These Colleges Make New Graduates Rich

"No U.S. college is better at improving the financial futures of its graduates than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to the 2025 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse rankings.

While the overall college rankings consider factors like student experiences and graduation rates, the best-salaries list looks only at metrics related to graduate earnings and return on investment.

Prestigious private colleges and universities occupy the upper tier of the list, with Stanford University placing No. 2 and Princeton University coming in at No. 3. In total, private universities claimed 36 of the top 50 spots on the salary list.

Beyond MIT, other colleges with robust STEM programs also finished strong: Georgia Tech landed fourth, the California Institute of Technology sixth and Harvey Mudd College seventh. The Missouri University of Science and Technology, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Michigan Technological University also landed in the top 15.

The criteria for the best-salaries list are twofold. To secure a top position, colleges need to put graduates on lucrative pathways at the beginning of their careers and keep the price of attendance in check.

When measuring financial success, the Journal and research partner Statista looked at income data 10 or 11 years after students entered college, combining that raw earnings data with the extent to which those earnings outpaced expected salaries, which were modeled on research done by the Brookings Institution. To gauge affordability and return on investment, the Journal drew on research from public-policy think tank Third Way, analyzing how long it would take for the salary premiums that graduates earn over the salaries of comparable high-school graduates to cover the estimated total cost of a four-year degree.

Top-ranked MIT excels in each facet of the ranking. Two-thirds of a school's score on the salary list comes from graduates' median early-career earnings, and MIT graduates have the highest median, $133,793, of any ranked school. The school is also in the top 3% of ranked schools on the value list, the cost/benefit analysis that makes up the remaining third of the score.

Part of what sets MIT apart from other schools for Chris Martinez, a sophomore studying electrical engineering and computer science, is the success stories from alumni, who he says have been surprisingly easy to get hold of when he makes networking calls. In Martinez's conversations with them, they all tended to hark back to their time at the university and their classes there as a catalyst for what helped them get ahead.

At MIT, paths to successful careers often stem from in-class experiences. Former MIT students contacted for this story were generally quick to credit influential professors and their classroom methods, such as teaching critical thinking.

At Stanford, students point to its culture of entrepreneurship and the pipeline into tech companies as one reason why its graduates see success early in their careers.

"It's not uncommon for a Stanford kid to graduate and instantly land a $200,000-plus job at some tech company in the area," says Daniel Sun, a rising senior studying physics, math and music while also working on a coterminal master's degree in applied and engineering physics.

For Emily Suh, a rising junior studying public policy, the entrepreneurial spirit on campus and the extent to which students collaborate were a differentiation point for Stanford, especially as they relate to career success.

"There are always people advertising their startups and offering doughnuts if you sign up for their app," says Suh. "People are always looking for people to start projects with."

While many of the colleges at the top of the list are household names, looking just at salary outcomes for graduates surfaces lesser-known colleges, too, that are greatly increasing the financial prospects of students.

For Cylan Burns, who's on track to graduate from No. 9 Missouri University of Science and Technology in December with a degree in engineering management, enrolling in the college was an easy choice, in part because he could see the positive outcomes of graduates.

Burns has held three internships and traveled to South America twice to complete rainwater and pipeline systems evaluations with the university's Engineers Without Borders chapter.

"I'm not really worried about getting a job just because I have that experience," says Burns. "I feel like they've set me up really well for success."

TOP TEN COLLEGES FOR BEST SALARIES BEST

SALARIES

SCORE

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 99.3 2. Stanford University 98.4 3. Princeton University 97.9 4. Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus 97.6 5. University of Pennsylvania 97.4 6. California Institute of Technology 96.6 7. Harvey Mudd College 96.6 8. Babson College 96.2 9. Missouri University of Science and Technology 96 10. Carnegie Mellon University 95.1

Source: WSJ/College Pulse 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking." [1]

1. These Colleges Make New Graduates Rich. McAllister, Kevin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Sep 2024: A.9.