The newly released City Journal College Rankings identifies the top 100 colleges in the United States based on factors that include strong curriculum, a lack of ideological rigidity, and the production of students able to earn enough money to pay off their degrees.
Notably, neither of Oklahoma’s two major state universities—the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University—made the cut.
But several universities in neighboring Texas did, while universities in Florida were among the nation’s best, thanks in part to recent actions by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state laws passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature.
The website for the City Journal College Rankings states that many existing college rankings “don’t provide a full picture of the schools you’re considering,” noting that other rankings often “focus on factors that say little about how a school will influence your future.”
“They tell you almost nothing about the content of the education, the campus environment, or the institution’s core values,” City Journal states. “With higher education in crisis, you need the most relevant information in order to choose the right college.”
Among other things, the City Journal ranking addresses those omissions by considering whether a college encourages “respectful discussion and vigorous debate,” has a strong curriculum, forces “divisive ideology” on students, and prepares students “to earn enough to pay back their tuition and thrive as citizens and workers in the twenty-first-century economy.”
City Journal identified the University of Florida as the nation’s top university.
“Florida has long excelled in undergraduate programs in agriculture, business, engineering, accounting, and communications,” the City Journal College Rankings stated. “But in recent years, it has placed greater emphasis on the Great Books and civic education. The most visible outcome of this shift is the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education, established in 2022 by the Florida legislature and the UF Board of Trustees. Its mission is to ‘educate university students in core texts and great debates of Western civilization’ and in ‘the principles, ideals, and institutions of the American political order.’”
The report notes that the University of Florida has “no Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy to speak of, and its administration operates largely free from activist pressure.” The school also requires applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores and has been given a “green” rating on free-speech policies by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
Newly released college rankings reward rigor, ROI, and a lack of ideological rigidity. OU and OSU didn’t make the cut.
The City Journal report states that the University of Florida’s curriculum “has benefited from recent state mandates.”
“The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives the school a B in its ‘What Will They Learn?’ ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program,” the City Journal College Rankings states.
The report also ranked the University of Florida second overall for return on investment, “with graduates taking, on average, less than six months to pay back the cost of their education.”
Florida State University was ranked seventh-best overall and third-best for return on investment, with it taking students about 1.5 years to earn enough to pay off the cost of their education.
Schools in neighboring Texas also fared well in the report, with several schools among the top 100 universities, including two schools ranked in the top 10.
The University of Texas at Austin was ranked second best overall, while Texas A&M University was ranked fourth best. Baylor University ranked 23rd overall. Rice University ranked 60th.
Only one Oklahoma school made the top 100.
The University of Tulsa ranked 43rd.
The report noted that faculty at the University of Tulsa “tend to be ideologically diverse.”
“According to FIRE, students place their professors, on average, at ‘moderate’ on an ideological scale,” the City Journal report stated. “Faculty campaign donations in the 2023–24 election cycle were relatively balanced—at least compared with most other schools—with 64 percent going to liberal or Democratic causes and 32 percent to conservative or Republican ones.”