CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The new 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings are out and the University of Virginia retains its No. 4 spot in Best Public institutions in the land. While in the same spot among public colleges and universities, UVA did slip two spots to 26th from 24th in 2025, but Education Managing Editor LaMont Jones notes there’s just a small difference in adjacent spots. Also notable, UVA is joined by ACC Rival North Carolina-Chapel Hill in a tie for the fourth and 26th spots in each list.

“US News has evolved and improved our system over the decades primarily using indicators of how well colleges educate and graduate students,” Jones said.

“Outcomes measures like job obtainment and social mobility comprise about half the methodology.”

In the public rankings, UVA (and UNC, for that matter) are behind UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of Michigan in the top three spots.

Digging into the numbers, UVA has a superior graduation rate of 92%, which is higher than all the public schools ranked above it. UC-Berkeley is at 80%, UCLA 85%, Michigan 82%, and UNC 84%.

UVA does well in median incomes for graduates six years out at $72,359. Berkeley is $74,919, UCLA $59,063, Michigan $73,762, and North Carolina $57,057.

Where UVA falls way behind its peers in the rankings. and has since these rankings began the new category in 2020, is social mobility. The category evaluates how universities serve low-income students, and UVA has traditionally fallen behind in this metric because of its relatively small proportion of Pell Grant students. The University of Virginia ranks in a tie for 173rd in that metric. The number is not too far below Michigan’s 166th, but is way below UC-Berkeley’s 87th, UNC’s 77th, and UCLA’s 30th rank.

However, UVA has had significant progress over the years since the number was first evaluated as the University ranked tied at 328th in 2020.

UVA touts its significance in the Best Value metric and the University indeed continues to do well ranked 27th, well ahead of all of those peers except UNC with is 16th.

The University is 8th in the nation for one of the best schools for veterans, 9th in management schools, 12th in finance major, and 13th in nursing.

The top five schools in the overall rankings, that include public and private, are one-through-five Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.

Click here for the complete rankings.