Boston University

How it scores

Research and Alumni outcomes are percentiles among 1,240 universities; alumni outcomes are counted per student. Admissions & earnings is the position among universities in the same country (United States).

Admissions, outcomes and alumni

Admit rate

11.1% src

Average SAT

1,480 src

Yield (admits who enrol)

36% src

Median earnings 10 years after entry

$83,238 src

40-year return on investment (Georgetown CEW)

$2.76M src

Average net price per year

$24,402 src

Graduation rate (6 years)

89% src

Rhodes Scholars, 2021–26

0 src

Alumni founders of VC-backed companies (PitchBook)

547 src

Internationally notable alumni (Wikidata)

139 src

Heads of state or government (Wikidata)

12 src

Students (undergraduate / total)

18,248 / 31,611

Each figure links to its source. Admissions and earnings figures are comparable only within a country.

Research Index

Percentiles among 1,305 ranked universities. Rank on quality alone: =123. On strength alone: =153. The Research Index scores research only; admissions, earnings and alumni outcomes are scored in the overall ranking where data exists.

The numbers behind it (2020–2023)

Papers in the top 10% of their field

14.0% (13.4%–14.6%)

Papers in the top 1% of their field

1.5% (1.4%–1.7%)

Top-10% papers (fractional count)

1,138

All papers (fractional count)

8,126

International co-authored

41.5%

Open access

72.6%

Papers from 2020–23 since retracted

14 (0.56 per 1,000)

Core publications, fractional counting, field-normalised citation shares. Brackets show Leiden’s stability interval. Collaboration and open-access shares use full counting and aren’t field-normalised. Retraction counts come from the Retraction Watch database and include publishers’ mass retractions as well as honest-error retractions; a retraction is not by itself evidence of misconduct, and the count is never scored.

By field

Position over time

The same method applied to each 4-year publication window. The number of ranked universities grows from period to period, so position is shown as a share of the field.