UT ranked as No. 10 public school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report

The University of Texas is tied for the No. 10 ranking among the nation’s public universities, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities.

The rankings, published Monday, are based on student outcomes, faculty resources, expert opinions, financial resources, student excellence and alumni giving.

This year, the rankings slightly adjusted the assessment of SAT and ACT scores and made more use of historical data for some ranking indicators to account for the pandemic's disruption to colleges and universities, according to the U.S. News website.

UT tied with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California-Davis and the College of William and Mary for the No. 10 position among public schools. UT also climbed to No. 38 overall among the nation’s universities, tying with UC-Davis, the highest overall national ranking UT has achieved since 1985, when it was 25th.

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Last year, U.S. News ranked UT as the nation’s No. 13 public school and No. 42 overall. 

UT also ranked as the top public university in Texas again this year and the No. 2 university in Texas overall. Rice University, ranked as the top overall university in Texas, and dropped one spot in the national rankings since last year to No. 17, tying with Cornell University.

UT received high rankings for undergraduate teaching, the first-year experience, undergraduate research, study abroad programs and innovation. Some of UT’s undergraduate programs received top rankings as well, including engineering at No. 10, business at No. 5 and computer science at No. 10.

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UT spokesman J.B. Bird said UT's improvements to its six-year graduation rate and its first-year retention rate have contributed to the rise in the rankings. 

"We have a very strong academic reputation among our peers," Bird said. "I think that it is because of the excellence of the students that we attract, the outstanding graduate and research programs we have, and how the university has made undergraduate research an important priority and a real point of pride and excellence."

U.S. News ranked 28 universities in Texas overall. Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University tied at No. 68 along with five other schools, Baylor University tied for the No. 75 ranking with three other schools, and Texas Christian University tied for No. 83 with nine other schools.

Princeton University ranked No. 1 overall among all universities, with Columbia University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tied for second.