Natural Sciences
Physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and mathematics, driven by federal research funding.
Ranked campuses teaching natural sciences
| # | Institution | City | Control | Students | Admitted | Tuition | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MIT | Cambridge, MA | private | 4,700 | 4% | $59,500 | 97 |
| 2 | Stanford | Stanford, CA | private | 17,500 | 3.9% | $62,000 | 96 |
| 3 | Princeton | Princeton, NJ | private | 8,500 | 4.6% | $59,000 | 95 |
| 4 | Yale | New Haven, CT | private | 14,700 | 3.7% | $59,000 | 94 |
| 5 | Penn | Philadelphia, PA | private | 28,000 | 5.4% | $61,500 | 93 |
| 6 | Cornell | Ithaca, NY | private | 25,500 | 8% | $62,000 | 92 |
| 7 | UChicago | Chicago, IL | private | 18,500 | 5% | $64,000 | 91 |
| 8 | Columbia | New York, NY | private | 36,000 | 3.9% | $63,000 | 90 |
| 9 | Caltech | Pasadena, CA | private | 2,300 | 3.1% | $61,000 | 89 |
| 10 | Duke | Durham, NC | private | 17,500 | 5.1% | $62,000 | 88 |
| 11 | Williams | Williamstown, MA | private | 3,600 | — | $60,000 | 88 |
| 12 | Hopkins | Baltimore, MD | private | 29,500 | 6% | $63,000 | 87 |
Doctoral programs in this field
21 indexed campuses award research doctorates here. Funding normally arrives through assistantships tied to faculty grants.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA · private · doctorate
Small, intensely technical and heavily funded: engineering, computing and the physical sciences with one of the largest research budgets per student in the country.
Stanford University
Stanford, CA · private · doctorate
Silicon Valley parent institution, combining a large research portfolio with an entrepreneurship culture that feeds straight into the Bay Area economy.
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ · private · doctorate
A small Ivy with a heavy mathematics, physics and public-policy core. Doctoral tuition is funded for most PhD candidates, which makes Princeton the top answer to a doctorate in New Jersey.
Yale University
New Haven, CT · private · doctorate
Known for law, drama and the humanities alongside a growing science and medicine campus in New Haven.
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA · private · doctorate
Wharton anchors a research university that mixes business, medicine, law and engineering on one walkable West Philadelphia campus.
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY · private · doctorate
A hybrid Ivy: privately governed, with contract colleges for New York residents. Strong in engineering, hospitality, agriculture and computing.
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL · private · doctorate
The Chicago school of economics, a rigorous core curriculum and one of the deepest physical-science and law complexes in the Midwest.
Columbia University
New York, NY · private · doctorate
The Manhattan Ivy: journalism, international affairs, law and medicine plugged into the city media and finance pipelines.
Enrolment, tuition and acceptance figures are rounded planning values compiled in 2025/26 for orientation. Verify exact numbers with each university's official fact sheet before you apply.