Verified Federal Data · No Paid Rankings
Best Colleges in New Jersey
Top New Jersey colleges ranked by what actually matters after graduation: earnings, completion rates, and what you actually pay. Federal data. No surveys, no sponsorships.
How We Rank New Jersey Colleges
Rankings use a composite score from verified federal data: graduate earnings (28%), graduation rate (25%), social mobility via Pell Grant share (20%), debt burden (15%), and net cost for low-income students (12%). Where a school has not reported one of these, that component is dropped and the remaining weights are rescaled rather than filled in with an estimate. Only 4-year non-profit schools with sufficient data qualify.
- →Earnings: Median annual earnings 10 years after enrollment. Source: College Scorecard.
- →Graduation rate: Full-time first-time students completing within 150% of normal time. Source: IPEDS.
- →Net price: Average annual cost after all grants and scholarships. Source: IPEDS.
- →Social mobility: Share of students receiving Pell Grants — a direct measure of access for low-income students. Source: IPEDS.
- →Debt burden: Median federal loan debt at graduation. Source: College Scorecard.
Top 10 Colleges in New Jersey (2026)
Ranked by composite: earnings, graduation rate, social mobility, debt, affordability.
| # | School | Earnings (10yr) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Princeton University Princeton, NJ | $110,066 |
| 2 | New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ | $84,276 |
| 3 |  Rutgers University-Newark Newark, NJ | $74,479 |
| 4 |  Rutgers University-Camden Camden, NJ | $74,479 |
| 5 |  Montclair State University Montclair, NJ | $61,415 |
| 6 |  Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ | $74,479 |
| 7 |  Stockton University Galloway, NJ | $57,602 |
| 8 |  Saint Peter's University Jersey City, NJ | $57,815 |
| 9 |  The College of New Jersey Ewing, NJ | $73,323 |
| 10 | Pillar College Newark, NJ | $45,577 |
32 New Jersey schools in dataset. Top 10 shown. Data: IPEDS + College Scorecard. Updated annually.
All 32 Colleges in the Dataset
The ranking above shows the top 10 by composite score. Every school in the full dataset is listed here so you can explore beyond the top results.
Comparing across states?
We rank top colleges in all 50 states using the same federal data.
Browse All States →Find Your Perfect Fit in New Jersey
These 10 schools are a start. Search all New Jersey colleges with filters for major, cost, size, distance, and more.
Search New Jersey Colleges →