UW-Eau Claire climbs in Wall Street Journal Best Colleges list for 2025

UW-Eau Claire is one of only five public universities in Wisconsin listed, with UW-Madison the highest among them, and is one of only 12 schools total for Wisconsin and Minnesota. Among all public institutions in the country to make the cut for 2025, UW-Eau Claire is ranked 115th.

Chancellor James Schmidt says he is, of course, pleased but not surprised to see this rise in the ranks, as UW-Eau Claire has consistently held impressive spots in these types of national rankings. However, Schmidt says this one is special because the methodology focuses so heavily on student outcomes.  

"The Wall Street Journal surveys our current students and recent alumni to get at the heart of what makes their UW-Eau Claire experience both valuable and successful," Schmidt points out, emphasizing that 70% of this ranking scale is based on tangible value-added outcomes such as salary impact, years to pay off net cost and graduation rates.

"We know that our students are investing in our tradition of excellence and a four-year degree that will quickly pay off for them in fundamental ways," Schmidt says. “This news helps solidify that payoff.”

Survey results for 2025 show that UW-Eau Claire scored especially well in the areas of:

• Salary impact: The extent to which a college boosts its graduates’ salaries beyond what they would be expected to earn regardless of which college they attended. UWEC was determined to have an average annual salary boost of $27,455 for new graduates.
• Learning facilities: Student satisfaction with the college’s learning-related facilities, based on student survey. Access to state-of-the-art facilities, equipment and instrumentation across disciplines in all four colleges gives UWEC students top-notch career preparation.
• Character score: The extent to which students feel the college has developed character strengths that will help them to make a meaningful contribution to society, including moral courage, hopefulness, resilience, wisdom and a sense of justice, based on student surveys.

For Billy Felz, UW-Eau Claire's vice chancellor for enrollment management, the results of this survey show that Blugolds see the overall return on their investment in their futures that a UWEC degree offers.

"The Wall Street Journal’s ranking is another indicator that UW-Eau Claire is not only a fantastic choice for students but also a brilliant investment," Felz says. "Blugolds receive an affordable degree that has the power to open the doors to amazing opportunities with solid earning potential and while incurring minimal student debt."  

Finally, a central pillar of the campus mission at UW-Eau Claire has always been to serve the public good, and Dr. Michael Carney, interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, notes how this ranking demonstrates the student desire to uphold that part of our mission.

“The WSJ rankings indicate that our students appreciate the depth and breadth of their UW-Eau Claire education, an education that instills knowledge and skills for successful professional careers along with a commitment to making positive societal contributions,” Carney says.

See full WSJ report here.

In one of the largest-ever independent surveys of verified college students in the U.S., around 110,000 undergraduates and recent undergraduate alumni were anonymously surveyed by College Pulse in cooperation with The Wall Street Journal and Statista.