The college ranking website Niche placed Georgetown University 17th in its 2026 ranking of colleges and universities in the United States, dropping four places from 2025.
Georgetown’s rank has fallen consistently over the past three years — placing 12th in 2024 — in Niche’s “Best Colleges in America” list, which indicates a university’s prestige. Similar to other ranking sites such as U.S. News & World Report, Niche primarily uses a combination of data from the U.S. Department of Education and user reviews on their platform to generate the annual ranking list.
Joseph Kanjiramkuzhey (SOH ’28) said he does not think the drop in rank accurately reflects the Georgetown experience.
“I personally don’t think that my Georgetown experience is going to be different from my first year to this year because it changed ranks,” Kanjiramkuzhey told The Hoya. “I think a lot of that has to do with opinions and many different factors.”
Kanjiramkuzhey added that, regardless of ranking changes, a school’s prestige is a very small part of students’ ultimate goal: graduating from university.
“Getting a degree from a prestigious school does show a sense of rigor and commitment in the fact that you were able to succeed in a school that is highly ranked,” Kanjiramkuzhey said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about getting through the four years.”
Last year, when Georgetown experienced a similar drop in ranking on U.S. News, a university spokesperson said Georgetown maintains its commitment to ensuring the best student experience regardless of rankings.
“Georgetown is most focused on the student experience, both inside and outside the classroom, and the formation of graduates who act as ‘people for others,’” a spokesperson wrote to The Hoya in October 2024. “Through scholarly work, our centers and institutes, and our student support and resources, we work to promote social justice and access, affordability and quality of education.”
Niche uses nine categories to generate its rankings. The most influential factors include academics, which considers acceptance rate; quality of professors and student surveys; financial value, measuring average loan amount and graduate earnings; and faculty, considering awards won and student-faculty ratio. These three factors account for 40%, 27.5% and 7.5%, respectively, of the score. The remaining six factors consider the university’s campus, student diversity, student life, surveys submitted to Niche, the surrounding area and safety.
Although many schools move throughout the rankings, these lists impact some prospective students’ college decision process.
Giulia Rocha (CAS ’29), a first-year student from Miami, Fla., said rankings like Niche’s proved useful in the college admissions process.
“Rank was definitely an important factor, because I really wanted to go to an academic school,” Rocha told The Hoya. “There’s a lot of pressure in high school to go to highly ranked schools.”
Rocha added that, although ranking was one of many factors that drove her to Georgetown, her time on campus has shown that there are many other aspects of the culture on campus.
“People here are driven,” Rocha said. “Everyone I see is applying to a bunch of things and really applying themselves. The business majors I know are applying to the consulting programs, the pre-med people I know signed up for GERMS.”
Kanjiramkuzhey said rankings were an important consideration when he applied to college, even though he does not care as much now.
“There had always been this sense to apply to a top tier university,” Kanjiramkuzhey said. “There were moments where I would search up different rankings of different schools specifically for my interests and where they ran compared to other universities in the nation.”
Kanjiramkuzhey said Georgetown retains its prestige regardless of online rankings, mainly through the student population.
“Even if it goes from 13th to 17th, it’s still considered a very top-tier, prestigious school,” Kanjiramkuzhey said. “It’s not talked about too much because everyone that is here was meant to be here because of their abilities and the skill set that they have, which is what allowed them to get into the university and be accepted in the first place.”