The long-feared college enrollment cliff—a product of the decline in U.S. births that began in 2008—is finally arriving. Yet many of America’s top public universities face a different challenge: The number of students who want to attend them is rising.

Last spring, undergraduate enrollment at four-year public colleges was up 1.5% from a year earlier, to 5.4 million, while undergraduate enrollment at private not-for-profit colleges was a hair down at 2.4 million. Total applications to public colleges are also growing faster.

It’s no mystery why. Over the past decade, adjusted for inflation, in-state tuition at four-year public universities has declined by 7%, compared to a 2% increase at private non-profit ones, according to the College Board. It calculates that tuition and fees for four-year public colleges last year averaged $11,950 for in-state students and $31,880 for those coming from out of state, versus $45,000 at private nonprofit colleges. (Keep in mind, those are list prices, which is why certain elite private colleges offering generous financial aid can end up being cheaper for middle-class students than out-of-state public schools.)

Yet despite strong demand, it’s a fraught time for the nation’s public colleges. Universities, both public and private, are navigating uncertainty over billions in federal research funding as the Trump Administration has aggressively targeted some individual schools, while aiming to make all grants subject to ideological litmus tests and decisions by political appointees. It’s also attempting to cut overall funding, as well as the overhead paid to universities with federal grants. This is a big deal for top state universities. In fiscal 2024, private Johns Hopkins University was the top recipient of federal research funding, but the next four institutions were state schools on our list: the Georgia Institute of Technology; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; the University of California, San Diego; and the University of Washington, Seattle.

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More problems: The Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant policies are scaring away foreign students. And all colleges face growing pressure to demonstrate that their degrees will lead to well-paying careers in the age of artificial intelligence.

Plus, some public universities face additional challenges as their states’ politicians assert control over everything from curriculum, to tenure, to diversity, equity and inclusion and admission policies. According to PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech, since 2021, 23 states have adopted laws censoring what can be said at state colleges, with a record 15 states doing so in 2025. As of mid-2026, 28 states had imposed restrictions on DEI programs in public higher education. Florida now requires annual approval of general-education offerings. Just this month, responding to a new state law, regents of the Texas A&M University System voted to exclude hundreds of classes—covering such subjects as women writers, LGBTQ literature, gender and health, and climate change–from counting as “core” courses for graduation at the 11 colleges in its system.

Then there’s the out-of-state admissions backlash. As the appeal of top state universities has grown, so have applications from academically strong out-of-staters. Tempted by the higher tuition they can extract from out-of-staters, state schools started accepting more of them. That’s led taxpayers and their representatives to demand limits on those admissions.

In 2022, the University of California system agreed to begin reducing nonresident enrollment at UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego, which rank No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 on Forbes’ Top 25 Public Colleges list. As part of that deal, California agreed to pay those top three state universities tens of millions of dollars extra a year to make up for the tuition dollars lost by admitting fewer out-of-staters. (Every University of California school imposes a hefty $39,270 annual tuition surcharge on out-of-state students.) One smart way the UC system has expanded access for in-state residents is by admitting more transfer students from California’s more affordable community colleges; for this fall, 67% of first-year admits to the nine UC schools were in-state, while 90% of transfer students admitted were California residents.

For out-of-state students, and for residents in some states, admission to top public colleges is becoming more competitive. But in some cases, state schools have expanded enrollment to meet the growing demand, particularly from state residents. For example, since 2019, No. 5 Georgia Tech has steadily increased undergraduate enrollment, allowing it to keep the in-state admit rate for this year’s freshman class at 28%, more than triple the 9% out-of-state rate.

While a majority of Forbes’ Top 25 Public Colleges are pricier than the average state school, there are some real bargains. Purdue University in Indiana has frozen in-state tuition at just under $10,000 for 14 consecutive years. And the University of Florida currently charges state residents only $6,440 per year. The admirable result: Just 10% of in-state undergrads take out federal student loans.

Geographically, this list is somewhat concentrated: Six states represent 17 schools on this list, with seven schools from California and two each from Virginia, Texas, New York, North Carolina and Florida. But excellence is widely spread. The University of Michigan, the long-time midwestern leader, comes in third, and rising Georgia Tech is now the top state school in the south, ranking fifth.

The following rankings are based on Forbes’ America’s Top 500 Colleges list, which focuses on educational and career outcomes, as measured by 14 metrics, including graduation rates, student debt and alumni salary and achievements. You can read more about our methodology here and see the full 2027 list here. Tuition and fees are for the 2026-2027 school year.

1. University of California, Berkeley

In-state tuition and fees: $18,214

Out-of-state tuition and fees: $57,484

UC Berkeley, No. 9 on Forbes’ overall Top 500 list, is an academic and research powerhouse. Last year, one faculty member won a Nobel Prize in chemistry and an emeritus prof shared one in physics. It’s not just academics. For the fourth year in a row, PitchBook just ranked Berkeley first in the world for the number of undergraduate alumni who go on to found venture-capital backed companies, with Stanford, Harvard, Cornell and MIT rounding out the top five. Berkeley isn’t cheap. For California residents, the cost of attendance, after a meal plan, campus housing and student health insurance are figured in, is $54,674, but the school says 38% of in-state students pay nothing for tuition and two-thirds get some aid. For out-of-staters, the total tab (not counting travel) comes to around $94,000. Since they generally aren’t eligible for California or school need-based aid, middle-class and low-income out-of-staters could find a similarly elite private school much cheaper. First-year admissions are highly competitive, with 12% of California applicants and 10% of those from other states admitted for the 2026-2027 year.

2. University of California, Los Angeles

In-state tuition and fees: $16,430

Out-of-state tuition and fees: $55,700

UCLA just beat its own record as the most applied-to school in the nation, receiving 177,317 applications for first-year and transfer admission for fall 2026. Just 10% of California first-year applicants and 15% from other states were admitted, but 25% of transfer applicants from California’s community colleges were accepted. Students are drawn to not only the school’s academic credentials, but also its lush campus and its location, just minutes from Hollywood and the Pacific Ocean. UCLA is still recovering from the Trump Administration’s attempt last year—now blocked by the courts—to suspend $584 million of its federal research grants. The school has a notable commitment to sustainability and climate innovation, with initiatives like the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge and its Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. It has also launched a new $125 million semiconductor hub, partnering with tech giants like Meta and Broadcom to focus on research and workforce development in artificial........

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