 MIT places among the top ten in many overall rankings of universities ( see right ) and rankings based on students ' revealed preferences . For several years , U.S. News & World Report , the QS World University Rankings , and the Academic Ranking of World Universities have ranked MIT 's School of Engineering first , as did the 1995 National Research Council report . In the same lists , MIT 's strongest showings apart from in engineering are in computer science , the natural sciences , business , economics , linguistics , mathematics , and , to a lesser extent , political science and philosophy . 
