Loyola ranked No. 23 in Wall Street Journal/College Pulse “Best Colleges” list
VOICE TRACK: Loyola University recently ranked 23rd on the Wall Street Journal’s 2025 best colleges in the US ranking. The Wall Street Journal evaluates colleges based on a number of factors including student outcomes, learning environment, and diversity. Beyond that, there were a number of more specific categories that contributed to Loyola’s ranking. The categories where Loyola ranked the highest were number 5 for career preparation and number 22 for student experience.
ACT: <You know all your professors. Right, which is a lot better. I have friends at University of Maryland who still don’t even know their professors at all, like have never talked to them, they only know their TA’s.>
VOICE TRACK: That was Kobe Middleton, a recent graduate from Loyola’s CS program praising Loyola for how easy it is to make connections with professors due to the smaller class sizes. But Loyola’s size isn’t just great for making connections with professors.
NATSND: (coding/typing sounds)
ACT: <As far as like the sense of community and kind of how tight knit your circle feels like that’s definitely a major plus. Everybody kind of knows each other at Loyola.>
VOICE TRACK: But what about career preparation? Does Loyola really deserve its number 5 ranking?
ACT: <I think they actually did prepare me incredibly well, in terms of helping me set up a good resume. The career center is actually incredible, in terms of after you leave school you still have access to it and they will sort of help you funnel into it.>
VOICE TRACK: That was Nick Mangold a recent graduate from Loyola’s communications program. Though Nick had good things to say about Loyola’s career preparation, was it reflected in his salary? Loyola scored quite highly in salary impact with a score of 96.
ACT: <I mean my salary isn’t good I’m still trying to find a good job, it’s a very competitive field and there are a lot of ghost jobs out there, so I am taking something a bit easier, but it prepared me for something even outside of my major.>
VOICE TRACK: Even with Loyola’s high score in salary impact they still ranked lower in best value at number 223.
ACT: <I mean I think all education should just be straight up cheaper. So more people can have access to it that maybe wouldn’t otherwise. I mean paying this much is kind of insane. It helped me a lot but we should not be paying this much money for an education it just feels wrong.>
VOICE TRACK: Loyola students and faculty can hold their heads high due to their high ranking but of course, there’s still areas where Loyola can improve. Reporting for LUM, I’m Sean Casey.