Molly Landis ’27
News Editor
Recently, Holy Cross was ranked #28 for best liberal arts colleges in 2025 by U.S. News, ranked among the 390 top colleges according to The Princeton Review and, in The Wall Street Journal, ranked as 65 among the top colleges in the U.S.
In order to earn the spot of 28 among best liberal arts colleges, U.S. News ranked colleges based on statistics involving how many resources there are for students, how many bachelor degrees were awarded, and by analyzing “graduates who entered the workforce with manageable debt and worthwhile starting salaries” (U.S. News). They also looked at student preferences about availability of majors, clubs, activities, and adjustment period on campus. Overall, there were 17 ranking factors ranging from graduation rates and first-year retention rates to borrower debt and peer assessment. Some ranking factors that they no longer looked to this year were acceptance rates and alumni giving. Ranked above Holy Cross at a tie for 26 is Bates College and Macalester College. At 29 is Bryn Mawr College and Colorado College. Holy Cross is also ranked 88 in Best Value Schools on U.S. News.
The Princeton Review ranks the top schools not in a specific order, but instead accounting for the top 390 in the country. In addition, the top 25 schools are ranked in 50 lists like Best Campus Food and Most Religious Students. The rankings are made based on 168,000 students’ ratings. Based on this number, there are an average of 430 student responses per school. These are ranked based on things like academics, demographics, extracurriculars, quality of life, and social scene. These rankings are particularly unique in that they are solely due to student surveys.
Wall Street Journal ranks schools according to student outcomes, including salary impact, years to pay off net price, and graduation rate impact; learning environment, including learning opportunities, preparation for career, learning facilities, recommendation score, and character score; and diversity, including opportunities to interact with students from different backgrounds, ethnic diversity, inclusion of students with lower family earnings, and inclusion of students with disabilities. They conducted this research by student surveys and evaluations by using College Pulse and Statistica. The top schools, according to Wall Street Journal, include Princeton University, Babson College, and Stanford University. Holy Cross ranks among Colby College (64) and San Francisco State University (66). Overall they collected a total sample size of 112,084 surveys, used to rank schools with the above criteria on a 100 point scale. Holy Cross earned 79.4 points.
Featured image courtesy of U.S. News
Copy Edited by Annamaria DeCamp ’27
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