Colorado School of Mines top university in the state across numerous rankings

Several recent rankings place Colorado School of Mines at the top of their list, including U.S. News & World Report, Niche and the Wall Street Journal.

In the 2025 rankings released by U.S. News & World Report, Mines remains steady and ranks No. 76 among national universities, a category that includes both public and private institutions offering a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and PhD programs. Among the public schools in this category, Mines again ranks No. 36. Among Colorado universities, Mines ranks No. 1 in the state for national universities.

The Niche rankings, released earlier this fall, places Mines as the No. 1 best college in Colorado, moving up from the No. 2 position in 2024. Niche also identified Mines as a top contender for engineering and value, plus No. 30 on the list of top public universities in America. Niche combines dozens of data sets with reviews to produce comprehensive rankings and profiles, according to their website.

The Wall Street Journal partnered with College Pulse and Statista to produce its best colleges list, assessing student and alumni survey data and student outcomes metrics. More than 110,000 undergraduate students and recent alumni were surveyed by College Pulse on topics such as learning environment, salary earnings and degree completion.

Earlier this month, Payscale released its rankings of institutions with the highest salary potential for graduates, and Mines ranks No. 21 nationally and No. 2 in Colorado behind the Air Force Academy. The College Salary Report uses alumni salary data across 2,400 colleges and universities, assessing education histories and employment histories of college graduates in the U.S.

U.S. News & World Report 

• No. 1 National University in Colorado
• No. 31 in Best Undergraduate Teaching
• No. 36 in Top Public Schools
• No. 43 in Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (No. 2 in Petroleum)
• No. 45 in Best Colleges for Veterans
• No. 76 in National Universities

Niche 

• No. 1 in Best Colleges in Colorado
• No. 27 in Best Colleges for Engineering in America
• No. 29 in Best Value Colleges in America
• No. 30 in Top Public Universities in America

Wall Street Journal

• No. 1 in Best Colleges in Colorado
• No. 16 for Best Salaries
• No. 104 in Best Colleges in the U.S.

Payscale’s College Salary Report 

• No. 21