New anti-elitist college rankings put Universities of Texas, Florida on top — in shock result

NY Post ^ | Published Nov. 14, 2026, 8:00 a.m. ET | By Rikki Schlott

[dennisw]

A New York think tank just came out with its own proprietary college rankings, and the results probably aren’t what you’d expect: the University of Texas at Austin at number one, Yale all the way down at number ten, and Arizona State ranked higher than Stanford.

The rankings may be surprising, but, according to the Manhattan Institute (MI), they’re meant to subvert academic snobbery and scrutinize the value of an education. In their own words, the rankings “judge schools by present performance, not past prestige.”

“Other prestige-focused rankings offer little insight into the content of the education students will receive, the classroom and campus environment they will inhabit, or the values that will surround them,” the think tank said in a press release.

The rankings score 115 schools using 95 variables. The top schools, according to MI’s calculations: University of Texas at Austin, University of Florida, and Notre Dame. And at the very bottom: Smith College and Oberlin College.

The rankings diverge from traditional lists because they take a more holistic approach, looking at return on investment, civics education, and a de-politicized campus. MI has decided to exclude traditional measures of school rank, like their admissions rate, in an attempt to measure students’ actual experiences.

It’s an unorthodox rating system that doesn’t pretend Americans aren’t losing faith in higher education. Today just 31% of Americans say a college education is “very important,” compared with a full 70% back in just 2013.

The rankings laudably center return on investment for students — perhaps the central reason that young people are losing faith in college. A recent analysis found that fully 66% of for-profit colleges don’t provide a return on investment, or take at least 26 years to do so.

MI positions itself as answering a question that “Is college worth it?”

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[brownsfan]

With the DSA taking power in Texas, I suspect UT will focus more on DEI then on real education going forward.

[Uncle Miltie]

Claremont McKenna College: #5.

CMC ‘84, Economics, Cum Laude.

[Miami Rebel]

1. Who is “Manhattan Institute”? I’ve never hear of them before. Who funds them?

2. Is this their first rating ever or do they have a history of rating colleges? if the latter, have the ratings changed?

3. Texas and Florida are great schools, as are the Ivies. I’m proud to say that two of my sons are UF graduates. The younger got a free ride as a National Merit Scholar.

[Fresh Wind]

Full list here:

https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/college-rankings/PDFs/CollegeRankings.pdf

[Bon of Babble]

Manhattan Institute has decided to exclude traditional measures of school rank, like their admissions rate, in an attempt to measure students’ actual experiences.

So, according to them it's all about how the students feel.

Makes sense, right?

Top National Universities (U.S. News 2027)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Princeton University

Harvard University

Yale University

California Institute of Technology / Stanford University (Tied)