F&M was ranked among the best colleges in the U.S. by the Wall Street Journal-College Pulse, which rates 584 eligible universities in the country on how well colleges set graduates up for financial success.  

Among peer liberal arts colleges, F&M was ranked 16th highest.¹ For nearly 240 years, F&M has embraced the power of the liberal arts, and today’s graduates launch into purpose-driven careers through a personalized liberal arts education that pairs deep faculty mentorship with real-world experiences. F&M graduates have a strong foundation of valuable skills widely desired by today’s top employers in a rapidly changing labor market, including analytical and creative thinking; resilience and adaptability; persuasive and consensus-building leadership; and emotional intelligence. 
 
Among peer liberal arts colleges recognized for research, F&M was ranked 11th highest.² Only 44 liberal arts colleges, including F&M, recently earned Carnegie’s “Research Colleges and Universities” designation, reinforcing the College’s excellence in providing its undergraduate students opportunities to work side-by-side with professors on impactful research. 

These accolades build on the momentum of earlier successes in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. F&M was recently ranked 35th among all national liberal arts colleges, and the College’s three-year range in U.S. News is its strongest in more than 20 years. U.S. News also ranked F&M 33rd nationally for best undergraduate teaching, and the College has been highlighted as a best value institution by both U.S. News and the Princeton Review. The latter also recently ranked F&M 24th nationally for most accessible professors.

“Franklin & Marshall has long been nationally recognized for its excellence in liberal arts education,” F&M President Andrew Rich said. “This fall’s rankings reinforce that excellence. We at F&M are proud of our history of building leaders at every level, ready to take their place as tomorrow’s global citizens who shape our world.”

¹ F&M defines peer liberal arts colleges as those institutions designated by the 2025 Carnegie Classifications as “Special Focus: Arts and Sciences.”

² F&M defines peer liberal arts colleges recognized for research as those institutions that received dual designations by the 2025 Carnegie Classification as both “Special Focus: Arts and Sciences” and “Research Colleges and Universities.”