Carthage has strong showing in 2025 college rankings
A college’s reputation matters to students and their families. Below is a roundup of Carthage College’s prestigious rankings for 2025, highlighting our strengths as an institution.
See more Carthage rankings and honors
The Wall Street Journal / College Pulse
The Wall Street Journal included Carthage in its 2025 rankings with College Pulse, applauding the learning environment, cost payoff, graduation rates, career preparation, the likelihood of higher salaries post-graduation, and diversity. The results are derived from official U.S. Department of Education data and an anonymous nationwide survey of undergraduate students and recent alumni.
“Rather than focusing on colleges’ wealth or reputation in and of themselves, these rankings expand the importance of student outcomes: graduation rates and graduate salaries,” the College Pulse website explains, “Critically, we emphasized measuring the value added by colleges — not simply measuring their students’ success, but focusing on the contribution the college makes to that success.”
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review ranks Carthage as one of the 2025 Best Midwest schools for being “academically outstanding and well worth consideration in your college search.”
Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president-publisher, depended on students’ feedback from the accessibility of their professors to the quality of their science lab facilities.
“We designed our 80-question survey to include questions that prospective applicants might ask on a campus visit,” Mr. Franek said, “… and only schools at which we see a strong level of satisfaction among their enrolled students – whom we consider their customers – make it to our final slate of regional ‘best’ college selections.”
U.S. News
U.S. News & World Report ranks Carthage among the 2025 Best Regional Universities and Best Value Schools in the Midwest.
These rankings are weighted most heavily by peer assessment, graduation rates, graduation rate performance, and financial resources per student.
U.S. News also ranks Carthage No. 20 for Best Universities for Veterans in the Midwest for participating in federal initiatives helping veterans and active-duty service members pay for their degrees.