BREAKING NEWS: Five Utah Universities Make the Wall Street Journal's "2025 Best Colleges in the U.S." Ranking

The five Utah-based universities to make the WSJ's 2025 list are (in alphabetical order), Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, and Weber State University.

However, among all 500 ranked universities, BYU was ranked No. 1 as "... the most highly recommended by their surveyed students and recent alumni."

The Wall Street Journal has just published its annual ranking of the 500 "Best Colleges in the U.S." for 2025, and five Utah-based universities have "made the grade," so to speak.

Specifically,

• Provo-based Brigham Young University,
• Salt Lake City-based University of Utah,
• Logan-based Utah State University,
• Orem-based Utah Valley University, and
• Ogden-based Weber State University

were each included in the 2025 WSJ ranking.

According to college search platform Appily, there are 2,828, degree-granting, four-year colleges and universities in the United States today

As noted in the story about its annual ranking, "The WSJ/College Pulse 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking was developed and executed in collaboration with our research partners College Pulse and Statista."

Rankings were driven by three primary components:

• Student outcomes, at 70%;
• Learning environment, at 20%; and
• Diversity, at 10%.

{NOTE: Subsets of these primary components are outlined online by The Journal.}

With this underlying component data driving the WSJ ranking process, the five Utah-based universities fared as follows within the five distinct categories of the report:

In the Overall College Ranking category,

• BYU was ranked No. 63 with a score of 79.5,
• The UofU was ranked No. 149 with a score of 71.5,
• Weber State was ranked No. 314 with a score of 57.2,
• UVU was ranked No. 325 with a score of 56.2, and
• Utah State was ranked No. 413 with a score of 46.0.

{NOTE: New Jersey-based Princeton University ranked No. 1 in this category with a score of 92.3 (out of 100).}

In the Student Experience category,

• BYU was ranked No. 153 with a score of 62.3,
• UVU was ranked No. 389 with a score of 55.0,
• Weber State was ranked No. 422 with a score of 57.2,
• Utah State was ranked No. 451 with a score of 52.3, and
• The UofU was ranked No. 473 with a score of 50.4.

{NOTE: California-based Scripps College ranked No. 1 in this category with a score of 75.5 (out of 100).}

In the Best Salaries category,

• BYU was ranked No. 31 with a score of 90.8,
• The UofU was ranked No. 63 with a score of 86.2,
• Weber State was ranked No. 166 with a score of 72.9,
• UVU was ranked No. 168 with a score of 72.6, and
• Utah State was ranked No. 338 with a score of 47.8.

{NOTE: Massachusetts-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked No. 1 in this category with a score of 99.3 (out of 100).}

In the Social Mobility category,

• BYU was ranked No. 55 with a score of 44.2,
• UVU was ranked No. 97 with a score of 35.5,
• Weber State was ranked No. 146 with a score of 27.8,
• Utah State was ranked No. 193 with a score of 22.5, and
• The UofU was ranked No. 220 with a score of 19.9.

{NOTE: California-based University of California, Merced ranked No. 1 in this category with a score of 86.8 (out of 100). Additionally, Nebraska-based Creighton University and Connecticut-based Fairfield University tied for No. 500 in this category with scores of 0.0 (out of 100).}

In the Best Value category,

• The UofU was ranked No. 21 with a score of 97.1,
• BYU was ranked No. 33 with a score of 95.7,
• UVU was ranked No. 62 with a score of 91.9, and
• Weber State was ranked No. 85 with a score of 88.4, and
• Utah State was ranked No. 171 with a score of 75.3.

{NOTE: New York-based Baruch College, CUNY ranked No. 1 in this category with a score of 100 (out of 100).}

A Summary of the Rankings for Utah-based Universities

In total, BYU was ranked highest of all Utah-based schools in 4 of the 5 categories in this WSJ report (specifically, in Overall College Ranking, Student Experience, Best Salaries, and Social Mobility), with the UofU ranking highest among its Utah peers in 1 category: Best Value.

The highest score in any category among Utah-based schools was landed by the UofU at 97.1 in the Best Value category.

Conversely, the lowest score among Utah-based universities in any category was also the UofU which landed an abysmal 19.9 score in the Social Mobility category.

Then again, the highest score for any Utah-based school in this category was BYU with a score of 44.2; nevertheless, that ranking also placed BYU at No. 55 out of 500 on a national basis.

Go figure.

Where BYU Ranked No. 1

Now, with the realization that readers with a background in journalism and/or public relations will accuse me of "Burying the Lede," the reality is that BYU did garner a No. 1 ranking within this WSJ report.

Specifically, when it asked students and recent alumni how they would (or would not) recommend their respective schools, BYU received the highest ranking among all 500 schools.

And yes, as a BYU alum, that put a bit of a smile on my face.

A Closing Thought

By way of reminder, however, Utah Money Watch is specifically focused on providing its subscribers and readers with "... timely Utah-focused monetary, financial, and/or business news, context, and analysis, content."

Yet clearly, there's been nary a dollar sign within this report ... so far.

That said, to put a fine point on it, with the four Utah-based public institutions included in this WSJ ranking (in other words, the government-owned and operated universities), their combined annual budgets (for the 2023-2024 school year) equal more than $7.75 billion, with the University of Utah snagging the vast majority of that total.

Specifically,

• The UofU came in at $6.75 billion,
• Utah State landed at $504 million,
• UVU came in at $329 million, and
• Weber State landed at 201.5 million.

Although BYU tends to be quite tight-lipped when it comes to sharing most financial data about itself, Sports Illustrated reported in May of this year that BYU's annual operating budget in 2021 was $106.4 million, which, if true, is significantly smaller than its four peers.

In fact, if accurate, BYU's budget barely moves the needle when added to the combined total of the other four schools.

Nevertheless, $7.85 billion in combined annual spend is still pretty significant in my book, especially in light of the write-up published yesterday by the Wall Street Journal.

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