US University Rankings Will Include Specialty Schools

US News College Rankings are one way to assess the quality and value of US higher education institutions. The rankings are typically released annually in September and encompass both U.S. national and international institutions. The 2026 rankings were released just a few weeks ago, and now US News has announced that next year’s rankings framework will include some significant changes. Here’s what will be different and what will stay the same.

Matching the Carnegie Classification System

The Carnegie Classification System (CCS) is the primary framework for grouping and classifying higher education institutions in the USA. It was developed in 1973 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and is updated regularly to reflect changes in the US higher education ecosystem.

The US News rankings utilize the CCS for its ranking categories that apply to US institutions, using two core components of the CCS: Institutional classifications and research activity designations. Now, the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation have updated the Institutional Classification system for 2025, and US News will be reflecting those changes in their 2027 rankings.

What’s changing?

ACE and the Carnegie Foundation gathered information and feedback from both institutional leaders and researchers, as well as users of the CSS, to determine what would be most useful going forward. The three most applicable characteristics were:

• Types of programs offered
• Types of degrees awarded
• Institution size

Based on changes and additions to these characteristics, one major change that US News will implement is an expansion of the types of institutions that can be included in its National and Regional categories. Starting next year, specialized schools like business, engineering, and health institutions will be eligible to rank in the main categories. This should allow students to consider these specialized schools alongside more general institutions that offer similar professional programs.

US News has also made changes to its category criteria, including:

• National Universities: assessed by research activity, doctoral-level focus, and size
• National Liberal Arts Colleges: assessed by focus on Arts and Sciences and undergraduate orientation
• Regional Universities: assessed by master’s-level focus (50+ graduate degrees awarded per year and graduate degrees accounting for 10+ percent of awarded degrees)
• Regional Colleges: assessed by a focus on undergraduate/baccalaureate and professional qualifications (less than 50 graduate degrees awarded per year, or less than 10 percent of awarded degrees are graduate-level)

What’s not changing?

According to US News, most institutions already in the rankings will remain in their current categories. They note that some schools may move to categories that “better reflect their updated mix of offerings.”

In general, the changes are designed to correspond with the 2025 Carnegie Classification system and to reflect the “more granular designations” included in the new system.

The changes made to both the CCS and the US categorizations and methodology aren’t projected to have an impact on the ranking of international institutions.

What’s next?

US News has started an outreach process with all the institutions in the system that will give a projected category assignment and a “detailed explanation of the methodology” used to develop ranking categories and assign categorization. Schools will have the opportunity to challenge their categorization and to provide US News with feedback.

Schools should receive notification of their ranking category and the methodology next week, and the feedback process will continue until the end of 2025. US News projects that categorization of schools will not be completed until February 2026, and the new categorization and methodology will be used to produce the 2027 Rankings.