{"id":220029,"date":"2026-08-10T00:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T00:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/here-are-americas-10-best-colleges-according-to-linkedin-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T00:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T00:14:16","slug":"here-are-americas-10-best-colleges-according-to-linkedin-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/here-are-americas-10-best-colleges-according-to-linkedin-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are America's 10 best colleges, according to LinkedIn – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the University of Notre Dame as Notre Dame of Maryland University in the rankings list.<\/em>
Lehigh University is a selective\u00a0Pennsylvania\u00a0institution with a national reputation and a $2 billion endowment.\u00a0
Lehigh does well in college rankings \u2013 but usually not as well as the University of Chicago or Columbia.\u00a0
Yet\u00a0those schools rank just above and below Lehigh\u00a0in a new college ranking,\u00a0titled\u00a0LinkedIn Top Colleges 2026<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
The\u00a0ranking\u00a0uses LinkedIn data to identify 50 colleges and universities that \u201cbest set their graduates up for career success,\u201d in terms of internships, job placement, professional networking and other factors.\u00a0
The resulting list recognizes schools such as Lehigh, where 88% of graduates complete internships and 89,000 belong to a vigorous alumni network.
“Fundamentally, for a long time we’ve been about student outcomes,” said Nathan Urban<\/a>, provost of Lehigh. “Do they get good jobs? Do they have good careers 10 years after they’ve left the university?”
College rankings are everywhere these days. U.S. News still offers its venerable list of\u00a0Best\u00a0Colleges<\/a>, a ranking that favors\u00a0schools with the largest endowments and lowest admission rates. Other rankings focus\u00a0more\u00a0on\u00a0international standing<\/a>,\u00a0access and affordability<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0return\u00a0on investment<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
College leaders decry rankings as arbitrary: Is it even fair to compare Princeton, the Ivy League campus that ranks first in the latest U.S. News ranking\u00a0of national universities,\u00a0to\u00a0MIT, the science and technology powerhouse that ranks second?\u00a0
But\u00a0high school seniors and their families turn to the rankings every fall, hoping to differentiate among the\u00a0approximately 4,000<\/a>\u00a0degree-granting colleges in America.\u00a0
\u201cThey need information. They need guidance. Rankings are one source of that guidance,\u201d said Urban of Lehigh University. \u201cI prefer rankings that are focused on actual outcomes:\u00a0What happens to students who go to these universities.\u201d\u00a0
The LinkedIn rankings, released Aug. 4, mine data from the massive professional networking site to find the colleges that seem to deliver the strongest career preparation\u00a0and support\u00a0to their students, based on five metrics:\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cWe\u2019re actually looking at what happens to the individuals who graduate from those schools across their careers,\u201d said\u00a0Laura Lorenzetti<\/a>, vice president and executive editor of LinkedIn Global Editorial.\u00a0\u00a0
The LinkedIn ranking debuted in 2025.\u00a0The 50 colleges on the\u00a02026 list\u00a0\u201creally create momentum that lasts well beyond graduation, that lasts well beyond that first job,\u201d\u00a0Lorenzetti\u00a0said.
The top 10 on the LinkedIn rankings\u00a0won\u2019t surprise anyone familiar with the\u00a0pervasive\u00a0U.S. News rankings, or with any other\u00a0list of prestigious universities. They\u00a0are:
In other words, this\u00a0ranking\u00a0\u201clooks like all the rest of them,\u201d said\u00a0Paul Glastris<\/a>,\u00a0editor in chief of the Washington Monthly, which offers\u00a0alternative college rankings<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
Beyond the top 10, though, the LinkedIn list\u00a0gets less predictable. Consider these entries:\u00a0\u00a0
Babson, with about 2,800 undergraduate students, blends\u00a0business and\u00a0liberal arts\u00a0and sciences\u00a0in a core curriculum. The school boasts that 98% of\u00a0its\u00a0class of 2025 were\u00a0working,\u00a0continuing their education or involved in volunteer or service programs within six months of graduation.\u00a0\u00a0
The Massachusetts school ranked\u00a0second in the nation<\/a>\u00a0in the WSJ\/College Pulse 2026 Best Colleges list, another ranking that\u00a0measures\u00a0future\u00a0success.\u00a0\u00a0
Such rankings are \u201calways helpful,\u201d said\u00a0Poonam Arora<\/a>, dean of the Undergraduate School at Babson. \u201cThere\u2019s\u00a0all sorts of lists. I think the ones that target\u00a0RoI\u00a0and the value-add of a college are meaningful.\u201d\u00a0
Modern college rankings have existed since\u00a0at least the 1980s<\/a>. For many years, they served primarily to help prospective applicants sort colleges by reputation and selectivity.\u00a0\u00a0
Recently, however,\u00a0parents\u00a0and policymakers have focused\u00a0more\u00a0on\u00a0how well colleges prepare students for the working world, and on the broader question of whether college is worth the cost.
“I’ve been asked that question more times in the last three years than in the previous 30,” said Rob Franek<\/a>, editor in chief of the Princeton Review<\/a>, a longtime source of student-centered college rankings.\u00a0\u00a0
In 2024, Pew Research\u202freported<\/a>\u202fthat only 22% of adults consider college \u201cworth it\u201d for students who have to take out loans.\u202fThe federal government\u2019s\u00a0College Scorecard<\/a>\u00a0pointedly\u00a0tracks cost and value\u00a0in\u00a0higher education.\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cYou see this hunger for more evidence of\u00a0RoI\u00a0from universities because, frankly, families are getting more skeptical of the value proposition of higher education to begin with,\u201d said\u00a0Armand Alacbay<\/a>, chief of staff and senior vice president of strategy at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.\u00a0\u00a0
Newer\u00a0college rankings focus less on\u00a0pedigree\u00a0and more on outputs,\u00a0like\u00a0a good job.\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cOur parents, our families and our students are expecting a return on their investments,\u201d said\u00a0Moe McGuinness<\/a>, dean of students at Bucknell.\u00a0\u00a0
One thing\u00a0most college\u00a0rankings\u00a0do\u00a0not measure, however, is how much students learn in college.\u00a0\u00a0
A classic 2011 book on academia,\u00a0Academically Adrift<\/a>, found that\u00a0many\u00a0college students don\u2019t\u00a0gain much actual knowledge. But it\u2019s hard to measure learning in a college ranking.\u00a0
\u201cYou\u2019ve got job placement. You\u2019ve got recruiter demand. These are obviously high on the priority list for a lot of parents,\u201d said\u00a0Alacbay\u00a0of ACTA. \u201cBut what happens when they get there? What will they learn?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the University of Notre Dame as Notre Dame of Maryland University in the rankings list.Lehigh University is a selective\u00a0Pennsylvania\u00a0institution with a national reputation and a $2 billion endowment.\u00a0Lehigh does well in college rankings \u2013 but usually not as well as the University of Chicago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}