VIRGINIA – Twelve Virginia colleges and universities have been named among the 500 “Best Colleges In The US” for 2025 in a newly released ranking by the Wall Street Journal and College Pulse.
The study evaluates these Commonwealth colleges and the others on the list based on how well they prepare their graduates for financial success – while also taking into account overall student satisfaction and personal recommendations.
“Our rankings measure how well each college prepares its graduates for financial success,” the magazine says. “We look at how much a school improves students’ chances of graduating and their future earnings, and we match those results with student feedback about college life. We do not measure the reputation or finances of the college itself.”
Here are the colleges in Virginia, including their overall rankings and their score out of 100:
- No. 19 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, score 83.9
- No. 33 University of Virginia, Main Campus, Charlottesville, score 81.8
- No. 50 Washington and Lee University, Lexington, score 80.3
- No. 70 James Madison University, Harrisonburg, score 79
- No. 76 George Mason University, Fairfax, score 78.3
- No. 115 Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, score 75.2
- No. 121 University of Richmond, Richmond, score 74.9
- No. 178 William & Mary, Williamsburg, score 69.4
- No. 268 Christopher Newport University, Newport News, score 61.2
- No. 321 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, score 56.5
- No. 374 Old Dominion University, Norfolk, score 51
- No. 499 Liberty University, Lynchburg, score 26.3
“The colleges in this ranking have found many ways to prepare their students for success,” the study’s authors said.
The rankings also rank universities based on student experience, highest graduate salaries, social mobility and best value for money.
These are the 10 best colleges in the country according to the WSJ list:
- Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
- Babson College, Wellesley, MA
- Stanford University, Stanford, California
- Yale University, New Haven, CT
- Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus, Atlanta, GA
- Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Their study includes a number of well-known schools and some lesser-known locations, and evaluates both public and private colleges, as well as technical schools and liberal arts institutions. Each school received a score out of 100, with student achievement accounting for 70 percent of the score.
The learning environment on campus (20 percent) and the diversity of the student body (10 percent) are also included – whereby the study takes into account the inclusion of students with lower family incomes and with disabilities in the diversity share.
