Choosing a college is a major life decision — that’s why the Wall Street Journal worked with College Pulse and Statista to create a trusted guide for applicants and their families. For the second year in a row, The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking rates the top 500 universities in the country.
The aim of the ranking is to provide guidance to prospective students and families, while recognizing the schools doing an outstanding job in higher education.
Rather than focusing on colleges’ wealth or reputation in and of themselves, these rankings expand the importance of student outcomes: graduation rates and graduate salaries. Critically, we emphasized measuring the value added by colleges — not simply measuring their students’ success, but focusing on the contribution the college makes to that success.
Key ranking highlights include:
- Princeton University takes top honors of the best colleges in the U.S. for the second year in a row
- Two of the top 10 highest-ranking schools are public schools compared to no public schools in the top 10 in last year’s rankings.
- University of California, Berkeley and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus are the highest-ranking public schools.
- 25 new colleges ranked in the top 50 this year
Dive into the full rankings and methodology here.
