Texas A&M at # 33.

Wall Street Journal/College Pulse Top 100
WSJ 2026 Rank
Institution
Overall Score
Type
1
Stanford University
93
Private
2
Babson College
90.3
Private
3
Yale University
89.3
Private
4
Princeton University
89.2
Private
5
Harvard University
89
Private
6
Claremont McKenna College
88.2
Private
7
University of California, Berkeley
88.2
Public
8
Columbia University
87.6
Private
9
University of Pennsylvania
87.1
Private
10
Davidson College
86.2
Private
11
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
85.9
Private
12
Bentley University
85.7
Private
13
University of California, Davis
85.5
Public
14
University of California, Merced
85.4
Public
15
Harvey Mudd College
85.2
Private
16
Georgia Institute of Technology
85
Public
17
San Jos State University
84.6
Public
18
Cornell University
84.5
Private
19
Loyola University Maryland
84.3
Private
20
University of Notre Dame
84
Private
21
California State University, Stanislaus
83.5
Public
22
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
83.3
Public
23
California Institute of Technology
83.1
Private
24
Swarthmore College
83
Private
25
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
83
Public
26
Rice University
82.8
Private
27
Brown University
82.6
Private
28
California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo
82.4
Public
29
Lehigh University
82.2
Private
30
University of Chicago
82.2
Private
31
University of Virginia, Main Campus
82.1
Public
32
California State University, Fresno
81.9
Public
33
Texas A & M University, College Station
81.8
Public
34
Vanderbilt University
81.8
Private
35
Virginia Tech
81.7
Public
36
University of Detroit Mercy
81.6
Private
37
University of Southern California
81.5
Private
38
University of Delaware
81.4
Public
39
Washington University in St. Louis
81.4
Private
40
Colgate University
81.4
Private
41
University of California, San Diego
81.3
Public
42
Colby College
81.3
Private
43
California State University, Long Beach
81.2
Public
44
Baruch College, CUNY
81.1
Public
45
California State University, San Bernardino
80.8
Public
46
Carnegie Mellon University
80.8
Private
47
Dartmouth College
80.6
Private
48
University of California, Irvine
80.4
Public
49
University of Texas at Austin
80.4
Public
50
Northwestern University
80.3
Private
51
Quinnipiac University
80.2
Private
52
California State University, Northridge
80.2
Public
53
Georgetown University
80.1
Private
54
Florida International University
80.1
Public
55
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
80.1
Public
56
Lafayette College
80
Private
57
University of California, Riverside
79.7
Public
58
College of the Holy Cross
79.6
Private
59
California State University, Chico
79.6
Public
60
Amherst College
79.5
Private
61
Washington and Lee University
79.5
Private
62
Azusa Pacific University
79.4
Private
63
Brigham Young University
79.3
Private
64
Towson University
79.2
Public
65
California State University, Fullerton
79.2
Public
66
California State University, Sacramento
79
Public
67
Montclair State University
79
Public
68
Duke University
78.8
Private
69
San Francisco State University
78.8
Public
70
California State University, Los Angeles
78.8
Public
71
George Mason University
78.5
Public
72
University of Florida
78.5
Public
73
Manhattan University
78.4
Private
74
Augustana College
78.4
Private
75
Molloy University
78.4
Private
76
University of Rhode Island
78.4
Public
77
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
78.3
Public
78
University of Utah
78.3
Public
79
California State University, San Marcos
78.2
Public
80
University of California, Los Angeles
77.9
Public
81
Fairfield University
77.9
Private
82
Marquette University
77.9
Private
83
Haverford College
77.7
Private
84
New Jersey Institute of Technology
77.6
Public
85
University of the Pacific
77.5
Private
86
University of Portland
77.5
Private
87
University of La Verne
77.4
Private
88
University of Connecticut
77.3
Public
89
University of Redlands
77.2
Private
90
Bucknell University
77.2
Private
91
Santa Clara University
77.1
Private
92
Johns Hopkins University
77
Private
93
Wake Forest University
76.9
Private
94
University of Wisconsin, Madison
76.9
Public
95
Villanova University
76.8
Private
96
Bryant University
76.8
Private
97
University of Washington, Seattle
76.6
Public
98
University of San Diego
76.3
Private
99
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
76.2
Private
100
Emory University
76.1
Private

They sure love California schools.

SA68AG said:

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They sure love California schools.

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California schools do well on salaries for grads that WSJ puts a lot of value on, of course the problem is if you are making $100k out of school and living in San Jose that's not remotely comparable to the same amount in most of the country. The UC Schools also game the system by making it so that anyone who applies to one UC school can apply to 4 for the same fee and can apply to all of them pretty easily. That gives them very inflated application numbers and deceptive acceptance rates. California has some very good schools but anyone that truly believes they have that many of the Top 100 or that virtually all of the UC schools are better than public schools elsewhere is fooling themselves. Berkeley is one thing but many of those schools are extremely overrated here and with USN.