Caltech climbed six spots to tie Stanford University at No. 5 in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, released Tuesday, Sept. 22.

The jump from No. 11 marks the Pasadena university's largest single-year rise in more than 25 years, according to Caltech. It also returns the school to the top 10 for the first time in years.

MIT claimed the No. 1 spot, ending Princeton's streak atop the list that began in 2012. Princeton, Harvard and Yale rounded out the top four.

What drove the climb

Caltech earned the top score among all ranked schools in four of the 17 metrics U.S. News uses. Those four: spending per student, faculty publication rate in top journals, graduate earnings relative to high school graduates, and standardized test scores.

The test-score boost came after Caltech resumed reporting standardized testing results this year, ending a four-year test-blind admissions policy.

A new U.S. News metric also helped. The rankings replaced graduate indebtedness with postgraduate earnings by major, using U.S. Department of Education data to measure whether graduates out-earn peers in the same field at comparable schools. Caltech placed second nationally on that measure.

The school's peer assessment score, which carries the largest single weight in the formula at 20 percent, rose from ninth to seventh. Faculty salary rankings also climbed from eighth to seventh.

What it means for Pasadena families

Caltech, at 1200 E. California Blvd., enrolls roughly 1,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students. Families earning under $200,000 with typical assets receive aid that fully covers tuition. Those earning under $100,000 receive aid covering tuition, fees, housing and food.

The school also ranked fifth on the U.S. News Best Value Schools list.

More than 90 percent of undergraduates conduct research before graduating. Each summer, hundreds participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, a 47-year-old initiative offering 10-week research projects on campus and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which Caltech manages for NASA.

In a July 1 statement marking his first day as Caltech's 10th president, Ray Jayawardhana called the school "a singular place with a close-knit community" driven by relentless standards. That was before the ranking landed.

Caltech ranked second for the second straight year in U.S. News's undergraduate research opportunities category.