U.S. News & World Report released its latest rankings of universities and colleges, and one Lehigh Valley institution made the top 100 once again.

In its list, released Tuesday, the publication ranked Lehigh University in Bethlehem at 46th out of 435 national universities it surveyed. Lehigh received the same ranking last year, and was among just seven in Pennsylvania on the top 100.

DeSales University, in Upper Saucon Township, was ranked 283rd on that same list. Last year it was ranked 296th.

The publication determines its rankings by 17 criteria, including graduation rates, first-year retention rates, graduation rate performances, borrower debt, faculty salaries and peer assessment.

Lehigh was tied with several other institutions: Northeastern University, Purdue University, University of Georgia and University of Rochester were also ranked 46th. The publication also ranked Lehigh 24th for best value schools among national universities. It was ranked 26th in that category last year.

Lafayette College in Easton and Muhlenberg College in Allentown were ranked 30th and 70th, respectively, among the publication’s top 100 national liberal arts colleges. Both went up one spot from last year’s rankings.

Muhlenberg and Lafayette were ranked 49th and 89th, respectively, on the publication’s list of best value schools among its ranked national liberal arts colleges.

Moravian University in Bethlehem and Cedar Crest College in Allentown were ranked 38th and 98th, respectively, among the publication’s top 100 regional universities in the north. Moravian was also ranked 28th on the publication’s list of best value schools.

Princeton University once again topped this year’s list of national universities. University of Pennsylvania was the highest ranking university in Pennsylvania on that list, coming in at 7th.

The following Pennsylvania institutions were among the top 100:

University of Pennsylvania (No. 7)
Carnegie Melon University (No. 20)
Lehigh University (No. 46)
Villanova University (No. 57)
Pennsylvania State University (No. 59)
University of Pittsburg (No. 69)
Drexel University (No. 80)

The full list can be found at usnews.com.

What are the best high schools in the Lehigh Valley? Latest U.S. News rankings revealed

https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/25/lehigh-valley-best-colleges-universities-us-news-rankings-2025-26/