Baruch College is the top public school in the Northeast and Princeton University is the region's top private school, in the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking.

Baruch, No. 61 nationwide among all colleges, is followed by the University of Rhode Island at No. 84 nationally and The College of New Jersey at No. 94, on our list of the top 10 public colleges in the Northeast. Among the region's top private schools, Princeton is ranked highest of all schools in the country, followed by Babson College at No. 2 nationwide and Yale University at No. 4.

Five of the top private schools in the Northeast are among the top 10 colleges of any kind in the country, nine are among the top 15 nationally, and all of the region's top 10 private colleges are in the top 25 of all schools nationwide.

Our ranking measures how well each college sets graduates up for financial success. We look at how much a school improves students' chances of graduating and their future earnings, balancing these outcomes with feedback from students on college life. We don't measure reputation, nor the college's own finances.

In our ranking of the top schools in the Northeast by size, Princeton is No. 1 among midsize colleges, Babson is the top small college and the University of Pennsylvania, No. 7 among private colleges in the Northeast, is the region's top large school.

Colgate University, 10th among private colleges in the Northeast, also heads our list of the region's top liberal-arts colleges.

Baruch in No. 1 nationwide among schools that offer the best value, and Princeton is No. 3 on that list. Princeton also made the top 10 in the country for best overall campus experience, along with Yale. (You can see a full ranking of the Ivy League schools here.)

Baruch also is among the 10 colleges nationally that do the most to help their students climb the socioeconomic ladder. And it's one of the top 10 colleges in New York state, along with Colgate and Columbia University, which is No. 8 among Northeastern private colleges.

The University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University, No. 9 among private colleges in the Northeast, are also among the top schools in Pennsylvania.

In the weeks ahead we'll look at the top private and public colleges in the South, Midwest and West, as well as the highest-ranked small, midsize and large schools and the leading liberal-arts colleges in those regions.

--Gerard Yates

For questions or comments, write to reports@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 06, 2024 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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