2025 WSJ US College Rankings -- A New Era of College Rankings

The Wall Street Journal recently released its 2025 Best College in the U.S. rankings. While Princeton University maintaining its top spot for the second consecutive year, there quite a few new faces in the top 10.

Also, we've found a notable increase in the rankings of public institutions as well as the liberal arts colleges, which might be a result of WSJ's substantial changes of its ranking methodology.

The Wall Street Journal recently released its 2025 U.S. college rankings, with Princeton University maintaining its top spot for the second consecutive year.

The Top 10 Colleges

1. Princeton University
2. Babson College
3. Stanford University
4. Yale University
5. Claremont McKenna College
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7. Harvard University
8. University of California, Berkeley
9. Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus
10. Davidson College

Babson College continued its meteoric rise, jumping from 126 to the top 10 last year and now securing the second position. This significant improvement can be attributed primarily to its exceptional impact on graduates' career earnings, earning a perfect 100 and ranking No. 8 overall in the Salary Impact category.

As one of the three major publishers of U.S. college rankings, alongside Forbes and U.S. News, the WSJ has been releasing its rankings since 2016. Its focus is on evaluating how well U.S. colleges and universities prepare students for financial success, emphasizing measurable outcomes like graduation rates and post-graduate earnings.

Last year, the WSJ made substantial changes to its methodology, eliminating the academic survey on schools' reputations that often favored well-known institutions. Additionally, the rankings no longer rewarded schools based on their spending on instruction.

These changes have resulted in a notable increase in the rankings of public institutions. Six public universities have now entered the top 20, including the University of California at Berkeley at No. 8 and the Georgia Institute of Technology at No. 9. In contrast, last year, no public universities were in the top 10 and only two were in the top 20.

See the full ranking here: https://www.wsj.com/rankings/college-rankings/best-colleges-2025
Reference: https://poetsandquants.com/2024/09/07/wall-street-journals-2025-best-colleges-in-america/