US News自1985年起开始，每年发布全美大学排名，逐渐成为准申请人和家长心中的信得过的品牌和选校红宝书。根据StudentPoll和ACT联合进行的调查显示，在众多美国大学排名中，US News占据重中之重的位置：58%的接受调查者使用US News的排名，21%使用Princeton Review，9%使用福布斯最佳高校排行，5%使用thebestcolleges.org，另有8%使用其他排行榜。不过US News同样提出，建议学生使用最佳研究生院排名作为辅助选择入读项目的有效工具，而不是作为下最终决定的唯一因素。唯排名论或许会对申请和入读造成一定程度的消极影响，建议读者理性看待排名的价值。
| Rank | School Name | City |
| #1 | 斯坦福大学Stanford University | Stanford, CA |
| #2 | 哈佛大学Harvard University | Boston, MA |
| #3 | 宾夕法尼亚大学University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | Philadelphia, PA |
| #4 | 芝加哥大学University of Chicago (Booth) | Chicago, IL |
| #5 | 麻省理工学院Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) | Cambridge, MA |
| #6 | 西北大学Northwestern University (Kellogg) | Evanston, IL |
| #7 | 加州大学伯克利分校University of California—Berkeley (Haas) | Berkeley, CA |
| #8 | 哥伦比亚大学Columbia University | New York, NY |
| #9 | 达特茅斯学员Dartmouth College (Tuck) | Hanover, NH |
| #10 | 弗吉尼亚大学University of Virginia (Darden) | Charlottesville, VA |
| #11 | 纽约大学New York University (Stern) | New York, NY |
| #11 | 密歇根大学University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (Ross) | Ann Arbor, MI |
| #13 | 杜克大学Duke University (Fuqua) | Durham, NC |
| #13 | 耶鲁大学Yale University | New Haven, CT |
| #15 | 加州大学洛杉矶分校University of California—Los Angeles (Anderson) | Los Angeles, CA |
| #16 | 康奈尔大学Cornell University (Johnson) | Ithaca, NY |
| #17 | 德州大学奥斯汀分校University of Texas—Austin (McCombs) | Austin, TX |
| #18 | 北卡罗来纳大学University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) | Chapel Hill, NC |
| #19 | 圣路易斯华盛顿大学Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | St. Louis, MO |
| #20 | 卡内基梅隆大学Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | Pittsburgh, PA |
| #21 | 埃默里大学Emory University (Goizueta) | Atlanta, GA |
| #21 | 印第安纳大学布鲁明顿分校Indiana University—Bloomington (Kelley) | Bloomington, IN |
| #23 | 华盛顿大学University of Washington (Foster) | Seattle, WA |
| #24 | 乔治城大学Georgetown University (McDonough) | Washington, DC |
| #25 | 圣母大学University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | Notre Dame, IN |
| #25 | 南加州大学University of Southern California (Marshall) | Los Angeles, CA |
| #27 | 德州农工大学Texas A&M University—College Station (Mays) | College Station, TX |
| #27 | 明尼苏达大学双城分校University of Minnesota—Twin Cities (Carlson) | Minneapolis, MN |
| #27 | 范德堡大学Vanderbilt University (Owen) | Nashville, TN |
| #30 | 亚利桑那州立大学Arizona State University (Carey) | Tempe, AZ |
| #30 | 佐治亚理工学院Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) | Atlanta, GA |
| #30 | 俄亥俄州立大学Ohio State University (Fisher) | Columbus, OH |
| #33 | 杨百翰大学Brigham Young University (Marriott) | Provo, UT |
| #33 | 里斯大学Rice University (Jones) | Houston, TX |
| #33 | 德州大学达拉斯分校University of Texas—Dallas | Richardson, TX |
| #33 | 威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校University of Wisconsin—Madison | Madison, WI |
| #37 | 密歇根州立大学Michigan State University (Broad) | East Lansing, MI |
| #37 | 宾州州立大学Pennsylvania State University—University Park (Smeal) | University Park, PA |
| #37 | 佛罗里达大学University of Florida (Hough) | Gainesville, FL |
| #37 | 罗切斯特大学University of Rochester (Simon) | Rochester, NY |
| #41 | 天普大学Temple University (Fox) | Philadelphia, PA |
| #41 | 马里兰大学University of Maryland—College Park (Smith) | College Park, MD |
| #43 | 波士顿大学Boston University | Boston, MA |
| #43 | 爱荷华大学University of Iowa (Tippie) | Iowa City, IA |
| #45 | 波士顿学院Boston College (Carroll) | Chestnut Hill, MA |
| #45 | 维克森林大学Wake Forest University | Winston-Salem, NC |
