U.S. News and World Report recently announced its rankings of the 2021 best national universities. It accomplishes this ranking every year.

Lots of key data went into ranking all of the universities, and you can read all about it here. However, the nuts and bolts of it are below.

Although the methodology is the product of years of research, we continuously refine our approach based on user feedback, discussions with schools and higher education experts, literature reviews, trends in our own data, availability of new data, and engaging with deans and institutional researchers at higher education conferences. Our detailed methodology is transparent in part for use by schools and academics, but mostly because we believe prospective students will find our rankings more useful if they know what the rankings measure.

A user can sort the data for a specific university by typing in the name of the school in the upper left-hand box. So, we looked up where every SEC university was ranked.

Vanderbilt University was ranked the highest, obviously, at No. 14 overall. The University of Florida (No. 30) and the University of Georgia (No. 47) are both ranked in the top 50. Arkansas and Ole Miss were tied at No. 160, and Mississippi State was ranked last in the SEC at No. 206.

Below is where all 14 Southeastern Conference universities ranked:

  • Vanderbilt: 14
  • Florida: 30
  • Georgia: 47
  • Texas A&M: 66
  • Auburn: 97
  • Tennessee: 112
  • South Carolina: 118
  • Missouri: 124
  • Kentucky: 133
  • Alabama: 143
  • LSU: 153
  • Arkansas: 160
  • Ole Miss: 160
  • Mississippi State: 206