WSJ\/College Pulse 2026 Best Colleges in the U.S.<\/a> rankings evaluate undergraduate institutions by the value they provide to students. Criteria include:<\/p>\nLearning environments<\/p>\n
Years required to pay off the net price<\/p>\n
Degree completion rates<\/p>\n
Diversity<\/p>\n
Likelihood of higher salaries post-graduation.<\/p>\n
Samford\u2019s rankings:<\/p>\n
#3 career preparation<\/p>\n
#5 most recommended<\/p>\n
#7 student learning opportunities<\/p>\n
Results stem from data from the U.S. Department of Education and the Census Bureau, along with a survey of undergraduate students and recent alumni.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fun fact: Samford was the only university in Alabama to achieve any top-10 rankings from The Wall Street Journal!<\/p>\n
How Samford sets students up for success<\/p>\n
![\"Samford](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_2022.jpg\" "\\"Samford")
Samford University graduation (Callie Morrison \/ Bham Now)<\/p>\n
Beginning freshman year, students are equipped with resources to explore interests and career aspirations through many areas, including:<\/p>\n
Student organizations<\/p>\n
Global engagement opportunities<\/p>\n
Counseling services<\/p>\n
Individual career preparation<\/p>\n
\u201cCultivating character and preparing students for their professional careers are at the heart of Samford\u2019s mission. These rankings affirm the quality of our faculty engagement, a nurturing academic culture and a world-class learning environment\u2013\u2013all factors that make the Samford experience so enriching.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Beck Taylor, Samford University<\/p>\n
As a Samford graduate myself, I can attest to the attention faculty members give to each student. Go Bulldogs!<\/p>\n
Want Birmingham updates like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samford University graduation (Callie Morrison) Our very own Samford University earned three top-10 rankings from The Wall Street…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[200,79],"class_list":["post-201148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Samford](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_3170-scaled-e1759504845918-1200x829.jpeg\" "\\"Samford")
Samford University graduation (Callie Morrison)<\/p>\n![\"Samford\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/14E77183-BBAA-40FD-8406-D3FE27571356-edited.jpeg\" "\\"Samford")
Samford University\u2019s Harwell Goodwin Davis Library (Jon Eastwood \/ Bham Now)<\/p>\n