| Rank | 2005 World Rank | 2004 World Rank | Name |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Harvard University |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 3 | 5 | 7 | Stanford University |
| 4 | 6 | 2 | University of California, Berkeley |
| 5 | 7 | 8 | Yale University |
| 6 | 8 | 4 | California Institute of Technology |
| 7 | 9 | 9 | Princeton University |
| 8 | 11 | 52 | Duke University |
| 9 | 14 | 23 | Cornell University |
| 10 | 17= | 20 | University of California, San Francisco |
| 11 | 17= | 13 | University of Chicago |
| 12 | 20 | 19 | Columbia University |
| 13 | 26 | 15 | University of Texas at Austin |
| 14 | 27 | 25 | Johns Hopkins University |
| 15 | 32 | 28 | Pennsylvania University |
| 16 | 36 | 31 | University of Michigan |
| 17 | 37 | 26 | University of California, Los Angeles |
| 18 | 42 | 24 | University of California, San Diego |
| 19 | 44 | 38 | Carnegie Mellon University |
| 20 | 46 | 73 | Northwestern University |
| 21 | 54 | 75 | Boston University |
| 22 | 56 | 79 | New York University |
| 23 | 58= | 109 | Washington University, St Louis |
| 24 | 58= | 35 | University of Illinois |
| 25 | 61 | 59 | Purdue University |
| 26 | 64 | 130 | Pennsylvania State University |
| 27 | 68 | 45 | Massachusetts University |
| 28 | 71 | 61 | Brown University |
| 29 | 73= | 86 | Rochester University |
| 30 | 73= | 66 | University Wisconsin-Madison |
| 31 | 88 | 74 | Washington University |
| 32 | 105 | 118 | Virginia University |
| 33 | 109 | 88 | Case Western Reserve University |
| 34 | 114 | 156 | Vanderbilt University |
| 35 | 117 | 138 | Dartmouth College |
| 36 | 121 | 116 | Michigan State University |
| 37 | 124 | 180 | University of Southern California |
| 38 | 125 | 105 | Texas A&M University |
| 39 | 133 | 134 | Maryland University |
| 40 | 141 | 173 | Emory University |
| 41 | 143 | 117 | North Carolina University |
| 42 | 147 | 65 | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| 43 | 150= | 146 | Rice University |
| 44 | 150= | 82 | University of Minnesota |
| 45 | 159= | 165 | Georgetown University |
| 46 | 159= | 72 | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| 47 | 163 | 107 | Colorado University |
| 48 | 164 | 104 | Tufts University |
| 49 | 175= | 136 | State Univ of New York, Stony Brook |
| 50 | 175= | 90 | Alabama University |
