FAQ: What is a Tier 1 University (2024)

994 Shares

(Common list of Tier 1 Universities for 2022 is at the end of the post.) What is a tier 1 university turns out to be a very interesting question. I never really looked into it and just assumed that Tier 1 was a school ranked in the top 50 of US News College Rankings for National Universities. Tiers 2, 3, and 4 were the next group of 50 institutions. Everything not ranked in the top 200 were considered unranked schools. I do remember at one point something about US News deciding not to do Tier 2, that those schools would be part of a larger Tier 1, or something like that.

The reason why I’m actually using fuzzy impressions is because there really isn’t any official definition of Tier 1. I think that it is often used by those in the college search process to refer to the top 50 schools ranked by US News and therefore, the most desirable or prestigious to attend.

Download Listing of all Tier 1 Universities

US News Tier 1 University Definition

Currently, there are no “tier” definitions as part of the US News Best College Rankings methodology. They simply do not use the word. The last time I can find an actual reference is from 2016. At that time according to their FAQs

Other Definitions for Tier 1 Universities

The meaning is furthered muddied when you considered the Texas initiative to increase the number of Tier 1 universities in the state. According to the Texas Legislature, in 2009 Texas had three Tier 1 universities in the state while California had nine. These areschoolsthat “are expected to bring in at least $100 million per year in research grants, plus have selective admissions and high-quality faculty.”

But it might also include the 63 United Statesschoolsthat are members of theAmerican Association of Universitieswhich is by invitation only. According to its membership policy, it is “an association of leading comprehensive research universities distinguished by the breadth and quality of their programs of research and graduate education.” Maybe its focus on research and graduate education explains why it includes four institutions that didn’t quite make it into the top 100 of US News National University rankings. It’s worth noting that one recently departing member charged that “the membership appears to favor schools with “medical schools and associated medical research funding.”

TheUniversity of Houston, one of the institutions trying to improve its status to Tier 1, states that:

there are three organizations that are generally accepted as national arbiters of an institution’s rank as a Tier One institution. They are the Association of American Universities, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Center for Measuring University Performance, which issues Top American Research University (TARU) reports. Recognition by any of these three is taken as an indication of Tier One status.

The Carnegie Foundation definition would increase the number of Tier 1 Universities to 131, including the University of Houston. The Top American Research Universitieslists 73 institutions that have at least one measure in the top 50. The measures include data on research, private support, faculty awards, graduate training, and undergraduate test scores.

All of the current possible definitions of Tier 1 institutions are focused on the research aspect of universities, not the undergraduate education. Yet just because US News is no longer using the term “Tier 1” doesn’t prevent anyone else from applying it to the top 50 schools in their rankings. However, keep in mind, US News Rankings has another national ranking of schools which are focused on the undergraduate experience, Liberal Arts Colleges. How are you going to decide which number one rankings is the correct one?

Ultimately, without any official Tier 1 definition, it seems to me that it’s a matter of perception. The truth is that even with a definition, it’s still a matter of perception. This means that it’s up to you to decide if the perception is based on your values and needs or of someone else’s.

