Founded in 1885 as the Territorial Normal School to train teachers, it grew through the twentieth century into Arizona State University, a sprawling public research institution centered in Tempe.
What a ranking doesn't show, scored 0-100 from sourced research.
ASU is the rare large public that has built entrepreneurship into its institutional identity, ranked U.S. News' #1 'Most Innovative University' for 11 straight years (2026 list), ahead of MIT and Stanford every year. Its J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute runs the Venture Devils program, which distributes over $450,000 a year in pitch funding ($1k-$50k per venture) and has supported 1,000+ venture teams, while tech-transfer arm Skysong Innovations has spun out 180+ startups that have collectively raised nearly $1 billion. Notable founder alumni include Robert Bigelow (Bigelow Aerospace) and the founders of Paradox and AirGarage; alumni-founded businesses are celebrated annually via the Sun Devil 100. The founder culture and infrastructure are genuinely top-tier, though its unicorn/large-exit alumni output trails the MIT/Stanford ceiling.
ASU is one of the fastest-growing research enterprises in the U.S., surpassing $1 billion in annual research expenditures for the first time in FY2024 ($1.003 billion per the NSF HERD survey), having more than doubled its research spend over the prior decade. It ranks 37th nationally, 21st among publics, and 5th among institutions without a medical school, with top-10 placements in NASA-funded research (10th) and NSF funding (14th). Flagship assets include the Biodesign Institute ($760M+ in external funding, in partnership with Mayo Clinic), the Mars Space Flight Facility, and NASA mission instruments such as OTES on OSIRIS-REx, plus Nobel laureate Leland Hartwell (Medicine, 2001) on faculty. It is a strong, ascending R1, though it sits below the very top global research tier on per-capita output and laureate density.
ASU has real teaching stars, concentrated in physics and the Walter Cronkite journalism school. Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek is a Distinguished Origins Professor in the Department of Physics who lectures on campus, and Leonard Downie Jr. (former Washington Post executive editor, now Weil Family Professor) personally teaches his signature 'Accountability Journalism' course plus a News21 investigative seminar. ASU's President's Professor program specifically honors classroom teaching excellence (e.g., geologist Steve Reynolds, materials scientist James B. Adams). Influence researcher Robert Cialdini is a Regents Professor Emeritus, so his current teaching is limited; overall teaching-star density is strong for a large public but below MIT/Stanford tier.
Arizona State University fields one of the largest single-institution alumni bodies in the US, with the ASU Alumni Association reporting more than 670,000 living members worldwide and over 300,000 concentrated in metro Phoenix (Maricopa County). Notable graduates span politics (Barry Goldwater, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Govs. Doug Ducey and Katie Hobbs), a Nobel laureate (Elinor Ostrom, Economics 2009), business founders (Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace; Ira Fulton of Fulton Homes, ASU's largest donor at over $160M), and a deep sports/entertainment bench (Phil Mickelson, James Harden, Barry Bonds, Pat Tillman, Jimmy Kimmel). The network is broad, active, and locally dominant rather than billionaire/head-of-state dense like Stanford or Harvard.
ASU offers unusually heavy exposure to prominent visitors, anchored by the Cronkite School and the Origins Project. The annual Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism brings a marquee anchor to a luncheon students attend (Anderson Cooper 2018, Lester Holt 2019, Gayle King 2023, David Muir 2024, Wolf Blitzer 2025, Jorge Ramos & Maria Elena Salinas 2026). The Cronkite 'Must See Mondays' free public series has hosted 200+ journalists since 2008, and the Origins Project has brought Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye and Brian Greene. Commencement keynotes are high-profile, with Harrison Ford and Howard Graham Buffett slated for spring 2026.
ASU sits at the center of a fast-densifying innovation hub: U.S. News has named it the most innovative US university for 11 straight years, its FY2024 research expenditures crossed $1 billion (No. 5 nationally among universities without a medical school), and its SkySong Scottsdale Innovation Center houses 50+ companies from startups to Fortune 500s. The surrounding Greater Phoenix region is now a semiconductor magnet, with TSMC's expanding Phoenix fabs (scaled toward ~$165B), Intel's Chandler Fab52 campus, and 75+ chip firms (onsemi, NXP, Microchip), backed by ASU's $270M Materials-to-Fab Center with Applied Materials. The main gap versus Boston/Bay Area is the absence of peer-tier universities nearby — University of Arizona is ~115 miles south in Tucson — so external academic contamination is thinner than the industrial density.
ASU directly funds large-scale institutional aid. Its flagship New American University Merit Scholarship is awarded automatically on admission in tiered awards (e.g. resident Provost's ~$15,500/yr / $62,000 over four years; nonresident Provost's ~$12,000/yr and Dean's ~$10,000/yr). The need-based Barack Obama Scholars Program, championed by President Michael Crow, covers tuition, fees, books and room and board (minus EFC) for Arizona freshmen from families earning under $60,000, after the income threshold was more than doubled from $25,000; enrollment was expanded from 500 to over 1,600 scholars. ASU also runs the need-based College Attainment Grant.
As a US public flagship, ASU is moderately affordable for Arizona residents but costly for out-of-state students. 2025-26 resident base tuition is ~$12,177 (plus fees), giving an on-campus Tempe total cost of attendance of roughly $37,700-$39,000 including housing ($11,473) and food ($7,346). Nonresident base tuition is $34,014, pushing the full nonresident on-campus cost to around $55,000. Phoenix-metro living costs are moderate by US standards, so the resident path scores reasonably well while the dominant nonresident path drags the blended affordability down.
ASU's Tempe campus is one of the most spirited large-university environments in the US: it hosts more than 1,000 registered student clubs and organizations centered on the Memorial Union, NCAA Division I Sun Devil athletics (now in the Big 12 since 2024, playing football at Mountain America/Sun Devil Stadium), and an extensive Sun Devil Fitness intramural and sport-club program. Freshman retention sits at 86%, above the US average and a proxy for student satisfaction. The main drawbacks students cite are the scale and impersonality of a 70,000+ student campus, Phoenix-area heat, dining quality, and a Tempe cost of living roughly 9% above the US average.
Work-study and employer connectivity are a genuine ASU strength. In the QS Graduate Employability Rankings ASU placed in the top 16% of ranked world universities, scoring 99.9/100 on student-employer connections (second globally) and 99.3 on employer partnerships per faculty. ASU Career Services reports an 89% placement rate within 90 days of graduation, with internships materially lifting offers; the university ranks No. 1 in innovation by US News for ten straight years, reflecting deep industry ties. Median graduate salary is about $64,000, with top undergraduate offers in computer systems engineering (~$59,985) and electrical engineering (~$58,010).
| Academic reputation | 63.9 |
| Employer reputation | 63.3 |
| Employment outcomes | 42.2 |
| Overall (QS) | 59.1 |
Ranking data: QS World University Rankings 2026.
Data is community-curated and may be incomplete.