University of Detroit Mercy ranks No. 36 in 2026 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse Higher Education rankings

DETROIT, Sept. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) has improved its national ranking in the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2026 survey of best universities in the country.

This year, UDM ranked No. 36, seven places higher than last year.

The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse study evaluates colleges on several measures. These include social mobility, which recognizes universities that enroll a high proportion of students from lower-income families, while maintaining strong graduation rates and positive salary outcomes. Salary impact measures how graduates' earnings compare to expectations, relative to the cost of attending.

The Best Value ranking considers how quickly graduates' salary advantages pay back the average net price of a degree. This year, the survey reflected feedback from more than 110,000 students nationwide. Earlier this month, UDM also ranked No. 22 nationally in the Best Value Schools category in the U.S. News & World Report 2026 'Best Colleges' edition.

UDM 2026 rankings:

• No. 27 out of 584 schools for social mobility, up from 39 in the 2025 ranking
• No. 309 in student experience, up from 411 last year
• No. 52 in best salaries

The 2026 ranking means that UDM is:

• The No. 1 ranked private university in Michigan
• The second-highest ranked university in Michigan
• The No. 2 ranked Catholic university in the Midwest
• The No. 3 ranked Catholic university in the United States

UDM also ranks in the top 9% of colleges/universities nationwide for salary earned by graduates over a 15–40-year period during their career according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) report Ranking 4,476 Colleges by ROI (2025).

Rankings like these over the past several years have helped spur enrollment increases year after year and allows UDM to create new colleges and programs to meet the needs of students and the workforce.

This fall, UDM welcomed the first class of the new School of Optometry and launched a new accelerated seven-year Doctor of Optometry Program. The College of Health Professions (CHP) also created the School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. The School of Law recently launched the state of Michigan's first online J.D. program to increase accessibility to legal education. And the University's School of Dentistry welcomed the first cohort of students who will pursue their Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at the University's new campus in Vermont.

Visit www.udmercy.edu today!

SOURCE University of Detroit Mercy