University of Utah top public college in the West, says Wall Street Journal rankings

The University of Utah is the highest-ranked public college in the West, according to The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2024 Best Colleges in the United States rankings.

The rankings considered graduation rates and graduates’ salaries as 70% of a university’s total score. Institutions’ learning environments counted for 20% while diversity was weighted at 10%.

The University of California, Berkeley and California State University, Northridge ranked second and third, respectively, among public universities in the West.

University of Utah President Taylor Randall, in an earlier news report by the university, described the rankings as a “fresh look” that measured metrics other rankings do not.

“We’ve known this ourselves for years: The University of Utah provides an exceptional, affordable education to our students, and sets our graduates up for continued success in life,” he said.

While these new rankings are “flattering and well-deserved, we are far from finished with our strategic goals,” Randall said, adding, “These are metrics we can manage toward.”

Among private colleges in the West, Stanford ranked first followed by Claremont McKenna College and the California Institute of Technology.

Schools’ overall scores in the WSJ/College Pulse ranking were based on three factors:

• Student outcomes — including measures of graduation rates, graduates’ salaries and how those salaries offset the cost of attaining an undergraduate degree.

• The learning environment — including students’ evaluations of their school’s learning facilities and learning opportunities and how well it prepares them for a career, as well as how strongly they would recommend the school.

• The diversity of a school’s students and faculty.

The rankings emphasize how much each school boosts outcomes beyond what would be expected for its students. A complete explanation of the methodology is available at wsj.com/collegerankings.

Among Western public colleges, Utah ranked No. 43 overall among all colleges nationwide. UC Berkeley was 51st and Cal State Northridge was 53rd.

The top 10 public colleges in the West include five schools in the California State University system and three in the University of California system.

Two of the region’s private schools are among the top 10 colleges in the country, with Stanford ranked fourth in the nation and Claremont McKenna ninth. Caltech was ranked 18th while Brigham Young University was 20th.