University of Detroit Mercy ranked No. 43 in U.S. by The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse as it welcomes a record first-year class

The 2024-25 academic year at University of Detroit Mercy is off to a record-breaking start with the largest first-year class in more than 30 years and a ranking that puts it among the top 50 universities in the country.

The 2025 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse ranking has put UDM at No. 43 in the nation, nine places higher than it ranked the University last year.

“This is a great day for our students, the University and the city of Detroit,” said UDM President Donald B. Taylor. “With these rankings, UDM is now in the top 1% of 4,300 higher education campuses in the country,” he added. 

The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse rankings are based on social mobility, which rewards universities with the highest proportion of students coming from lower-income families and maintain high graduation rates; salary impact, which lists schools in order of their impact on graduates’ salaries in relation to the cost of attending; and student experience, based on a survey of more than 110,000 college students at 500 of the nation’s best universities.

UDM’s ranking was derived after being placed

• 39 in social mobility, an increase of nine spots from 2024 rankings.
• 44 in best salaries, an increase of 21 spots from 2024 rankings (previously titled Salary Impact).
• 91 in best value, a new category for 2025.  

The 2025 ranking also makes UDM

• The second-highest ranked university in Michigan.
• The top ranked Catholic university in the state.
• The No. 2 Catholic university in the Midwest.
• The sixth-highest ranking Catholic university in the United States.
• The fifth ranked university among all Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities in the country.
• The highest-ranked Mercy institution.

Last year’s ranking at No. 52 created increased interest in the University and led, in part, to a record first-year class this fall of 655 students on its McNichols Campus. That is an 18.7% increase over last year’s record of 552. It is the largest incoming class since 1990 when Detroit Mercy was formed from the consolidation of University of Detroit and Mercy College of Detroit.

“When we looked at the data, we saw a major increase in applications dating from the day The Wall Street Journal announced its rankings last year,” said Debbie Stieffel, vice president for Enrollment Management & Student Affairs.

For current students, this new rank speaks to what they’ve known about UDM for years.

"I'm grateful to be continuing my education at an institution that, time and time again, has proved itself to be one of the best places in the country for gaining an education and a degree," said Hisham Almadani, a third-year Communication Studies student. "I look forward to graduating with my Bachelor of Arts next year, and I'm excited to apply everything I learned at Detroit Mercy into my professional career."

Last year, the University had a record number of applications and is once again on pace to set a new record for the 2025-26 academic year.

Approximately 86 percent of the 2024-25 first-year class hails from Michigan. It also includes students from 20 states and nine countries including Lebanon, India, South Korea, Ukraine and Vietnam. Fifty percent of students in the incoming class are the first in their family to attend university.

“We are honored that so many of tomorrow’s leaders have entrusted us with their college education,” Taylor said. “It shows young people are looking for the life-changing education we offer at Detroit Mercy, and they trust us to deliver it.”

With this record class and student retention above the national average for last year’s first-year class, UDM is on target for an overall enrollment of more than 5,700 this academic year; last year’s enrollment was 5,528. Final enrollment figures for this year will not be available until mid-September.

There are several reasons for the large boost in first-year enrollment, according to Stieffel.

“One of the biggest draws was our new Titan Edge program, which offers free tuition to first-year students who are eligible for the maximum federal Pell Grant and the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, and is renewable for up to four years,” she said.

On top of the national rankings and the Titan Edge, “these enrollment numbers are the result of a lot of hard work by all University employees. Recruitment is everybody’s job and there is a great deal of pride in our programming, mission and special location in the heart of Detroit,” Stieffel added.

Detroit Mercy earned a great deal of news coverage last year. In April, UDM opened the Detroit Mercy Eye Institute at its Novi Campus. Also in April, the University hosted U.S. Sen. and Detroit Mercy alumnus Gary Peters and National Cyber Director Harry Coker Jr. to observe the groundbreaking work by UDM’s Vehicle Cyber Engineering Program. The U.S. Department of defense has provided the University more than $1.6 million in grants to establish the Metro Detroit Regional Vehicle Cybersecurity Institute.

In other news, the U.S. Department of Energy provided a multi-million dollar grant for a project in which the University and its students will work with local nonprofits to support energy efficiency.

The University also had a record-breaking fundraising year, with donors supporting UDM with more than $25 million in gifts that provide scholarships and faculty and programmatic support.

A portion of one donor’s gift has been used to refresh the campus with new signs and large artwork commissioned by local Detroit artists.

“There is a great buzz about the University,” Taylor said. “People are finally hearing what we’ve been saying all along: University of Detroit Mercy is a great national University."

• View all rankings on the WSJ website. A subscription is required.
• University of Detroit Mercy named among top 50 colleges in America, Detroit Free Press