Participate in the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse College Rankings
As part of our commitment to recognizing excellence in higher education, for the second year in a row The Wall Street Journal is working in collaboration with the independent research companies Statista and College Pulse to create The Wall Street Journal / College Pulse Best Colleges in the U.S. rankings.
We need your help in distributing our survey to your undergraduate students and recent alumni within the last five years. By having your students participate in this survey, you have the chance to learn how your institution is perceived and experienced by your student body.
Please click below to register. You will then receive a link to the survey for you to distribute to your students once it is opening in January of 2025.
The most recent edition of the Wall Street Journal College Rankings can be found here.
If you have any further questions or would like to learn more about the process and further details, please contact us at collegerankings@wsj.com.
FAQs
Q: When will the survey be open for participation?
A: The next survey period will be open from mid-January 2025 to the first week of May 2025. Please click here to register.
Q: Will individual responses be shared?
A: No. All responses will be held in the strictest confidence, and all published results will be completely anonymized.
Q: Who are you surveying?
A: Undergraduate students and alumni of less than 5 years at a U.S. college.
Q: How long will the survey take?
A: The average time taken to complete the survey is around 10 minutes.
Q: How do you verify that the students/ alumni are eligible to participate?
A: To validate survey responses, undergraduate students and recent alumni will be asked at the end of the survey to enter their official school email address. They will then be emailed a four-digit verification code that they will be required to enter in the survey to submit their responses.
In case an undergraduate student or recent alumni does not have access to their university email, participants will be asked to share the year they graduated and their LinkedIn profile.
Q: What personal information will be collected as part of this survey?
A: The survey is conducted by College Pulse (CP) and collects personal information such as their email. Statista will only receive de-identified data from CP. Published results will be completely anonymized and everyone will adhere to data protection laws (also in our listed privacy policies).
Q: Will the survey be a large workload on administrative staff to coordinate?
A: No. All your university needs to do is send the link directly to your undergraduate students/recent alumni and promote it via other channels such as newsletters, social media, and alumni networks. We will not ask you for any further information. You can find our media kit here.
Q: How is the university ranking built?
A: Our final university ranking will be based on the survey results and a selection of other research components, such as statistics from IPEDS and College Scorecard.
Q: Which colleges are eligible?
A: All U.S. colleges that meet the following criteria are eligible to be part of the ranking:
- Title IV eligible
- Awards four-year bachelor’s degrees
- Located in the 50 states or Washington, D.C.
- Has more than 750 students
- Financially solvent
- Not for profit
- Publicly available data
Q: How do I know if my university is included in the ranking?
A: All colleges that are included in the ranking will be notified via email in early Fall 2025.
Q: Do colleges have to pay to appear on the published university ranking?
A: All universities are permitted to promote their achievements through a single text-based press release on a one-time basis. Any promotion beyond the initial announcement requires a licensing package for use of the "America's Best Colleges" title and logos.
Q: Who is funding The Wall Street Journal / College Pulse Ranking list?
A: The top list is a journalistic publication, funded, directed, and supported by The Wall Street Journal, Statista, and College Pulse.
Q: When and where will “The Wall Street Journal / College Pulse Ranking” be published?
A: The results will be published in The Wall Street Journal in Fall 2025 and online at wsj.com.
Q: I still have questions. Who can I contact?
A: Please email our research team at collegerankings@wsj.com.
About The Wall Street Journal:
The Wall Street Journal is a global news organization that provides leading news, information, commentary and analysis. The Wall Street Journal engages readers across print, digital, mobile, social, podcast and video. Building on its heritage as the preeminent source of global business and financial news, the Journal includes coverage of U.S. & world news, politics, arts, culture, lifestyle, sports, and health. It holds 38 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism. The Wall Street Journal is published by Dow Jones, a division of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV).
About Statista:
Statista publishes reputable rankings and company lists with high profile media partners across the globe. This research and analysis service is based on the success of statista.com, the leading data and business intelligence portal providing business relevant data, consumer surveys, and market reports.
About College Pulse:
College Pulse is a survey research and analytics company dedicated to understanding the attitudes, preferences, and behaviors of today’s college students. College Pulse offers custom data-driven marketing and research solutions, utilizing its unique American College Student Panel™ that includes over 650,000 college students and recent alumni from more than 1,500 two- and four-year colleges and universities in all 50 states. For more information, visit collegepulse.com or follow College Pulse on Twitter or LinkedIn.