Report Reflects Academic Rigor, Economic Value of University’s Programs
U.S. News & World Report has named UMass Lowell the “best value” school in Massachusetts on its 2026 list of best colleges and universities.
09/29/2025
Media Contacts: David Joyner, executive director of communications and digital media, David_Joyner@uml.edu or Nancy Cicco, associate director of media relations, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
LOWELL, Massachusetts – U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 national rankings of top colleges and universities again this year give high marks to UMass Lowell for the education and economic value it provides to students.
The media outlet, best known for consumer advice and news analysis, places UMass Lowell at No. 11 in Massachusetts for its “Best Colleges” ranking of higher-educational institutions defined as national universities. Such institutions offer a full range of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs and produce groundbreaking research.
U.S. News also lists UMass Lowell as the No. 1 “best value school” in the Bay State and No. 92 in the country, up 105 spots from last year.
“UMass Lowell delivers a world-class education that is accessible and affordable while helping students succeed today and throughout their careers. We’re proud to be No. 1 among ‘best value schools’ in Massachusetts and No. 92 in the U.S. – rankings that reflect our strong return on investment and emphasis on career-connected experience,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen.
The rankings come just months after UMass Lowell was named a Carnegie Research 1 (R1) university, a prestigious designation used to identify the nation’s top research institutions.
In acknowledging the university’s leadership in scholarship and economic value, the rankings also reflect UMass Lowell’s commitment to the region’s economic vitality through the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC). Now underway, the initiative envisions a 1.2-million square-foot mixed-use development on and beyond UMass Lowell’s campus that includes offices and research labs, housing, retail businesses and entertainment destinations. The ecosystem is providing UMass Lowell students with paid career experiences at LINC member organizations.
For its 2026 assessments, U.S. News & World Report evaluated nearly 1,700 higher-education institutions. To determine UMass Lowell’s place on the Best Colleges list, the media outlet used 17 key measures of academic quality including student retention and graduation rates, financial resources provided per student, faculty to student ratio, number of full-time faculty and amount of published research.
To determine the “best value” ranking, the outlet additionally examined the 2024-2025 net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student who received the average level of need-based scholarship or grant aid. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal. Only schools ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included, as U.S. News considers the most significant values to be among colleges that are above average academically, according to the media outlet.