Wall Street Journal Ranks Stonehill Among Best U.S. Colleges
The paper bases its list on criteria that include quality of teaching, career preparation and learning facilities.
The Wall Street Journal once again has ranked Stonehill College as one of the best colleges in the nation. Only 584 of the nearly 4,000 degree-granting institutions in the country qualified for consideration, putting Stonehill and the others on the list among the top 15% of colleges and universities nationwide.
The rankings for its 2026 Best Colleges in the U.S. list are based on criteria that include quality of teaching, career preparation and learning facilities.
With elite Massachusetts schools such as Harvard, MIT and Wellesley earning rankings ranging from No. 2 to No. 180, Stonehill ranked No. 195, ahead of Northeastern University (210), Tufts University (298), UMass Amherst (319) and Brandeis University (324).
| MA Rank | School Name | National Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Babson College | 2 |
| 2 | Harvard University | 5 |
| 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 11 |
| 4 | Bentley University | 12 |
| 5 | College of the Holy Cross | 58 |
| 6 | Amherst College | 60 |
| 7 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 99 |
| 8 | Williams College | 108 |
| 9 | Wellesley College | 111 |
| 10 | Boston College | 132 |
| 11 | Boston University | 160 |
| 12 | Wentworth Institute of Technology | 180 |
| 13 | Stonehill College | 195 |
| 14 | Northeastern University | 210 |
| 15 | Suffolk University | 258 |
| 16 | Simmons University | 283 |
| 17 | Tufts University | 298 |
| 18 | University of Massachusetts, Lowell | 307 |
| 19 | University of Massachusetts, Amherst | 319 |
| 20 | Brandeis University | 324 |
| 21 | Wheaton College | 382 |
| 22 | Smith College | 403 |
| 23 | Bridgewater State University | 408 |
| 24 | Clark University | 467 |
| 25 | Mount Holyoke College | 479 |
| Visit here to see The Wall Street Journal’s full ranking of best colleges for 2026. Visit here to explore other accolades earned by Stonehill College. | ||
The Journal based its rankings on data gathered from government organizations as well as interviews it conducted with 120,000 students and recent alumni.
In recent years, the Journal has transitioned away from formulating its rankings based on name recognition and other similar factors, instead choosing to place emphasis on the value of the contributions that institutions make to students’ success. Specifically, the publication ranks schools based on three elements: student outcomes, diversity, and learning environment.
The Journal developed and executed the project in collaboration with research partners College Pulse and Statista.