help students and families compare colleges and universities — did not update its institutional graduate earnings and debt data in time for the annual analysis.

“As a result, we will reuse the same data from the previous edition for the 10% of our formula that these factors represent in total,” U.S. News & World Report said in an announcement. “We anticipate future updates to this data, especially with recent legislative changes and our ongoing communication with the College Scorecard.

With so much tumult across the higher education sector over the last year, some things don’t change. Princeton University yet again claimed the No. 1 spot among national universities, followed by M.I.T in second, and Harvard in third.

How did Ohio schools rank according to U.S. News & World Report?

A number of schools in the Columbus area and around Ohio landed a spot on one of U.S. News and World Report’s lists, including best national universities, best national liberal arts colleges, best historically Black colleges and universities, and best regional universities in the Midwest.

Among Ohio’s national universities, Ohio State University found itself once again on the top 50 best national universities.

Ohio State earned the 41st slot, just behind the University of California, Santa Barbara and just ahead of Boston University.

Ohio’s regional colleges and universities also had a good showing on their respective lists. Ohio Northern University ranked No. 2 for best regional college in the Midwest, and John Carroll University ranked No. 3 for the Midwest’s best regional university.

Here’s how other Ohio colleges and universities ranked this year:

• Ashland University: No. 42 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Antioch College: No. 183 in national liberal arts universities (tie)

• Baldwin Wallace University: No. 12 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Bowling Green State University: No. 293 in national universities (tie)

• Capital University: No. 42 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Case Western Reserve University: No. 51 in national universities (tie)

• Cedarville University: No. 17 in regional universities Midwest

• Central State University: No. 68 in HBCUs (tie)

• Cleveland State University: No. 343 in national universities (tie)

• Denison University: No. 34 in national liberal arts universities

• Hiram College: No. 10 in regional colleges Midwest

• John Carroll University: No. 2 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Kent State University: No. 232 in national universities (tie)

• Kenyon College: No. 45 in national liberal arts universities (tie)

• Marietta College: No. 15 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)

• Miami University: No. 143 in national universities (tie)

• Mount St. Joseph University: No. 343 in national universities (tie)

• Muskingum University: No. 46 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Oberlin College: No. 58 in national liberal arts universities (tie)

• Otterbein University: No. 12 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Ohio Northern University: No. 1 in regional colleges Midwest

• Ohio State University: No. 41 in national universities

• Ohio University: No. 198 in national universities (tie)

• Ohio Dominican University: No. 112 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

• Ohio Wesleyan University: No. 121 in national liberal arts universities (tie)

• The College of Wooster: No. 76 in national liberal arts universities (tie)

• University of Akron: No. 373 in national universities (tie)

• University of Cincinnati: No. 158 in national universities (tie)

• University of Dayton: No. 143 in national universities (tie)

• University of Findlay: No. 393 in national universities (tie)

• University of Toledo: No. 293 in national universities (tie)

• Walsh University: No. 363 in national universities (tie)

• Wilberforce University: No. 54 in HBCUs (tie)

• Wittenberg University: No. 164 in national liberal arts universities (tie)

• Xavier University: No. 208 in national universities (tie)

• Youngstown State University: No. 99 in regional universities Midwest (tie)

Are there other college rankings?

In response to U.S. News and World Report’s annual best college rankings, a number of other publications have started their own lists. Each uses a slightly different methodology to curate their rankings.

Washington Monthly, for instance, focuses on a school’s contribution to the public good in multiple categories.

Niche, a school reviews and ratings website, surveys students for their satisfaction level on a number of topics like campus food and college admissions. It recently ranked Case Western, Ohio State and Kenyon among its top Ohio colleges.

The Wall Street Journal assesses colleges using three main categories: student outcomes, the learning environment and diversity.

The New York Times developed a “Build Your Own College Ranking” tool, where users can move variables like economic mobility, low net price, athletics, racial diversity and party scene on sliders to create a more-personalized best college list.

Forbes ranks using only six factors: academic performance, alumni salary, debt, student satisfaction, on-time graduation rate, and American leaders (based on the website’s database of successful people, from billionaires and public servants).

Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: See how Ohio colleges fared on US News & World Report rankings