{"id":40802290744,"date":"2025-10-01T17:24:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/?p=40802290744"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:02:57","slug":"monmouth-scores-highest-ranking-on-wall-street-journal-best-colleges-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/monmouth-scores-highest-ranking-on-wall-street-journal-best-colleges-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Monmouth Scores Highest Ranking on Wall Street Journal Best Colleges List"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Monmouth University achieved its highest national ranking ever on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/education\/best-colleges-america-2026-f64d590e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wall Street Journal\/College Pulse 2026 Best Colleges<\/a> list, coming in at No. 229. Monmouth first appeared on the list in 2017, in an unranked tier of schools within the 501-600 band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMonmouth\u2019s momentum in recent years has been extraordinary,\u201d said President Patrick F. Leahy. \u201cThis recognition\u00a0from the Wall Street Journal is incredibly gratifying. It is an important validation of our efforts to become a national leader at integrating excellence and access.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monmouth ranks No. 3 among private universities in New Jersey, behind Princeton and Stevens Institute of Technology, and ahead of Seton Hall and Drew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WSJ\/College Pulse rankings also score Monmouth in several specific categories, including: Best Value (No. 442), Student Experience (No. 356), Best Salaries (No. 245), and Social Mobility (No. 128).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monmouth\u2019s strong Social Mobility ranking is particularly significant: it is the second highest among private New Jersey institutions. The outcome aligns strongly with the University\u2019s strategic plan, \u201cExcellence. Access. Ambition.,\u201d which emphasizes expanding opportunity and improving outcomes for students from underserved backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMonmouth students choose a university that pairs academic rigor with real opportunity, and this ranking reflects that promise,\u201d said Leahy. \u201cWe will continue to expand access, improve outcomes, and deliver a powerful return on investment for a Monmouth degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monmouth enrolls one of the most socioeconomically diverse student bodies in its peer set. The University welcomed a record number of students to its thriving first-generation and\/or low-income (FLI) community, who make up 55.8 percent of the Class of 2029. First generation students comprise a record high 41.3 percent of the class, while 40.8 percent of incoming first-year students are Pell Grant-eligible, also the most in the University\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wall Street Journal\/College Pulse ranking methodology combines publicly reported data with student and alumni survey responses. It emphasizes measurable outcomes\u2014such as how much graduates\u2019 salaries exceed expectations, adjusted for student background\u2014as well as graduation performance relative to predicted rates. The ranking also incorporates assessments of student experience, learning environment and value, while excluding reputation-based surveys and institutional spending metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monmouth University previously appeared on WSJ\u2019s broader ranking category under earlier versions of the WSJ\/THE methodology, but this year\u2019s explicit numeric ranking underscores institutional advancement under the newer WSJ\/College Pulse model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Wall Street Journal\/College Pulse rankings focus on how well colleges set their graduates up for financial success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":282,"featured_media":40802290745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,417,319,83],"tags":[1201,3480,1885,6186],"person":[621],"audience":[14,11,8,29,1961,128],"school":[116,5,113,26,140,68,89],"program":[],"class_list":["post-40802290744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-excellence","category-awards-publications-research","category-mu-in-the-news","category-president","tag-president","tag-rankings","tag-wall-street-journal","tag-wsj","person-patrick-leahy","audience-alumni","audience-current-student","audience-faculty","audience-media","audience-parent","audience-prospective-undergraduate-student","school-honors-school","school-leon-hess-business-school","school-school-of-education","school-school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences","school-school-of-nursing-and-health-studies","school-school-of-science","school-school-of-social-work"],"squareimage":{"id":40802279223,"rendered":"<img width=\"408\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2024\/01\/wall-street-journal.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Stylized logo of The Wall Street Journal\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2024\/01\/wall-street-journal.png 408w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2024\/01\/wall-street-journal-300x282.png 300w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2024\/01\/wall-street-journal-150x141.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 408px) 100vw, 408px\" \/>","original":{"url":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2024\/01\/wall-street-journal.png","width":408,"height":383}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802290744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802290744"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802290744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802290751,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802290744\/revisions\/40802290751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40802290745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802290744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802290744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802290744"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=40802290744"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=40802290744"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=40802290744"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=40802290744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}