Ranking: Stanford Tops Wall Street Journal’s 2025 Best Colleges In America

SCHOOLS RANKED BY SALARY IMPACT

Here, six of the top 20 schools are public institutions, including Georgia Institute of Technology which had the fifth highest salary impact in the ranking.

Still, the Ivies and big brand powerhouses still dominate. Massachusetts Institute of Technology comes out on top with a salary score of 99.2.

The salary impact rating looks at the impact the school has on its graduates’ salaries in relation to the cost of attending. While the schools at the top generally have high price tags, the salaries their graduates earn 10 years later make up for the high cost.

Below, you can see the 20 schools with the highest salary impact from WSJ’s ranking.

WSJ/College Pulse Top 20 For Best Salaries
Rank	School	Type	State	Score
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Private	MA	99.2
2	Stanford University	Private	CA	98.6
3	Princeton University	Private	NJ	98.2
4	Harvey Mudd College	Private	CA	97.9
5	Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus	Public	GA	97.8
6	California Institute of Technology	Private	CA	96.3
7	University of Pennsylvania	Private	PA	95.9
8	Missouri University of Science and Technology	Public	MO	95.9
9	Carnegie Mellon University	Private	PA	95.8
10	Babson College	Private	MA	94.8
11	Bentley University	Private	MA	94.6
12	Michigan Technological University	Public	MI	94.5
13	Lehigh University	Private	PA	94.3
14	San José State University	Public	CA	94.3
15	Columbia University	Private	NY	94.2
16	California Polytechnic State University, SLO	Public	CA	94
17	Milwaukee School of Engineering	Private	WI	93.9
18	Colorado School of Mines	Public	CO	93.6
19	Manhattan University	Private	NY	93.5
20	University of Notre Dame	Private	IN	93.5

© Copyright 2025 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.