| #47 | 伊利诺伊大学香槟分校University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, IL |
| #48 | 罗格斯大学Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—Newark and New Brunswick | Newark, NJ |
| #48 | 南卫理公会大学Southern Methodist University (Cox) | Dallas, TX |
| #48 | 加州大学戴维斯分校University of California—Davis | Davis, CA |
| #48 | 康涅狄格大学University of Connecticut | Storrs, CT |
| #48 | 匹兹堡大学University of Pittsburgh (Katz) | Pittsburgh, PA |
| #53 | 普渡大学Purdue University—West Lafayette (Krannert) | West Lafayette, IN |
| #53 | 加州大学尔湾分校University of California—Irvine (Merage) | Irvine, CA |
| #53 | 佐治亚大学University of Georgia (Terry) | Athens, GA |
| #56 | 亚利桑那大学University of Arizona (Eller) | Tucson, AZ |
| #57 | 东北大学Northeastern University | Boston, MA |
| #58 | 贝勒大学Baylor University (Hankamer) | Waco, TX |
| #58 | 乔治华盛顿大学George Washington University | Washington, DC |
| #58 | 阿拉巴马大学University of Alabama (Manderson) | Tuscaloosa, AL |
| #61 | 杜伦大学Tulane University (Freeman) | New Orleans, LA |
| #62 | 柏森商学院Babson College (Olin) | Babson Park, MA |
| #63 | 凯斯西储大学Case Western Reserve University (Weatherhead) | Cleveland, OH |
| #63 | 爱荷华州立大学Iowa State University | Ames, IA |
| #63 | 德克萨斯基督教大学Texas Christian University (Neeley) | Fort Worth, TX |
| #63 | 阿肯色大学费耶特维尔分校University of Arkansas—Fayetteville (Walton) | Fayetteville, AR |
| #63 | 加州大学圣地亚哥分校University of California—San Diego (Rady) | San Diego, CA |
| #63 | 俄克拉荷马大学University of Oklahoma (Price) | Norman, OK |
| #63 | 田纳西大学University of Tennessee—Knoxville | Knoxville, TN |
| #70 | 北卡罗来纳州立大学North Carolina State University (Jenkins) | Raleigh, NC |
| #70 | 辛辛那提大学University of Cincinnati (Lindner) | Cincinnati, OH |
| #70 | 路易斯维尔大学University of Louisville | Louisville, KY |
| #70 | 犹他大学University of Utah (Eccles) | Salt Lake City, UT |
| #74 | 威廉玛丽学院College of William and Mary (Mason) | Williamsburg, VA |
| #74 | 马萨诸塞大学University of Massachusetts—Amherst (Isenberg) | Amherst, MA |
| #74 | 南卡罗来纳大学University of South Carolina (Moore) | Columbia, SC |
| #77 | 纽约市立大学巴鲁克学院CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College (Zicklin) | New York, NY |
| #77 | 路易斯安那州立大学Louisiana State University—Baton Rouge (Ourso) | Baton Rouge, LA |
| #79 | 纽约州立大学水牛城分校University at Buffalo—SUNY | Buffalo, NY |
| #79 | 迈阿密大学University of Miami | Coral Gables, FL |
| #79 | 密苏里大学University of Missouri (Trulaske) | Columbia, MO |
| #79 | 俄勒冈大学University of Oregon (Lundquist) | Eugene, OR |
| #83 | 奥本大学Auburn University (Harbert) | Auburn, AL |
| #83 | 查普曼大学Chapman University (Argyros) | Orange, CA |
| #83 | 塔尔萨大学University of Tulsa (Collins) | Tulsa, OK |
| #86 | 克莱姆森大学Clemson University | Greenville, SC |
| #86 | 科罗拉多大学University of Colorado—Boulder (Leeds) | Boulder, CO |
| #88 | 圣路易斯大学St. Louis University (Cook) | St. Louis, MO |
| #88 | 堪萨斯大学University of Kansas | Lawrence, KS |
| #90 | 雪城大学Syracuse University (Whitman) | Syracuse, NY |
| #91 | 罗彻斯特理工学院Rochester Institute of Technology (Saunders) | Rochester, NY |
| #91 | 得克萨斯理工大学Texas Tech University (Rawls) | Lubbock, TX |
| #91 | 雷鸟国际管理学院Thunderbird School of Global Management | Glendale, AZ |
| #91 | 肯塔基大学University of Kentucky (Gatton) | Lexington, KY |
| #95 | 纽约州立大学宾汉姆顿大学Binghamton University—SUNY | Binghamton, NY |
| #95 | 德保罗大学DePaul University (Kellstadt) | Chicago, IL |
| #95 | 密西西比大学Mississippi State University | Mississippi State, MS |
| #95 | 伦斯勒理工学院Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Lally) | Troy, NY |
| #95 | 休斯顿大学University of Houston (Bauer) | Houston, TX |
| #95 | 西弗吉尼亚大学West Virginia University | Morgantown, WV |