Schools
These Are The Best Colleges In VA For 2025, Wall Street Journal Says
Several Virginia colleges made the top 50, which the Wall Street Journal based on the chance of student success after graduating.
VIRGINIA — Twelve institutions in Virginia are among the 500 best public and private colleges and universities in the country, according to the 2025 rankings from The Wall Street Journal.
Virginia’s top school is Virginia Tech, a public institution in Blacksburg, according to The WSJ/College Pulse 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking. Eleven other Virginia colleges made the list (see below).
The Wall Street Journal noted that in the ranking, half of the colleges in the top 50 are new to the list. But the top ranked school remained unchanged from the previous ranking.
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New Jersey’s Princeton University, a four-year Ivy League private school known for its rigorous academic standards and selectivity in admissions, topped the ranking for the second year in a row.
“Our ranking measures how well each college sets graduates up for financial success. We look at how much a school improves students’ chances of graduating and their future earnings, balancing these outcomes with feedback from students on college life,” The Journal wrote. “We don’t measure reputation, nor the college’s own finances.”
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Schools in the top 50 from Virginia are:
19. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
33. University of Virginia, Main Campus, Charlottesville
50. Washington and Lee University, Lexington
Other colleges from Virginia included in the full ranking are:
70. James Madison University, Harrisonburg
76. George Mason University, Fairfax
115. Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden Sydney
121. University of Richmond, Richmond
178. William & Mary, Williamsburg
268. Christopher Newport University, Newport News
321. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
374. Old Dominion University, Norfolk
499. Liberty University, Lynchburg
The Journal said public schools are prominent among colleges that moved up in the rankings. Two are in the top 10 — the University of California, Berkeley at No. 8, and the Georgia Institute of Technology at No. 9. Last year, there were no public schools in the top 10.
The Journal developed the ranking in collaboration with research partners College Pulse and Statista.
Read more on the methodology and findings on The Wall Street Journal.
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