FAQ: What is a Tier 1 University (2023)

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(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

(Video) Is Purdue a Tier 1 university?

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

U.S. News publishes the numerical ranks of approximately the top 75 percent of schools in each of the categories. The remaining schools are placed in the bottom, or second, tier based on their overall score in their category. Schools in the second tier are labeled as Rank Not Published and listed alphabetically on usnews.com.

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.”

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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:

(Video) Is LSU a Tier 1 university?

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

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Download Listing of all Tier 1 Universities

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

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FAQ: What is a Tier 1 University (2023)

US News Tier 1 University Definition

Other Definitions for Tier 1 Universities

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