This NH college is one of the best in country, per U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 ranking

U.S. News & World Report just released their 2026 ranking of the country’s best colleges, and one school in New Hampshire made the top 15.

The annual ranking evaluates over 1,700 colleges across the country by using 17 factors to measure academic quality and graduate success, including cost of attendance, graduation rate and student-faculty ratio.

In this year’s ranking, Dartmouth College represented New Hampshire in the top 15, finishing in a tie for 13th place with Rhode Island’s Brown University and two other schools.

Here’s why.

Why Dartmouth is a top college

According to U.S. News & World Report, Dartmouth College ranked at No. 13 for its its prestigious 5% acceptance rate, its 6:1 student-faculty ratio and its 75% graduation rate, just to name a few factors. Dartmouth is also ranked highly for its professors, placing third overall in the best undergraduate teaching category.

Many programs at Dartmouth also contributed to its high placement on the list, including its study abroad program, ranking at No. 15, and its economics program, ranking at No. 18.

Ultimately, the New Hampshire Ivy League ranked ninth for best value school, with an average cost of $31,000 per year and a median salary of $82,541 six years after graduation.

What other colleges made the list?

Here are the top 15 colleges in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 ranking:

1. Princeton University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Harvard University
4. 4. Stanford University (tie)
5. 4. Yale University (tie)
6. University of Chicago
7. 7. Duke University (tie)
8. 7. Johns Hopkins University (tie)
9. 7. Northwestern University (tie)
10. 7. University of Pennsylvania (tie)
11. California Institute of Technology
12. Cornell University
13. 13. Brown University (tie)
14. 13. Dartmouth College (tie)
15. 15. Columbia University (tie)
16. 15. University of California Berkeley (tie)

The full ranking can be found here.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Catherine Messier, USA TODAY NETWORK – New England / Portsmouth Herald