Tier 1 Universities

Download Listing of all Tier 1 Universities

Name	Type	State	Top American Research University	Assoc of American Universities Members	US News Best National University Rankings 2022	% Admitted
Princeton University	Private	NJ	24	y	1	6
Columbia University in the City of New York	Private	NY	1	y	2	7
Harvard University	Private	MA	1	y	2	5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Private	MA	1	y	2	7
Yale University	Private	CT	5	y	5	7
Stanford University	Private	CA	1	y	6	5
University of Chicago	Private	IL	18	y	6	7
University of Pennsylvania	Private	PA	5	y	8	9
California Institute of Technology	Private	CA	32	y	9	7
Duke University	Private	NC	5	y	9	8
Johns Hopkins University	Private	MD	5	y	9	11
Northwestern University	Private	IL	10	y	9	9
Dartmouth College	Private	NH	32	y	13	9
Brown University	Private	RI	41	y	14	8
Vanderbilt University	Private	TN	26	y	14	12
Washington University in St Louis	Private	MO	10	y	14	16
Cornell University	Private	NY	18	y	17	11
Rice University	Private	TX	32	y	17	11
University of Notre Dame	Private	IN	26		19	19
University of California-Los Angeles	Public	CA	10	y	20	14
Emory University	Private	GA	32	y	21	19
University of California-Berkeley	Public	CA	14	y	22	17
Georgetown University	Private	DC	58		23	17
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	Public	MI	5	y	23	26
Carnegie Mellon University	Private	PA	41	y	25	17
University of Virginia-Main Campus	Public	VA	41	y	25	23
University of Southern California	Private	CA	14	y	27	16
New York University	Private	NY	18	y	28	21
Tufts University	Private	MA	61	y	28	16
University of California-Santa Barbara	Public	CA	41	y	28	37
University of Florida	Public	FL	32	y	28	31
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Public	NC	18	y	28	25
Wake Forest University	Private	NC			28	32
University of California-San Diego	Public	CA	10	y	34	37
University of Rochester	Private	NY	54	y	34	35
Boston College	Private	MA		y	36	26
University of California-Irvine	Public	CA	54	y	36	30
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	Public	GA	26	y	38	21
The University of Texas at Austin	Public	TX	24	y	38	32
University of California-Davis	Public	CA	32	y	38	46
William & Mary	Public	VA			38	42
Boston University	Private	MA	49		42	20
Brandeis University	Private	MA		y	42	33
Case Western Reserve University	Private	OH	58	y	42	30
Tulane University of Louisiana	Private	LA	61	y	42	11
University of Wisconsin-Madison	Public	WI	14	y	42	57
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Public	IL		y	47	63
University of Georgia	Public	GA	61		48	48
Lehigh University	Private	PA			49	50
Northeastern University	Private	MA	61		49	20
Ohio State University-Main Campus	Public	OH	14	y	49	68
Pepperdine University	Private	CA			49	42
Purdue University-Main Campus	Public	IN	32	y	49	67
Villanova University	Private	PA			49	31
Florida State University	Public	FL	61		55	32
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Private	NY	61		55	57
University of Miami	Private	FL	61		55	33
University of Maryland-College Park	Public	MD	41	y	59	51
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	Public	PA	26	y	59	64
University of Washington-Seattle Campus	Public	WA	10	y	59	56
Pennsylvania State University-University Park	Public	PA	26	y	63
Rutgers University-New Brunswick	Public	NJ	41	y	63	67
University of Connecticut	Public	CT	54		63	56
Indiana University-Bloomington	Public	IN	52	y	68	80
Texas A & M University-College Station	Public	TX	26	y	68	63
University of Massachusetts-Amherst	Public	MA	61		68	65
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	Public	MN	14	y	68	70
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	Public	VA	54		75	66
North Carolina State University at Raleigh	Public	NC	41		79	46
Michigan State University	Public	MI	41	y	83	76
University of Iowa	Public	IA	61	y	83	84
Stony Brook University	Public	NY		y	93	49
University at Buffalo	Public	NY	61	y	93	67
University of Colorado Boulder	Public	CO	52	y	99	84
University of Oregon	Public	OR	61	y	99	84
University of Utah	Public	UT	51	y	99	79
University of Arizona	Public	AZ	49	y	103	85
University of California-Santa Cruz	Public	CA		y	103	65
University of Illinois Chicago	Public	IL	32		103	73
University of South Florida	Public	FL	61		103	49
Arizona State University Campus	Public	AZ	32		117	88
University of South Carolina-Columbia	Public	SC	61		117	68
Iowa State University	Public	IA	61		122	88
University of Kansas	Public	KS	61	y	122	91
University of Missouri-Columbia	Public	MO	61	y	122	82
University of Alabama at Birmingham	Public	AL	58		148	81
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus	Public	CO	54		227	66

CONNECT WITH OTHER PARENTS PLANNING FOR COLLEGE AND FIGURING OUT HOW TO PAY FOR IT
JOIN THE COFFEE CUP COLLEGE PLANNING FACEBOOK GROUP

994 Shares