2024 Best Colleges in the U.S.

The WSJ/College Pulse 2024 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking was developed and executed in collaboration with our research partners College Pulse and Statista. The ranking scores colleges based on the following components. The weight each component is given in the ranking is indicated as a percentage. Throughout, we use the latest data available for analysis.

Student outcomes (70%):

• Salary impact versus similar colleges (33%): This measures the extent to which a college boosts its graduates’ salaries beyond what they would be expected to earn regardless of which college they attended. We used statistical modeling to estimate what we would expect the median earnings of a college’s graduates to be on the basis of their demographic profile, taking into account the factors that best predict salary performance. We then scored the college on its performance against that estimate. These scores were then combined with scores for raw graduate salaries to factor in absolute performance alongside performance relative to our estimates. Our analysis for this metric used research on this topic by the Brookings Institution policy-research think tank as a guide.
• Years to pay off net price (17%): This measure combines two figures—the average net price of attending the college, and the value added to graduates’ median salary attributable to attending the college. The value added to graduates’ median salary by a college was estimated on the basis of the difference between the median earnings of the school’s graduates and the median earnings of high-school graduates in the state where the college is located. We then took the average annual net price of attending the college—including costs like tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies, taking into account any grants and scholarships, for students who received federal financial aid—and multiplied it by four to reflect an estimated cost of a four-year program. We then divided this overall net-price figure by the value added to a graduate’s salary, to provide an estimate of how quickly an education at the college pays for itself through the salary boost it provides. Our analysis for this metric used research on this topic by the Third Way policy-research think tank as a guide.
• Graduation rate versus similar colleges (20%): This is a measure of a college’s performance in ensuring that its students graduate, beyond what would have been expected of the students regardless of which college they attended. We used statistical modeling to estimate what we would expect a college’s graduation rate to be on the basis of the demographic profile of its students, taking into account the factors that best predict graduation rates. We then scored the college on its performance against that estimate. These scores were then combined with scores for raw graduation rates to factor in absolute performance alongside performance relative to our estimates.

Learning environment (20%):

• Learning opportunities (5%): The quality and frequency of learning opportunities at the college, based on our student survey. This includes questions about interactions with faculty, feedback and the overall quality of teaching.
• Preparation for career (5%): The quality and frequency of opportunities for students to prepare for their future careers, based on our student survey. This includes questions about networking opportunities, career advice and support, and applied learning.
• Learning facilities (5%): Student satisfaction with the college’s learning-related facilities, based on our student survey. This includes questions about library facilities, internet reliability, and classrooms and teaching facilities.
• Recommendation score (5%): The extent to which students would recommend their college, based on our student survey. This includes questions about whether students would recommend the college to a friend, whether students would choose the same college again if they could start over, and satisfaction with the value for money their college provides.

Diversity (10%)

• Opportunities to interact with students from different backgrounds (5%): Student satisfaction with, and frequency of, opportunities to interact with people from different backgrounds, based on our student survey.
• Ethnic diversity (1.5%): The probability that, were you to choose two students or two members of faculty at random, they would be of a different ethnicity from one another.
• Inclusion of students with lower family earnings (1.5%): The proportion of students receiving Pell Grants; the higher the percentage, the higher the score.
• Inclusion of students with disabilities (1%): The proportion of students who are disabled; the higher the percentage, the higher the score.
• International diversity (1%): The proportion of students who come from outside the U.S. This is an indicator of the college’s ability to attract talent from across the world and offer a multicultural campus where students from different backgrounds can learn from one another. The higher the percentage, the higher the score.

We also display the following figures to provide context. These are the components of “Years to pay off net price” as explained above:

• Average net price: The average annual overall cost of attending the college, including tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies, taking into account any grants and scholarships, for students who received federal financial aid.
• Value added to graduate salary: The value added to graduates’ median salary attributable to attending the college. Estimated on the basis of the difference between the median earnings of the school’s graduates and the median earnings of high-school graduates in the state where the college is located.

Sources and definitions

• To inform this ranking, we commissioned one of the largest-ever independent surveys of verified college students and recent alumni in the U.S. College Pulse conducted a survey of 60,953 students and alumni online, between January and May 2023. Further information on how College Pulse collects data is available on its methodology page.
• Graduate salaries from 2019 and 2020 are taken from the U.S. Education Department’s College Scorecard. We looked at median salaries 10 years after enrollment for those who received federal financial aid.
• Graduation rates from 2021 are taken from the U.S. Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (Ipeds), measuring the proportion of first-time, full-time students studying for four-year bachelor’s degrees who graduate within six years.
• High-school graduates’ salaries by state are taken from the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which uses data from 2017 to 2021. We looked at the median salary among people whose highest educational qualification is graduating high school or the equivalent and who are age 25 to 34.
• Average net price for the 2020-21 academic year is taken from the College Scorecard.
• Demographics from 2021 relating to diversity are taken from Ipeds and the College Scorecard.
• Ethnic diversity is measured using the Gini-Simpson Index.
• “Private” in the above table means “Private, not for profit.” We don’t include for-profit colleges in our ranking.
• All scores that aren’t formatted in years and months or in dollars are on a scale of 0 to 100.
• In the event of an exact tie for overall score, the average of the colleges’ scores across the Student Experience, Salary Impact and Social Mobility rankings is used as a tiebreaker to decide rank order.

Eligibility All U.S. colleges are eligible to be part of our ranking if they meet the following criteria:

• Title IV eligible, i.e., is an accredited university that’s eligible for federal financial aid.
• Awards four-year bachelor’s degrees.
• Located in the 50 states or Washington, D.C.
• Has more than 900 students.
• Isn’t insolvent.
• Isn’t for profit.
• We receive at least 50 valid responses from verified students or recent alumni to the student survey.
• The government data for the factors used to compile our ranking is collected and publicly reported.

U.S. service academies aren’t included in the ranking, as government data used in compiling our scores isn’t collected and publicly reported for them.

If you have any questions or feedback, get in touch with us at collegerankings@wsj.com