272 schools meet this page’s criteria: four-year colleges classified as R1 or R2 research universities.
CollegeCove features four-year colleges and universities that primarily award bachelor's degrees or higher. Community colleges, vocational and certificate schools, graduate-only institutions, seminaries and other single-subject schools, and institutions that are primarily online are not included. Search all schools to reach community colleges and specialized institutions too.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do R1 and R2 actually mean?
They are Carnegie Classification tiers for doctoral universities, assigned on research activity: R1 is very high, R2 is high. 272 schools on CollegeCove hold one of the two. It is a measure of research output, not a ranking of teaching quality.
Does research classification matter if I am an undergraduate?
It cuts both ways. Research universities offer lab access, faculty doing current work, and undergraduate research positions that smaller schools cannot match. The tradeoff is that introductory courses are often large and sometimes taught by graduate students. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how you learn.
Are research universities harder to get into?
Not automatically. Research classification and selectivity are separate things, and many R1 and R2 institutions are large public universities with broad admissions. Do not treat the label as a proxy for difficulty.
Are research universities expensive?
This group includes both public institutions with modest tuition and expensive privates. Cross-reference with the Budget Friendly collection to see which research universities fall under $15,000 out-of-state.
