The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings gives students and their families the information that they need to help them choose where to study.

The ranking of more than 800 universities is based on 15 individual performance indicators and responses from more than 170,000 current college students, collected through THE’s annual US Student Survey.

It is designed to answer the questions that matter most to students and their families: How likely am I to graduate, pay off my loans and get a good job? Does the college have plenty of resources to teach me properly? Will I be engaged and stretched in the classroom and get good access to my teachers? Is there a diverse campus community?

View the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings 2020 methodology

This year, Harvard University tops the table for the third year in a row, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University remain in second and third place respectively.

The University of Pennsylvania climbs six places to fourth, overtaking the California Institute of Technology, which remains steady in fifth place, tied with Princeton. Brown, Stanford, Cornell and Duke universities round out the top 10.

The University of California, Los Angeles stands as the highest-ranked public institution in joint 25th place, while Amherst College is the top liberal arts college in 20th place.

Read our analysis of the WSJ/THE College Rankings 2020 results

The student-focused WSJ/THE College Rankings differ considerably from the THE World University Rankings, which have a heavier emphasis on research excellence on a global scale.

The calculation of the 2020 College Rankings has been subject to independent audit by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Note: all ranked institutions have an overall score and four pillar scores. However, for each pillar, only institutions ranked in the top 400 overall, and the top 400 in that pillar, have a publicly visible score.

To raise your university’s global profile with THE, please contact branding@timeshighereducation.com

To unlock the data behind THE’s rankings, and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, contact data@timeshighereducation.com