Every fall, various rankings organizations, including the Princeton Review, the Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News and World Report (U.S. News), release their annual lists of the best colleges and universities in the nation. Once again, LMU retained its placement among the nation’s premier colleges and universities as a top-ranked institution supported by a world-class faculty and exceptional student experience.
While LMU performed well this year, unanticipated and unprecedented changes in the methodologies employed by U.S. News decreased the university’s overall ranking—from #77 to #93. LMU is not alone: changes to over 12 metrics adversely impacted mid-tier private universities across the country. This was especially true for most Jesuit universities, where an emphasis on smaller class sizes, social justice missions, and the liberal arts helped LMU in the previous methodology. Relative to other private institutions and competitors, LMU fared better than the national average (institutions that lost ground from the new criteria dropped by an average of 20). General and educational news media have been covering the ranking changes and challenges of this year’s U.S. News rankings and their shifting methodologies (for example: New York Times, The Chronicle; Others).
For the 2023-2024 U.S. News Best Colleges, LMU continues to rank among the nation’s top 100 universities for the fifth consecutive year since our debut on the list in 2019. LMU also retained its spot among the top six private universities in California:
- #6 Private College/University in California*
- #6 Jesuit University in the U.S.**
- #16 for High-Quality Undergraduate Teaching in the U.S.
- #47 Private College/University in the U.S.
- #93 Overall College/University in the U.S.
*California: Stanford, Caltech, USC, Pepperdine, Santa Clara, LMU
**Jesuit: Georgetown, Boston College, Santa Clara, Marquette, Fordham, LMU (tie), Gonzaga (tie)
Business and Engineering programs continued their upward ascent, with several programs listed among the nation’s best:
- #12 Entrepreneurship
- #14 Business Analytics
- #15 Marketing
- #23 Engineering
- #24 International Business
- #31 Management
- #40 Finance
- #46 Accounting
- #84 Undergraduate Business
Princeton Review’s Best Colleges list placed LMU in the Top 10% nationally in these areas:
- Best College Library
- Best Science Labs
- Best College Theater
The Hollywood Reporter’s recent rankings list LMU School of Film and Television as the nation’s 8th best film school.
To learn more about LMU’s many other rankings, visit LMU Rankings.
