Harvard competes with a few other Ivy League and top California universities for the number one slot each year and often comes out on top. Established in 1636, Harvard is America's oldest institution of higher learning and attracts top students from around the world.
Located in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University is often associated with so-called East Coast elitism and wealth, but its record of academic excellence is nonetheless outstanding. U.S. News & World Report ranks Yale number three in the world, just after Harvard and Cambridge.
Founded in 1890 by oil tycoon John Rockefeller, the University of Chicago has a strong record of academic excellence. The University of Chicago also welcomed both women and students of color long before many other American institutions of higher learning.
Princeton is America's fourth-oldest university and home to impressive historic landmarks and colonial buildings. Princeton is known for its outstanding faculty and research facilities, which attract dedicated scholars from around the globe.
MIT is generally considered the number one university in the world for engineering and IT and makes countless valuable contributions in these fields as well as others. Mathematics, natural sciences, and biomedicine are also very strong.
Like its East Coast cousin MIT, Caltech has some of best science and technology-related departments in the world, though the arts and humanities rank lower at 216 in the world, according to U.S. News & World Report.
New York's Columbia University is a vibrant center of learning and boasts one of North America's most beautiful urban campuses. Columbia offers a traditional curriculum in which all students are required to read a set of materials deemed "great books."
Located in the heart of Philadelphia, UPenn, as it's commonly known, offers degrees in a wide range of fields and is generally considered an all-around great university. UPenn was founded by American icon Benjamin Franklin in 1740.
This highly regarded institution was one of the 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities and the first to offer undergraduate majors as opposed to simply liberal arts degrees. The University is closely linked to Johns Hopkins Hospital where many of America's most talented doctors are trained.
Located in Durham, North Carolina, Duke University boasts one of the world's largest expenditures in research across multiple fields. In addition to its academics, Duke is famous for its athetics. Duke's men's basketball team has won an impressive four national championships.