See where LSU placed on the latest ‘Wall Street Journal’ best colleges list

LSU ranks No. 179 in Wall Street Journal’s 2026 Best Colleges in the U.S. rankings—up nine spots from where the university ranked last year.

Here’s how the other Louisiana universities ranked on this year’s list, which was released Monday:

• Loyola University New Orleans—No. 376
• Xavier University of Louisiana—No. 412
• University of Louisiana at Monroe—No. 450
• Louisiana Tech University—No. 452
• Tulane University—No. 457
• Southeastern Louisiana University—No. 492
• Southern University and A&M College—No. 536
• UL Lafayette—No. 537
• Grambling State University—No. 575

Among SEC schools, LSU ranked below Texas A&M (No. 33), Vanderbilt (No. 34), the University of Texas at Austin (No. 49), the University of Florida (No. 72), the University of Oklahoma (No. 135) and the University of Georgia (No. 167).

LSU outranked Auburn (No. 196), the University of Missouri (No. 215), the University of Arkansas (No. 239), the University of Kentucky (No. 309), the University of Alabama (No. 339), the University of Mississippi (No. 350), the University of South Carolina (No. 362), the University of Tennessee (No. 373) and Mississippi State (No. 465).

Overall, Stanford University, Babson College and Yale University claimed the top three spots, respectively. Last year’s top school—Princeton University—fell to No. 4 this year.

Unlike other school rankings, this list emphasizes one point: How well did the college prepare students for financial success? More than any other factor, it rewards the boost an institution provides to its graduates’ salaries, beyond an estimate of what they could have expected from attending any college.

See the full rankings.