Massachusetts is known for attracting some of the brightest students to attend its prestigious universities, which often end up on top 10 campus lists each year.
It was announced last week that a handful of area colleges appeared in the top 10 rankings for 2024 published by The Wall Street Journal — although a Massachusetts university didn't take first place.
The Wall Street Journal
National college rankings, especially the popular list from US News & World Report, have been condemned by some in the higher education community for questionable criteria and the promotion of prestige over quality and value.
But the last ranking from WSJ/College Pulse 2024 Best Colleges in the US said they are “putting even more emphasis” on the value the schools provide in terms of early graduation and wages earned in the labor market.
“Some college ranking methodologies tend to separate universities into haves and have-nots by assessing the resources available to a college.” WSJ References. “Working with data scientists at Statista, the new WSJ/The College Pulse rankings use the most recent data available to put colleges on a more level playing field, with an emphasis on comparing the outcomes of each school's graduates to what those students were likely to achieve regardless of where they went to school.
Ranked at No. 1 was Princeton University, a prestigious Ivy League school that is no stranger to the top. In No. 2 position? Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Other Massachusetts institutions in the top 10 were Harvard University at No. 6, Amherst College at No. 8 and Babson College at No. 10.
Below is the full ranking of the 10 schools from the WSJ:
- Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge
- Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut
- Stanford University in Stanford, California
- Columbia University in New York
- Harvard University in Cambridge
- University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
- Amherst College in Amherst
- Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California
- Babson College at Wellesley
Here's how the 22nd Massachusetts institutions in the ranking list:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge: 2
- Harvard University, Cambridge: 6
- Amherst College, Amherst: 8
- Babson College, Wellesley: 10
- Williams College, Williamstown: 31
- Boston College, Chestnut Hill: 45
- College of the Holy Cross, Worcester: 60
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester: 61
- Wellesley College, Wellesley: 117
- University of Massachusetts–Lowell, Lowell: 137
- Northeastern University, Boston: 138
- Stonehill College, Easton: 157
- University of Massachusetts – Amherst, Amherst: 190
- Boston University, Boston: 200
- Brandeis University, Waltham: 223
- University of Massachusetts – Boston, Boston, 242
- Suffolk University, Boston: 244
- Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater: 281
- Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley: 282
- Tufts University, Medford: 287
- Smith College, Northampton: 312
- Clark University, Worcester: 367
WSJ broke down their methodology, with student outcomes accounting for 70% of a school's grade — which includes the impact on a student's salary, how long it takes to pay off their debt and graduation rates. The learning environment accounted for 20% and diversity for 10%.
This is the methodology, WSJ reports, which prompted some prestigious schools—Brown University and Johns Hopkins University, for example—to lower the bar and “unearthed some hidden gems.” This ranking looks at 400 universities, and you can university search by name or filter by state.
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