Brown ranks No. 14 nationally in U.S. News’ 2020 Best Colleges report

BROWN UNIVERSITY, once again, is ranked No. 14 among national universities for 2020, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual Best Colleges Survey rankings. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY
BROWN UNIVERSITY, once again ranked No. 14 in the U.S. News & World Report's annual Best Colleges rankings. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – Brown University remained at No. 14 of all universities across the United States in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Colleges rankings released Monday.

Brown’s ranking – the top nationally ranked college in the Rhode Island and Bristol County, Mass. area – remained the same for a third straight year. The Ivy League university was also ranked No. 1 nationally for best undergraduate teaching.

Providence College, which ranked No. 1 last year among regional universities in the north, dropped down to No. 2 this year – Bentley University in Massachusetts claimed the top spot for 2020.

Bryant University remained at No. 7 in the north region for another year, while Salve Regina University and Roger Williams University are part of a three-way tie at No. 31 with Suffolk University in Massachusetts. Salve and RWU were ranked No. 23 and No. 28, respectively, last year.

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The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s ranking improved slightly, tied with nine other schools at No. 217.

The University of Rhode Island was ranked No. 170 for 2020 for top national universities. It’s the third consecutive year that URI’s U.S. News national ranking have dropped – it ranked No. 166 in 2019 and No. 157 in 2018. URI was ranked No. 83 among national public colleges.

Princeton University, Harvard University and Columbia University were respectively ranked as the top-three colleges across the nation for 2020 by U.S. News, which evaluated more than 1,400 colleges on 17 different indicators of academic quality in the publication’s 36th edition of the rankings.

Johnson & Wales University also dropped in rankings in the north, from No. 80 last year into a nine-way tie for No. 96 this year. Rhode Island College’s ranking in the north improved this year to No. 113 – it was No. 116 last year.

New England Institute of Technology was tied for No. 15 in the regional colleges category for the north.

Among the new criteria U.S. News includes in its methodology was how much debt graduates need to pay off. Brown is ranked No. 27 nationally in graduates having the least amount of median debt at $15,500.

A breakdown of regional universities and colleges and their top rankings in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best College Survey:

Brown University

(Each of the following rankings are in the National Universities category)

  • No. 14 National Universities
  • No. 1 Best Undergraduate Teaching
  • No. 18 Best Value Schools
  • No. 20 Most Innovative Schools (tie)
  • No. 37 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate) (tie)
  • No. 25 Best Computer Science Programs (tie)

Bryant University

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional Universities North category)

  • No. 7 Regional Universities North
  • No. 2 Best Colleges for Veterans
  • No. 58 Best Value Schools
  • No. 201 Best Business Programs (tie)

Johnson & Wales University

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional Universities North category)

  • No. 96 Regional Universities North (tie)
  • No. 16 Best Undergraduate Teaching (tie)
  • No. 80 Top Performers on Social Mobility (tie)

New England Institute of Technology

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional College North category)

  • No. 15 Regional Colleges North
  • No. 13 Top Performers on Social Mobility

Providence College

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional Universities North category)

  • No. 2 Regional Universities North
  • No. 1 Best Undergraduate Teaching
  • No. 10 Best Value Schools
  • No. 15 Most Innovative Schools (tie)
  • No. 201 Best Business Schools (tie)

Rhode Island College

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional Universities North category)

  • No. 113 Regional Universities North (tie)
  • No. 48 Top Performers on Social Mobility (tie)
  • No. 46 Top Public Schools

Rhode Island School of Design

Unranked in arts schools

Roger Williams University

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional Universities North category)

  • No. 31 Regional Universities North (tie)
  • No. 52 Best Value Schools
  • No. 308 Best Business Schools (tie)

Salve Regina University

(Each of the following rankings are in the Regional Universities North category)

  • No. 31 Regional Universities North (tie)
  • No. 16 Best Undergraduate Teaching (tie)
  • No. 31 Best Value Schools

Stonehill College

(Each of the following rankings are in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category)

  • No. 113 National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie)
  • No. 402 Business Programs

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

  • (Each of the following rankings are in the National Universities category)
  • No. 217 National Universities (tie)
  • No. 109 Top Public Schools (tie)
  • No. 145 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (tie) (At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)

University of Rhode Island

(Each of the following rankings are in the National Universities category)

  • No. 170 National Universities
  • No. 124 Best College for Veterans (tie)
  • No. 94 Best Value Schools
  • No. 83 Top Public Schools (tie)
  • No. 157 Best Business Programs (tie)
  • No. 132 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (tie) (At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
  • No. 171 Best Computer Programs (tie)

Wheaton College

(Each of the following rankings are in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category)

  • No. 84 National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie)
  • No. 53 Best Value Schools

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.

(CORRECTION: A previous version of this story inaccurately stated URI’s top national public colleges ranking. It ranked No. 83 this year.)

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