Cal Poly Continues Streak as Best in the West For 33rd Straight Year
Cal Poly is the best overall master’s-level university in the West for both public and private institutions for the third consecutive year in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Colleges guidebook.
This is the 33rd straight year Cal Poly is ranked best public institution in the West and the third year running it has been ranked tops among all 97 public and private institutions in the region, which includes California and 14 other western states.
Meanwhile, the rankings place the former Cal Maritime Academy in Vallejo as best public college in the West and second among private and public colleges reviewed. The academy is in the process of integrating with Cal Poly and is now called the Cal Poly Maritime Academy (located on the Cal Poly Solano Campus). (The “best college” ranking delineates primarily undergraduate institutions that grant fewer than half of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.)
“We appreciate U.S. News’ recognition of Cal Poly as one of the nation’s finest universities for more than a generation,” said Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong. “Our Learn by Doing ethos continues to create thousands of graduates each year who make a difference in their respective industries and occupations.
“We also see new opportunities for current and future students with the addition of the Cal Poly Maritime Academy and fulfilling our goal to serve a greater number of California students seeking to begin their careers and employers who value a Cal Poly graduate.”
Cal Poly also was again named No. 1 in the West for Most Innovative Schools; several College of Engineering programs were rated among the top five for masters-level educational institutions; and the university for the sixth straight year is the top school in the West for veterans among public and private institutions that participate in federal initiatives helping veterans and active-duty service members pay for their degrees.
Cal Maritime Academy was ranked best public college in the West and second among the 97 ranked Western private and public schools.
The 2025 rankings edition, U.S. News’s 41st, released Sept. 23 and evaluated nearly 1,800 institutions using up to 17 key measures of academic quality for National Universities and 13 indicators for the National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges.
The Western regional rankings include public and private institutions in 15 states that provide “a full range of undergraduate and master’s-level programs but few doctoral programs.” (Universities that grant doctoral degrees, such as those in the University of California system, are listed in a separate category.)
The top National Universities – schools that are often research-oriented and offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees — are: Princeton University in New Jersey (No. 1); Boston’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 2); Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (No. 3); California’s Stanford University in the Bay Area and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (both No. 4).
Cal Poly placed highly in several other rankings, including:
• Ranked seventh in Best Value Schools
The calculation considers a school’s academic quality, as indicated by its 2026 U.S. News Best Colleges ranking, and the 2024-25 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,” U.S. News said.
• Repeated as best in the West for Most Innovative Schools — Institutions that are making the most innovative improvements and “promising changes” in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities, according to U.S. News. Cal Poly has received this ranking each year since 2018.
• Best in the West for the sixth straight year for most veteran-friendly universities — A listing that shows the top-ranked schools that participate in federal initiatives helping veterans, their dependents and active-duty service members pay for their degrees.
• Best Undergraduate Teaching (tie) No. 2
• Tied for fifth in best master’s-level engineering program in the nation — Among specialty programs, Cal Poly’s Computer Engineering again remained at the top of public and private institutions and ranked second in Civil Engineering. The Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs again ranked No. 2 overall.
Cal Poly Maritime Academy also received other top rankings among 97 western schools:
• Ranked sixth-best in top performers on social mobility (tie)
• Tied for 60th in Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs at schools where doctorates are not offered
This is the third best-college ranking for Cal Poly to publish since the summer. In early July, the university again received a top five-star ranking in Money magazine’s 2025-26 Best Colleges in America list, a ranking designed to help students and their parents choose a school in terms of value. The 11th annual list showcased the top 732 colleges and universities in the U.S. on graduation rates, cost of attendance, financial aid, alumni salaries and more.
And in late August, Cal Poly was again named to Forbes’ Top 25 Public Colleges, as part of the magazine’s 2025-26 list of America’s Top Colleges. The university was 55th in the nation — up from 57th in 2024 and No. 83 in 2023 — among the 500 ranked public and private not-for-profit universities in the U.S.
Visit U.S. News & World Report for more on this year's regional rankings.
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