U.S. News and World Report earlier this week dropped its ranking of the top undergraduate accounting programs for 2026, and there’s been a change in the No. 1 spot.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign now wears the crown as it knocked the University of Texas at Austin off the top of the accounting mountain.
The Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois came in second in 2025, finishing just behind the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. Both universities’ business schools have been recognized for having some of the best undergrad accounting programs in the U.S. for many years.
“We have one of the world’s premier accountancy programs, and I’m happy to see that excellence reflected in the rankings,” W. Brooke Elliott, Josef and Margot Lakonishok professor in business and dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement. “Our outstanding faculty, dedicated learners, and extremely engaged alumni make Gies Business an ideal destination for anyone who wants to build a purpose-driven career in accounting or business more broadly.”
Accounting majors at the University of Illinois have an average starting salary of $78,477 after they graduate, and 98% of department of accountancy students found jobs or attended graduate school within six months of graduation, according to the Gies College of Business.
Three undergraduate programs at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business were ranked among the top five nationally in U.S. News & World Report‘s latest rankings: accounting, finance, and marketing.
“Our commitment to the people of Texas is to deliver an uncompromising standard of academic excellence,” University of Texas President Jim Davis said in a statement on Sept. 23. “That excellence is driving the highest demand and student performance in our university’s history, and today’s rankings validate our performance. I am grateful to our faculty and staff for their dedication to our students and their academic success.”
The U.S. News & World Report rankings are based on surveys of deans and senior faculty members of business programs around the country. Those voters nominate up to 15 of the best programs in a number of business specialty areas.
Schools with the highest overall rankings provided ample classroom resources for students and faculty, maintained high graduation and retention rates, conferred a high rate of degrees, and produced graduates who entered the workforce with manageable debt and competitive starting salaries.
Here are the top 12 undergraduate accounting programs for 2026, according to U.S. News & World Report:
1. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2. University of Texas at Austin
3. Brigham Young University
4. Indiana University
5. University of Pennsylvania
6. University of Michigan
7. University of Southern California (USC)
8. (tie) Boston College
8. (tie) University of Florida
10. University of Notre Dame
11. New York University
12. Ohio State University
Other schools’ undergrad accounting programs that weren’t among the top 12 but were recognized by U.S. News and World Report include (in alphabetical order):
- Arizona State University
- Auburn University
- Babson College
- Bentley University
- Boston University
- Canisius University
- Carnegie Melon University
- Cornell University
- Creighton University
- CUNY-Baruch College
- Emory University
- Fairfield University
- Florida State University
- Fordham University
- Georgetown University
- Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
- Gonzaga University
- John Carroll University
- Le Moyne College
- Loyola Marymount University
- Loyola University Chicago
- Loyola University Maryland
- Loyola University New Orleans
- Marquette University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Michigan State University
- Pennsylvania State University-University Park (Penn State)
- Purdue University
- Rutgers University
- Saint Joseph’s University
- Saint Louis University
- Santa Clara University
- Seattle University
- Texas A&M University
- University of Arizona
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Georgia
- University of Iowa
- University of North Carolina
- University of San Francisco
- University of Scranton
- University of Utah
- Villanova University
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Xavier University
Photo caption: The Alma Mater, a bronze statue by sculptor Lorado Taft, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (University of Illinois)
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