Princeton Leads Rankings from U.S. News, Wall Street Journal, and Forbes

Princeton held onto the top spot in a trio of college rankings published in September by The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse, Forbes, and U.S. News & World Report. All three ranked Princeton first last year as well, and on the popular U.S. News list, the University has been No. 1 for 14 consecutive years.  

Other schools finishing high in the rankings this year include MIT (No. 2 in U.S. News, No. 3 in Forbes, No. 6 in WSJ/College Pulse), Harvard (No. 3 in U.S. News, No. 8 in Forbes, No. 7 in WSJ/College Pulse), Stanford (No. 4 in U.S. News, No. 2 in Forbes, No. 4 in WSJ/College Pulse), and Yale (No. 5 in U.S. News, No. 4 in Forbes, No. 4 in WSJ/College Pulse).  

Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 has regularly downplayed the role of rankings during his decade-plus in Nassau Hall. “I am proud of Princeton’s teaching and research, and I am happy to see the University’s quality acknowledged so visibly,” he wrote in a 2021 President’s Page column. “I am convinced, however, that the rankings game is a bit of mishegoss — a slightly wacky obsession that does harm when taken too seriously.”  

Instead, Eisgruber and other spokespeople for the University have encouraged prospective students to consult resources such as the Department of Education’s College Scorecard and look at factors such as graduation rate, net cost, and student-faculty engagement when choosing where to apply.  

In addition to placing Princeton at the top of its National Universities list, U.S. News ranked the University No. 1 among Best Value Schools based on its calculation for the average cost after receiving grants ($12,176) and the percentage of undergrads receiving need-based aid (64%).  

The WSJ/College Pulse list “measures how well each college sets graduates up for financial success” and uses a model to estimate how colleges improve graduation rates and graduates’ salaries, according to a summary of the rankings. The Wall Steet Journal also hailed Princeton’s career preparation, including “Princeternships,” job-shadowing internships that can begin during winter break for interested freshmen.  

The Forbes rankings draw on several outcome metrics, including retention, graduation rates, return on investment, graduate salaries, the “leadership and entrepreneurial success” of alumni. Its profile of Princeton reports that alumni with 10 or more years of work experience have a median salary of $189,400, which is tied with MIT for the top spot in that category. (The data comes from self-reported surveys conducted by Payscale.)

Princeton ranked fifth among national universities in the Washington Monthly College Guide, published August, which rates institutions in the areas of community and national service, research, and social mobility.