In Leaked U.S. News Ranking, Penn Falls To Lowest Spot In 27 Years

Students walk along Locust Walk at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn ranked 10th in the not-officially-published 2024-2025 U.S. News list of top universities, according to a story in The Daily Pennsylvanian. Courtesy photo

The student newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania has published a leaked list of the top 10 schools in U.S. News & World Report‘s 2024-2025 ranking of the top universities in the United States — two weeks early — and it shows Penn sinking to its lowest rank this century.

The Daily Pennsylvanian published an advance copy of the 10 top schools in the Best National Universities ranking on Tuesday (September 10). It shows Princeton University taking No. 1 for the 10th consecutive year, MIT placing second for the fourth straight year, and Harvard University placing third for the third year in a row. Stanford University was fourth, down from third in 2023-2024, and Yale University was fifth, same as last year. See the rest of the top 10 below.

Penn dropped to 10th from sixth place, its lowest rank since 1997, when it ranked 13th. The school, home to The Wharton School, which was No. 1 in Poets&Quants‘ most recent ranking of undergraduate business programs, ranked as high as No. 4 on U.S. News‘ university list as recently as 2010.

U.S. NEWS 2024-2025 BEST NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES TOP 10

Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian

MAGAZINE COMMENTS: TOP 10 IS ‘PRELIMINARY’

U.S. News‘ 2024-2025 Best National Universities ranking is not due to be published until September 24. In the story, written by Katie Bartlett, The Daily Pennsylvanian did not name its source, saying only that “(a) preliminary copy of the top 10 schools in the 2024-25 rankings” was “obtained exclusively” by the newspaper. The story notes that Penn’s placement puts it at No. 4 among Ivy League schools behind Princeton, Harvard, and Yale.

There is a possibility, however, that the ranking may change between now and its official publication date.

“U.S. News provides preliminary information to institutions about our Best Colleges rankings,” a magazine spokesperson is quoted telling the DP. “Any information provided is not considered final until publication on USNews.com until our publication date. This year that date is September 24.”

REPORT: PENN USED ‘CONFLICTING UNDERLYING METRICS’ FOR A DECADE-AND-A-HALF

The DP reported in 2023 that Penn “had likely listed inaccurate student-faculty ratio metrics used by the U.S. News rankings, according to multiple higher education experts. The experts spoke with the DP about the conflicting underlying metrics that Penn appears to have listed for its student-faculty ratio for over 15 years, and what it meant for the University’s U.S. News ranking.”

It’s unclear whether this had an impact on Penn’s placement in the new ranking, the DP reports.

Should the ranking remain unchanged, after the top 5, four universities are tied for No. 6 (where Penn landed in 2023-2024): California Institute of Technology and Duke University, both of which moved up from a tie at No. 7; and Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University, both of which had tied for No. 9 last year.

Another Ivy, Brown University, which was also tied for No. 9 in last year’s rankings, slipped out of the top 10.

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