Research Strength › Mathematics & Statistics

Best Colleges for Mathematics & Statistics Research

28 colleges ranked by the research strength of their Mathematics & Statistics faculty — a 0–100 blend of bibliometric quality, top-decile stars, federal R&D funding, and academic notability. Research output, not teaching quality. Reference corpus: 813 faculty. Data as of 2026-07-02.

28colleges ranked
813faculty in corpus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology#1 in Mathematics & Statistics
#CollegeResearch StrengthCoverageMedian hFY24 R&D
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ivy+ · #2
40 matched faculty; median h-index 34; $12m FY24 R&D; led by Steven Johnson (h-index 90).
82
A34$12m
2Harvard University
Ivy League · #3
44 matched faculty; median h-index 37; $24m FY24 R&D; led by David R. Nelson (h-index 109).
81
A37.5$24m
3University of California, Los Angeles
Public Ivy · #15
71 matched faculty; median h-index 24; $11m FY24 R&D; led by Stanley Osher (h-index 121).
75
A24$11m
4Carnegie Mellon University
Elite Private · #24
34 matched faculty; median h-index 16; $15m FY24 R&D; led by Kathryn Roeder (h-index 86).
69
A16$15m
5University of Chicago
Ivy+ · #12
63 matched faculty; median h-index 19; $7m FY24 R&D; led by Lars Peter Hansen (h-index 75).
68
A19$7m
6Columbia University
Ivy League · #8
68 matched faculty; median h-index 23; $4m FY24 R&D; led by Alexander L. Gaeta (h-index 78).
67
A23$4m
7Brown University
Ivy League · #9
24 matched faculty; median h-index 17; $18m FY24 R&D; led by George Em Karniadakis (h-index 136).
66
A17.5$18m
8California Institute of Technology
Ivy+ · #6
29 matched faculty; median h-index 21; $1m FY24 R&D; led by Lior Pachter (h-index 81).
61
A21$1m
9Georgia Institute of Technology
Public Ivy · #33
36 matched faculty; median h-index 16; $10m FY24 R&D; led by Gong Chen (h-index 76).
58
A16$10m
10Dartmouth College
Ivy League · #10
22 matched faculty; median h-index 12; $11m FY24 R&D; led by Peter J. Mucha (h-index 49).
58
A12.5$11m
11University of California, Santa Barbara
Public Ivy · #39
60 matched faculty; median h-index 15; $2m FY24 R&D; led by Linda Petzold (h-index 68).
56
A15$2m
12University of Notre Dame
Elite Private · #18
37 matched faculty; median h-index 14; $5m FY24 R&D; led by Qing Han (h-index 142).
49
A14$5m
13Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Regional · #86
37 matched faculty; median h-index 14; $3m FY24 R&D; led by William Martin (h-index 42).
48
A14$3m
14Rice University
Elite Private · #13
10 matched faculty; median h-index 12; $8m FY24 R&D; led by Dennis Cox (h-index 36).
46
A12.5$8m
15Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Regional · #70
19 matched faculty; median h-index 23; $3m FY24 R&D; led by Kristin Bennett (h-index 49).
46
A23$3m
16Colorado School of Mines
State Flagship · #76
20 matched faculty; median h-index 9; $1m FY24 R&D; led by Douglas Nychka (h-index 47).
43
B9$1m
17Illinois Institute of Technology
Regional · #119
23 matched faculty; median h-index 15; $1m FY24 R&D; led by Chun Liu (h-index 48).
37
A15$1m
18Emory University
Elite Private · #24
32 matched faculty; median h-index 15; $2m FY24 R&D; led by Vojtech Rodl (h-index 48).
36
A15.5$2m
19Stevens Institute of Technology
Regional · #76
18 matched faculty; median h-index 9; $1m FY24 R&D; led by Xiaohu Li (h-index 39).
32
A9$1m
20Pomona College
Elite Private · #15
17 matched faculty; median h-index 7; $1m FY24 R&D; led by Stephan Ramon Garcia (h-index 27).
32
A7$1m
21Williams College
Elite Private · #11
15 matched faculty; median h-index 7; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Frank Morgan (h-index 31).
29
A7$0m
22Harvey Mudd College
Top LAC · #10
17 matched faculty; median h-index 7; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Alfonso Castro (h-index 22).
20
A7$0m
23Colorado College
Top LAC · #27
15 matched faculty; median h-index 5; $0m FY24 R&D; led by David Brown (h-index 32).
20
A5$0m
24Carleton College
Top LAC · #6
10 matched faculty; median h-index 5; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Eric Egge (h-index 13).
19
B5.5$0m
25Haverford College
Top LAC · #16
6 matched faculty; median h-index 7; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Joshua Sabloff (h-index 10).
18
C7.5$0m
26St. Olaf College
Top LAC · #55
16 matched faculty; median h-index 5; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Paul Roback (h-index 12).
18
B5.5$0m
27Swarthmore College
Elite Private · #17
18 matched faculty; median h-index 6; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Linda Chen (h-index 16).
17
A6.5$0m
28Bowdoin College
Elite Private · #23
11 matched faculty; median h-index 4; $0m FY24 R&D; led by Christopher Chong (h-index 22).
16
A4$0m

Colleges with too little data to rank in Mathematics & Statistics

How this ranking is built

Research Strength (0–100) blends four components, re-normalized over whichever are available for each college: Quality 45%, Stars 25%, Funding 20%, Notability 10%. Each college's faculty in Mathematics & Statistics are matched to OpenAlex research records; scores use field-relative percentiles across these 192 colleges, not all US institutions. A college needs at least four matched faculty to be ranked.

Caveats

Research Strength Rankings v1.0 · as of 2026-07-02.

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