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Introduction to the Tables for
The Top American Research Universities

Click here for the complete list of tables 
(available in Microsoft Excel format).

TheCenter determines the Top American Research Universities by their rank on nine different measures: Total Research, Federal Research, Endowment Assets, Annual Giving, National Academy Members, Faculty Awards, Doctorates Granted, Postdoctoral Appointees, and Median SAT Scores. (The Source Notes section of this study provides detailed information on each of the nine indicators.) The tables group research institutions according to how many times they rank in the top 25 on each of these nine measures. The top category includes those universities that rank in the top 25 on all nine indicators. The bottom category includes universities with only one of the nine measures ranked in the top 25. Within these groups, institutions are then sorted by how many times they rank between 26 and 50 on the nine performance variables, with ties listed alphabetically. A similar methodology produces a second set of institutions—those ranked 26 through 50 on the same nine measures.

For the purpose of this study, TheCenter includes only those institutions that had more than $20 million in federal research expenditures in FY 2002 (for the 2004 report), FY 2001 (for the 2003 report), FY 2000 (for the 2002 report), FY 1999 (2001 report), or FY 1998 (2000 report).

The first two tables list each institution with the most current data available for each measure and its corresponding national rank (i.e., rank among all institutions regardless of whether they are privately or publicly controlled). The third and fourth tables provide the same nine data measures but with the groupings determined by the control rank (i.e., rank among all private or all public institutions). Institutions ranking in the top 25 on at least one measure are included in the tables with the (1-25) identifier, while those ranking 26 through 50 are found in the tables labeled with the (26-50) header.

• The Top American Research Universities (1-25) identifies the institutions that rank in the top 25 nationally on at least one of the nine measures.
• The Top American Research Universities (26-50) identifies the institutions that rank 26 through 50 nationally on at least one of the nine measures.
• The Top Private Research Universities (1-25) identifies the private institutions that rank in the top 25 among all private universities on at least one of the nine measures.
• The Top Public Research Universities (1-25) identifies the public institutions that rank in the top 25 among all public universities on at least one of the nine measures.
• The Top Private and Public Research Universities (26-50) identifies the private and public institutions that rank 26 through 50 among their private or public counterparts on at least one of the nine measures.

Many research universities rank highly both nationally and among their public or private peers, and therefore appear in more than one table.

Data found in these tables may not always match the figures published by the original source. TheCenter makes adjustments, when necessary, to ensure that the data reflect the activity at a single campus rather than that of a multiple campus institution or state university system. When data are missing from the original source, TheCenter may substitute another figure if available. A full discussion of this subject, and the various adjustments or substitutions made to the original data, is in the Data Notes section of this report.

Every effort is made to find actual or estimated data for any institution within TheCenter Research Universities group (i.e., those with over $20 million in federal research) that did not report to the original data source. For institutions below the $20 million cutoff, we typically do not use a substitute value. We use NR for Not Reported in these cases. TheCenter uses NA for Not Applicable when data are not relevant to a particular institution.

In this section, prior year tables are not updated to reflect changes due to revised figures or estimates from the data source or institution since our last report. Tables located in the Universities Reporting Any Federal Research in 1990-2002 section are a better source earlier data.