Wall Street Journal’s 2025 Best Colleges In America

Babson College finished No. 2 in Wall Street Journal‘s 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking. Babson has jumped 124 spots in the last two years. Courtesy photo

Another U.S. college ranking, another first for Princeton University.

Princeton topped Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S ranking, released today (September 5). It’s the second straight year Princeton has been WSJ’s top school — and it continues an impressive winning streak for the private Ivy in New Jersey.

Last week, Princeton also topped Forbes’ America’s Top Colleges ranking — also for the second straight time — and it likewise came first in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 National University ranking, released last fall. If Princeton tops U.S. News’ 2025 ranking, expected to be published in the next couple of weeks, it will achieve repeats on all three of the major college rankings for U.S. schools.

WSJ TOP 10

Princeton topped the WSJ list with an overall score of 92.3. It scored a near-perfect graduation rate score of 99 (out of 100) and a salary impact score of 97. The university’s diversity score of 76 reflects a well-rounded student body, while its learning opportunities and preparation for career scores — 73 and 77, respectively — underscore its commitment to academic rigor and real-world readiness. Princeton’s graduates see a value-added salary boost of over $81,000.

The table below shows the top 10 school’s on WSJ’s 2025 ranking.

Wall Street Journal/College Pulse Top 10
Rank	School	State	Type	Score
1	Princeton University	NJ	Private	92.3
2	Babson College	MA	Private	91.9
3	Stanford University	CA	Private	91.6
4	Yale University	CT	Private	89.3
5	Claremont McKenna College	CA	Private	89.2
6	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	MA	Private	87.4
7	Harvard University	MA	Private	86.2
8	University of California, Berkeley	CA	Public	86.1
9	Georgia Institute of Technology	GA	Public	85.8
10	Davidson College	NC	Private	85.6

BABSON COLLEGE RISES 124 SPOTS IN TWO YEARS

Perhaps the biggest story in WSJ’s latest list is the meteoric rise of Babson College.

Last year, Babson, a small private college near Boston, rose 116 spots to break the top 10 after ranking No. 126 in 2023. The large jump was the result of the WSJ putting more focus on value added to student success as a result of their college of choice.

Babson rose another eight spots on the 2025 list, finishing at No. 2 — ahead of Stanford University, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Babson was rewarded for its strong salary impact on its graduates’ careers, earning a perfect 100. It ranked No. 8 overall in the category.

In fact, the Class of 2023 set a record for Babson undergraduates for starting salaries, earning an average of $75,579 a year – 20% higher than the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) projected average for business majors, according to Babson news release. That record-breaking salary beat the previous record set by Babson’s Class of 2022 graduates who earned an average of 14% more than the previous class in their first jobs.

Babson undergrads also posted a 98.6% employment rate.

“At second-ranked Babson, the emphasis on hands-on experiences begins the moment students step on campus as freshmen. Built into the Babson curriculum are opportunities for experiential learning, like the mandatory Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship class, where students launch startups in groups during their first two semesters of college using a loan of up to $3,000 provided by the school,” WSJ writes in its ranking story.

Stephen Spinelli Jr, president Babson College

WSJ also ranked Babson No. 2 for Career Preparation and No. 11 for Student Experience.

“Babson’s recognition as the No. 2 college in the United States by The Wall Street Journal is a remarkable milestone for our community. It’s also a signal that entrepreneurship as an academic discipline has transcended business education,” says Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr.

“At Babson, we go a step beyond by producing entrepreneurial leaders who pioneer new approaches and creative ways of thinking across a broad spectrum of industries and professions. Those leaders and their myriad impacts around the world play a significant role in this historic milestone for Babson, and to a greater extent, for entrepreneurship education as a whole.”

WSJ METHODOLOGY

WSJ’s is the second major ranking of undergraduate universities in the U.S. in as many weeks. Forbes’ list came out last week, and U.S. News’ typically drops mid September.

While neither the Forbes or WSJ rankings focus on undergraduate business schools, many of the top-ranked undergrad business programs are housed in high-ranking universities from both lists. Poets&Quants For Undergrads will publish its annual business school-specific ranking in March 2025.

WSJ has published its college rankings since 2016 along with its research partners College Pulse and Statista. It aims to evaluate how well U.S. colleges and universities prepare students for financial success, focusing on measurable outcomes such as graduation rates and post-graduate earnings.

Last year, it made significant changes to its methodology, eliminating the academic survey on schools’ reputations which rewards big brand schools superior name recognition. It also didn’t reward schools for the amount of money it spends on instruction.

That has led to a significant rise in the rankings for public institutions, with six schools breaking into the top 20, including the University of California at Berkeley, at No. 8, and Georgia Institute of Technology at No. 9. Last year, no public universities were in the top 10 and only two were in the top 20.

WSJ’s ranking is divided into several categories by which students can further narrow down target schools based on their preferences: The full college rankings, Student Experience, Salary Impact, Social Mobility and Best Value.

The following table shows metrics and weights used to calculate the ranking.

WSJ Methodology Metrics
Category	Metric	Weight	Description
Student Outcomes (70%)	Salary Impact	33%	Measures how much a college boosts graduates’ salaries beyond expected levels.
	Years to Pay Off Net Price	17%	Combines average net price with value added to graduates’ median salary to estimate how long it takes to pay off education costs.
	Graduation Rate Impact	20%	Assesses the college’s success in graduating students compared to expectations based on student demographics.
Learning Environment (20%)	Learning Opportunities	4%	Student satisfaction with faculty interactions, feedback, and teaching quality.
	Preparation for Career	4%	Evaluates career networking, advice, and applied learning opportunities.
	Learning Facilities	4%	Student satisfaction with libraries, internet, and classrooms.
	Recommendation Score	4%	Measures how likely students are to recommend their college to others.
	Character Score	4%	Assesses the development of personal qualities like moral courage, resilience, and societal contributions.
Diversity (10%)	Opportunities to Interact with Different Backgrounds	5%	Frequency of student interaction with diverse peers.
	Ethnic Diversity	1.70%	Probability of random pairings being from different ethnic backgrounds.
	Inclusion of Students with Lower Family Earnings	1.70%	Proportion of Pell Grant recipients.
	Inclusion of Students with Disabilities	1.70%	Proportion of students with disabilities.
Contextual Figures	Average Net Price	–	The annual cost of attendance, factoring in grants and scholarships.
	Value Added to Graduate Salary	–	The difference in earnings attributable to attending the college compared to high school graduates.

See the full ranking methodology here.

WSJ TOP 10

Wall Street Journal/College Pulse Top 10

Rank

School

State

Type

Score

BABSON COLLEGE RISES 124 SPOTS IN TWO YEARS

WSJ METHODOLOGY

WSJ Methodology Metrics

Category

Metric

Weight

Description