Time magazine has ranked the University of Virginia the No. 2 public college in the nation.
Time, in partnership with the global data and business intelligence company Statista, set out to identify the nation’s top-performing colleges, with an emphasis on what students gain from attending relative to the cost. In this, its first ranking, Time also places UVA as the No. 1 school in Virginia and No. 14 overall in its review of 500 colleges.
Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvey Mudd College are the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 schools on the list.
“As jobs have become more technological, job markets have become more competitive, and the costs of tuition have risen, college students are increasingly considering the ROI of their education, or how efficiently it can be used to acquire a high-paying job post-grad,” the news outlet wrote.
Time’s ranking weighs student outcomes at 75%, learning environment at 15% and desirability among prospective students at 10%, using federal data on graduate earnings, graduation rates, costs, resources, diversity and admissions demand.
“The search for high ROI education has led many U.S. college students to pursue STEM careers,” Time wrote. “According to a 2026 report from the National Science Foundation, the STEM workforce grew by 26% between 2013 and 2023 compared to the non-STEM workforce, which grew 9%, and STEM jobs are projected to continue growing at a faster rate than non-STEM jobs for the next decade or so.”
