QS recently released a new ranking of the top universities for 30 different academic subjects and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the list was dominated by two prestigious Boston-based schools — Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Only looking at the American universities included, Harvard topped the rankings for 15 of the subjects, half of QS' list, while MIT ranked number one in nine subjects, including every one in the "Engineering & Technology" category. Together, the two universities were the strongest schools in 24 of QS' 30 subjects — 80% of all the academic fields.
QS uses three distinct data sets — including their own academic and employer reputation surveys — to produce their World University Rankings by Subject.
Because Harvard and MIT take up so many of the list's top rankings, it is interesting to look at the range of subjects they're each considered the best in. For example, MIT has a stronghold on the aforementioned engineering subjects, as well as Linguistics, a less-technology focused field.
Check out QS' full list of the best American universities by academic subject below:
Arts & Humanities:
- Philosophy — New York University
- Modern Languages — Harvard University
- Geography — University of California, Berkeley
- History — Harvard University
- Linguistics — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- English Language & Literature — Harvard University
Engineering & Technology:
- Computer Science & Information Systems — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Chemical Engineering — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Civil & Structural Engineering — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Electrical & Electronic Engineering — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing Engineering — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Life Sciences & Medicine:
- Medicine — Harvard University
- Biological Sciences — Harvard University
- Psychology — Harvard University
- Pharmacy & Pharmacology — Harvard University
- Agriculture & Forestry — University of California, Davis
Natural Sciences:
- Physics & Astronomy — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mathematics — Harvard University
- Environmental Sciences — University of California, Berkeley
- Earth & Marine Sciences — Harvard University
- Chemistry — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Materials Sciences — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Social Sciences:
- Statistics & Operational Research — Stanford University
- Sociology — Harvard University
- Politics & International Studies — Harvard University
- Law — Harvard University
- Economics & Econometrics — Harvard University
- Accounting & Finance — Harvard University
- Communication & Media Studies — University of Wisconsin — Madison
- Education — Harvard University
