Ranking: The World’s Most Popular Colleges & Universities

June 25, 2024

Harvard University is the most recognized university in the world.

A new study by American Caldwell ranked the 100 top universities by global visibility across the following factors:

Website Visitors: The number of people who visit the university website each month
News Mentions: How many times the university is mentioned in the news in a one-year period
Public Interest Level: How many people are searching for information on the university
Social Media: The total amount of fans and followers on the university Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn channels
Web References: The number of places that link to the university’s website
Total Online Footprint: The aggregate amount of information and materials pertaining to the university freely available online

MISSING: summary MISSING: current-rows.

1	Harvard University	USA	63,009,336	46,100,000	78,137	861,900	11,896,603
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	USA	44,128,171	37,200,000	47,296	473,200	4,136,507
3	Stanford University	USA	28,982,980	20,800,000	80,148	549,200	4,715,648
4	Cornell University	USA	21,453,052	17,500,000	42,889	363,900	1,747,551
5	University of Toronto	Canada	21,395,015	17,300,000	39,075	400,500	1,740,840
6	University of Michigan – Ann Arbor	USA	18,789,718	14,500,000	64,913	314,800	2,131,501
7	University of California – Berkeley	USA	18,327,131	15,700,000	28,979	142,400	1,654,320
8	University of Oxford	UK	18,045,169	7,700,000	23,573	431,900	7,973,512
9	Columbia University	USA	17,549,081	12,300,000	67,288	537,100	1,957,989
10	Purdue University	USA	17,505,058	14,600,000	22,252	332,400	1,042,790
11	University of British Columbia	Canada	15,955,391	13,700,000	21,260	192,800	1,100,051
12	University of California – Los Angeles	USA	15,407,254	11,800,000	16,768	251,300	2,199,842
13	Pennsylvania State University	USA	15,325,358	11,000,000	88,550	385,400	1,601,408
14	University of Pennsylvania	USA	14,752,355	10,800,000	86,417	380,900	1,270,102
15	University of Cambridge	UK	13,798,987	6,500,000	23,530	340,300	5,385,717
16	New York University	USA	13,465,048	9,400,000	60,145	198,000	2,533,743
17	Yale University	USA	12,950,707	7,300,000	38,892	407,600	3,262,679
18	University of Texas – Austin	USA	12,708,707	10,300,000	21,476	82,000	1,805,423
19	University of Florida	USA	12,489,203	9,300,000	30,313	238,400	1,724,386
20	Tsinghua University	China	12,123,952	6,100,000	15,794	52,600	5,618,806

With a visibility score of 63,009,336, Harvard topped the list. The university had the highest monthly website visitors, over 46 million as well as the highest public interest (861,900) and social media following (11,896,603). While Harvard scored highly across most of the ranking’s factors, the university lost its top ranking in news mentions (78,137).

PENN STATE RANKS HIGHEST IN NEWS MENTIONS

Pennsylvania State University, which ranked 13th overall in visibility, secured the top spot when it came to news mentions. In a one-year period, Penn State was mentioned in the news over 88,000 times.

Neighboring University of Pennsylvania came in second for news mentions with 86,417 mentions in a one-year period.

SCHOOLS WITH THE MOST WEBSITE VISITORS

Harvard ranked the highest for monthly website visitors. But schools like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (37,200,000 website visitors) and Stanford University (20,800,000 website visitors) also topped the list for most website visitors.

The University of Toronto was the only non-US school to make the top five for most website visitors. The Canadian-based school sees 17,300,000 website visitors a month.

Source: Poets & Quants