This US college outranks Harvard, Yale, MIT. You’ve probably never heard of it

A small college in Massachusetts has managed to beat some of the biggest names in American higher education, ranking just behind Stanford University in the latest Wall Street Journal l of the best colleges in the United States. For the second year in a row, this little-known college has outranked Harvard, Yale and Princeton to take the second spot on the l. Babson College in Massachusetts outranks Harvard and Yale in WSJ’s l of the best American colleges. Babson College holds on to No. 2Babson College, a small private institution in Wellesley, Massachusetts — known for its focus on business and entrepreneurship — has once again cemented its position at No. 2 in the country. Babson’s hands-on approach to entrepreneurship is one of the key reasons for its high ranking. First-year students are immediately immersed in a course called Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship, where groups are given up to $3,000 to start and run their own businesses. “We offer our new, first-time students in their first year coming in the opportunity to create, to launch businesses,” said Ruthanne Madsen, Babson’s vice president of enrollment management. “That really is the difference.” Why Babson outranked Harvard, YaleUnlike traditional rankings, which often weigh factors such as reputation, research output, or faculty resources, the WSJ/College Pulse rankings focus primarily on how well a college prepares its students for financial success. More than any other factor, the analysis rewards schools that provide a measurable salary boost to their graduates, beyond what they would have expected from attending any college. The rankings also take into account graduation rates, diversity, and student satisfaction — measured through a survey of about 120,000 students and recent alumni. The survey assessed teaching quality, career preparation, learning facilities, and how likely students were to recommend their school to a friend. Babson boasts of strong career outcomes. “97.7% of our undergraduates who graduate have a job or are in grad school within six months after that graduation, and their average starting salary is well over $77,500,” Madsen told WBZ-TV. Top 10 colleges in the US 10Davidson CollegeNC9University of PennsylvaniaPA8Columbia UniversityNY7University of California, BerkeleyCA6Claremont McKenna CollegeCA5Harvard UniversityMA4Princeton UniversityNJ3Yale UniversityCT2Babson CollegeMA1Stanford UniversityCA Stanford University reclaimed the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2017. The rest of the top five is dominated the Ivy League: Yale University (No. 3), Princeton University (No. 4), and Harvard University (No. 5). Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), often ranked near the very top in other ls, came in at No. 11 this year.