The 21 best state universities in the US, ranked

UCLA is tied for first this year for best state schools.

Mario Tama/Getty Images US News & World Report ranks the best universities across the US every year.

While many of the top schools are private, every state in the union has its own public system.

We used US News' 2027 ranking to compile a list of the 21 top public schools.

This back-to-school season, the cost and value of higher education are top of mind.

In a time when going to college can put you in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt , and as more tech moguls share that they skipped university altogether, it could be worth considering a public school.

Every state has some sort of public school system, though they're not all created equal.

Just as private schools have the Ivy League , some state schools stand above the rest — Forbes now releases its own list of "Public Ivies" each year.

Public schools are also generally cheaper than private schools, especially if you stay in-state.

But even paying out-of-state tuition at some public schools can cost half as much as the most expensive colleges charge.

We used US News & World Report's 2027 ranking of best national universities to identify the top 21 public schools in the country.

The list does not include liberal arts colleges focused on undergraduate education or regional universities with limited doctoral programs, although those are typically private schools.

Its ranking evaluated over 400 US colleges across multiple metrics, including graduation rates, debt loads, average salaries, and admissions rates, among others, using data reported by schools and third-party sources .

For its 2027 list, US News introduced a new "earnings by major" metric.