UPenn, USC, or Amherst?

College Search & Selection
30

The top 30 schools in the US by “research expenditures” are relevant to OP’s decision as Michigan, UPenn, UNC, Duke, USC, and Emory are included in this group.

Each year Johns Hopkins leads the nation followed by Michigan.

  1. JHU (Johns Hopkins University)

  2. University of Michigan

  3. UC-San Francisco

  4. UPenn

  5. Univ. of Washington

  6. Wisconsin

  7. Duke

  8. Harvard

  9. Stanford

  10. Univ. of North Carolina (UNC)

  11. Cornell

  12. MIT

  13. Yale

  14. Univ. of Pittsburgh

  15. Minnesota

  16. NYU

  17. Texas A&M

  18. Columbia

  19. Ohio State

  20. Penn State

  21. Georgia Tech

  22. Univ. of Florida

  23. UCal-Berkeley

  24. USC (Univ. of Southern California)

  25. WashUStL

  26. Northwestern University

  27. Vanderbilt University

  28. Michigan State

  29. Rutgers

  30. Emory University

This list includes both private & federal government funded research.

According to US News, there are 399 institutions classified as National Universities in the US. (211 public, 180 private, & 8 for-profit.)

Also according to US News, there are 223 LACs (liberal arts colleges) in the US (199 private & 24 public).