By: The Editorial Boarad – wsj.com – October 22, 2025

A new college ranking considers such factors as free speech on campus and alumni success.

The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal looked at 100 colleges, assessing them on qualities that many students and families are concerned about, including free speech, the school’s approach to politics on campus, and students’ professional success after graduation. Schools that have demonstrated ideological pluralism among the faculty received higher marks. Same for a vibrant and inclusive campus social life. Student tolerance for controversial speakers was another plus.

The rankings also look closely at the strength of the general curriculum and whether the university is providing excellence or coasting on a fancy reputation.

What do students think of their teachers? Do liberal arts schools present students with a core curriculum that expects them to master foundational subjects like economics, a foreign language, composition and natural sciences? Does the university require a U.S. history or government course to graduate? Schools received negative marks for a DEI focus that “elevates activism over academic inquiry.”

On those criteria, a new set of universities rose to the top. The University of Florida, University of Texas at Austin and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill capture the top three spots thanks to specific programs that have elevated civic discourse and top-flight academic programs. Texas A&M, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech are close behind. Even the top schools received only three or four stars out of five, however, leaving plenty of room for improvement.

No Ivy League school made the top 10 (Columbia was 34, Harvard was 37), but several schools from the legacy elite did well, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford, which all landed in the top 20. Princeton was the second highest of the Ivies at 24, then Yale at 30.

Traditional college rankings like U.S. News & World Report measure such categories as the selectivity of admissions and test scores, but City Journal is trying to measure the added value of four years of undergraduate learning. This includes the benefit of study and debate, professors who are expanding knowledge, and friends forming a network for professional years to come.

The outrages of cancel culture and antisemitism have brought a rare gust of accountability to campus. Students and their families want to know what they’re getting for their pricey tuition, and fresh rankings can offer an alternative to the conventional educational wisdom.

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Source: The University Elite, Reconsidered – WSJ