Baylor is once again the top-ranked academic university in the Big 12 Conference, according to new U.S. News rankings for 2025-26.
Baylor moved up one place to No. 46 among the nation’s Top 50 private universities, and to No. 88 among the Top 100 national universities, ranking among the top 20% of all major universities nationwide.
That puts BU at the top of the Big 12 for the second straight year, ahead of TCU and Colorado (tied at No. 97), BYU (110), and the rest of the conference. In the state of Texas, Baylor held steady at No. 4, behind only Rice, Texas and Texas A&M, and once again tied with SMU.
In other categories, Baylor jumped to No. 4 in the nation for first-year experience while remaining highly regarded for learning communities (No. 9), undergraduate teaching (No. 27), innovation (No. 38), and undergraduate research (No. 40). Notable undergraduate academic programs include entrepreneurship (No. 10 nationally) and nursing (up 11 spots to No. 28).
As we’ve frequently noted, such rankings don’t tell the whole story of what you get at Baylor — but when you add such objective numbers to what students have to say about BU, it paints a pretty impressive picture.
Sic ’em, Bears!