U.S. News ranks Rice in top 20 universities, best in Texas

See how Texas' colleges stacked up in the latest rankings. less U.S. News & World Report released its Holy Grail of college rankings, a comprehensive list assessing nearly 1,600 of the four-year institutions in the country. See how Texas' colleges stacked up in the ... more U.S. News & World Report released its Holy Grail of college rankings, a comprehensive list assessing nearly 1,600 of the four-year institutions in the country. Photo: Ashley Landis, Wire Photo: Ashley Landis, Wire Image 1 of / 45 Caption Close U.S. News ranks Rice in top 20 universities, best in Texas 1 / 45 Back to Gallery

U.S. News & World Report released its Holy Grail of college rankings, a comprehensive list assessing nearly 1,600 of the four-year institutions in the country. Rice, which recently earned a spot in the top 5 of Niche.com's ranking, managed to remain in the top 20 and retain the highest rank in Texas.

The 2015 National Universities list is lead by the Ivy League, along with other perrenial academic powers like MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago. Texas' two premiere public universities, University of Texas and Texas A&M, were ranked in the top 70, along with SMU.

Two Texas schools landed on the list of Best National Liberal Arts Colleges and more than a dozen universities joined the ranks of the Best Regional Universities in the west. Peruse the complete data and rankings by viewing the report here.

Here are the top 10 National Universities, according to U.S. News:

10. California Institute of Technology

8. University of Pennsylvania

8. Duke University

7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

4. University of Chicago

4. Stanford University

4. Columbia University

3. Yale University

2. Harvard University

1. Princeton University

Take a look at the nationally-ranked universities in Texas by clicking through the slideshow above.