Best Public Universities (2026)

How this list is ranked

Public universities offer in-state tuition and enormous range. These are the strongest by graduation rate and selectivity, the ones worth a look whether or not you live in the state.

Schools on this list 50

Source Federal data, same records as every school page

Admit rate, net price, and SAT in the table are for context. Rank order follows the method above, not those columns.

Rank	School	Admit	Net price	SAT
1	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI	15.6%	$13,138	1360-1530	See record
2	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC	15.3%	$11,655	1390-1530	See record
3	University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA	16.8%	$21,565	1410-1540	See record
4	University of Florida Gainesville, FL	24%	$6,541	1320-1480	See record
5	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX	27%	$19,857	1250-1510	See record
6	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA	14.1%	$12,116	1370-1540	See record
7	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL	42%	$14,355	1310-1520	See record
8	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI	45%	$17,354	1380-1520	See record
9	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH	61%	$17,339	1310-1480	See record
10	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN	50%	$14,600	1200-1480	See record
11	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX	57%	$21,315	1150-1400	See record
12	Florida State University Tallahassee, FL	24%	$11,297	1270-1410	See record
13	University of Connecticut Storrs, CT	52%	$25,097	1210-1440	See record
14	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI	85%	$19,680	1180-1360	See record
15	University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA	60%	$22,383	1310-1500	See record
16	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN	80%	$16,778	1300-1500	See record
17	Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN	78%	$16,264	1170-1400	See record
18	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA	61%	$32,875	1240-1420	See record
19	Miami University-Oxford Oxford, OH	75%	$28,384	1220-1390	See record
20	Clemson University Clemson, SC	38%	$22,253	1240-1410	See record
21	University of Iowa Iowa City, IA	84%	$22,531	1130-1330	See record
22	The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL	77%	$22,420	1170-1400	See record
23	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ	90%	$14,967	-	See record
24	University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO	78%	$25,346	1240-1430	See record
25	Iowa State University Ames, IA	89%	$18,589	1120-1360	See record
26	University of Mississippi University, MS	97%	$13,314	1000-1200	See record
27	University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH	88%	$23,805	1090-1330	See record
28	University of Vermont Burlington, VT	65%	$19,343	1290-1440	See record
29	Illinois State University Normal, IL	88%	$19,398	990-1210	See record
30	Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL	70%	$13,391	-	See record
31	Carolinas College of Health Sciences Charlotte, NC	60%	-	950-1380	See record
32	United States Naval Academy Annapolis, MD	9.3%	-	1210-1410	See record
33	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA	11.0%	$13,481	-	See record
34	United States Coast Guard Academy New London, CT	22%	-	1240-1400	See record
35	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA	9.0%	$12,548	-	See record
36	University of Georgia Athens, GA	38%	$13,936	1270-1480	See record
37	William & Mary Williamsburg, VA	34%	$19,096	1400-1530	See record
38	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD	45%	$15,678	1400-1530	See record
39	United States Air Force Academy USAF Academy, CO	14.1%	-	1230-1440	See record
40	United States Military Academy West Point, NY	12.4%	-	1200-1430	See record
41	University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA	29%	$14,251	-	See record
42	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA	31%	$16,665	-	See record
43	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA	55%	$24,953	1280-1450	See record
44	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA	27%	$12,470	-	See record
45	The College of New Jersey Ewing, NJ	62%	$27,646	1140-1340	See record
46	University of California-Davis Davis, CA	42%	$14,741	-	See record
47	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA	58%	$30,434	1280-1460	See record
48	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA	39%	$14,091	-	See record
49	North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC	42%	$17,303	1300-1470	See record
50	University of Florida-Online Gainesville, FL	61%	$4,815	1250-1410	See record