Worcester Polytechnic Institute has been ranked 39th on the 2025 LinkedIn Top Colleges list, an inaugural ranking of the top 50 schools in the U.S. LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, created the Top Colleges list to identify the undergraduate programs that best position their alumni for long-term career success.“LinkedIn’s Top Colleges list is additional proof of something we’ve long known and prioritized: that WPI offers students an incredibly valuable education,” said WPI President Grace Wang, noting that more than 95% of WPI graduates who responded to a survey reported that the university’s signature project-based learning prepared them for their current career. “Our unique hands-on educational model is designed not only to equip students with specific expertise and skills in their fields but also to empower them to think critically, work well in teams, and learn how to learn. As a result, our graduates are well positioned to be versatile and successful throughout their professional lives.”The first-ever ranking relies on exclusive LinkedIn data that measures the career outcomes of millions of alumni from universities and colleges. It uses a methodology that compares schools based on factors including job and graduate school placement rates, internship completions, and recruiter demand.
“Employers tell us consistently they love WPI graduates, and that’s for a number of reasons,” said Amanda Laungani, director of the Heebner Career Development Center at WPI. “The employers we work with praise our students for having the confidence and capability to contribute immediately to their organizations as well as the extensive experience working in teams that allows our graduates to turn knowledge into impactful applications.”
The LinkedIn ranking echoes a March 2025 ranking by U.S. News & World Report that placed WPI 18th on its list of “Colleges with the Best Return on Investment” and cited an estimated $3,408,000 return on investment for a WPI education after 40 years, as measured in 2023 dollars.
A separate measurement finds that WPI graduates start their careers in a position of strength. WPI’s undergraduate Class of 2024 reported an average salary of $80,294 within six months after graduation, according to the university’s First Destination Outcomes data, which shows average starting salaries for recent WPI graduates consistently exceed the national average.
WPI’s transformative STEM education model is based on learning by doing. All undergraduates are required to complete three long-term academic projects. Each of these experiences has a distinct focus and purpose and often involves students working in teams with community or corporate partners on challenges that have real-world relevance. In addition to these long-term projects, nearly two-thirds of WPI alumni report that they did project work in at least half of their undergraduate courses.
This project-based learning approach provides repeated hands-on experiences that have a substantial positive impact for graduates. In the most recent survey of WPI alumni, 93% of respondents reported their project experiences enhanced their ability to effectively function on a team and 88% indicated that the approach helped them develop a stronger personal character.
Class of 1990 alum Michelle Gass highlighted this in her 2025 WPI undergraduate commencement address. The Levi Strauss & Co. president and CEO stated, “This school has truly made itself into a powerhouse, providing an intimate learning experience that invites the outside world in, preparing students for the many challenges that lay ahead.”
WPI students are also empowered to launch their career success through ongoing engagement with the Heebner Career Development Center. The center provides services including coaching, alumni networking and mentorship, workshops, and digital resources and hosts several in-person and virtual career fairs each year that attract hundreds of employers.
Many employers hire multiple WPI graduates each year into fields including aerospace, information technology, life sciences, and financial technology.
More from WPI Youtube Channel
- 0:42Messages Sent Home: Part 2You asked and they answered 💝 Part 2 of our students' heartfelt messages home.
- 6:51WPI Entrepreneurs Find Pricing, Awareness, and Supplies Impact Rare Earth Recycling IndustryWhen a group of WPI students and faculty members first set out in 2022 to interview people connected to the rare earth magnet industry, they wanted to know if an innovative magnet recycling business could succeed. After more than 130 interviews, says Adam Powell, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a member of the team, the group concluded that the answer is a qualified “yes.” “We learned there is demand for recycled materials, and a lot of people want a domestic recycling industry to grow,” Powell says. “Yet the reality is that only a small number of U.S. companies are building recycling capacity. The industry is still maturing as companies develop facilities, awareness of recycling grows, and a steady supply of old magnets builds.” “Rare earth” refers to a group of metallic elements such as neodymium that are abundant in the earth’s crust but difficult and environmentally damaging to mine and process. Magnets made from rare earth minerals are used in everything from hybrid and electric vehicles to wind turbines and fighter jets, and the total market for rare earth elements was valued at more than $3 billion in 2023. China supplies most of the world’s rare earth minerals and has used its hold on the market as a political tool. In early 2025, China threatened to limit rare earth exports, especially to Western defense contractors, as a response to U.S. tariffs. During its review, the WPI group found that challenges for rare earth recycling include incentivizing the recycling of materials and competing with magnets made from virgin materials. The WPI group also found that challenges for rare earth recycling include scrap sourcing and the high cost of building recycling facilities. Those challenges could be overcome, the researchers say, by raising awareness about scrap collection, incentivizing the recycling of materials, and passing recycling-friendly legislation. “Launching a profitable and sustainable recycling startup now could be difficult,” says Chinenye Chinwego, PhD ’23, a member of the team and a former graduate student in Powell’s lab. “We can continue to do research on innovative recycling technologies, but it may take several years before there is sufficient scrap at costs low enough to make recycling profitable.” The WPI group, which undertook its market research into rare earth recycling as part of a National Science Foundation I-Corps project, recently published its findings in the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In addition to Powell and Chinwego, authors were PhD student Daniel Mc Arthur Sehar; Evan MacGregor ’23, M.S. ’23; PhD student Steven Tate, M.S. ’21, MBA ’23, M.S. ’25 ; Kenneth Savage ’23, M.S. ’23; MBA student Thaddaeus Zuber ’22, M.S. ’23; Benjamin Sseruwagi ’23, M.S. ’24; Daniel Dietrich ’22, M.S. ’23; Emmanuel Opoku, M.S. ’24; Rosanna Garcia, Paul R. Beswick ’57 Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in The Business School; Brajendra Mishra, the Kenneth G. Merriam Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; and David Smith of Newagen Group LLC. The WPI team enrolled in the I-Corps program to assess the outlook for rare earth magnet recycling because I-Corps provides a framework for researchers and inventors to rapidly assess an invention’s market potential. “Technical founders often forget to understand the market needs for their inventions,” says Garcia. “It’s important to conduct customer discovery interviews early in the innovation process, and the group took a methodical and detailed approach to this task.” Chinwego says the group was interested in examining whether a magnet recycling company could reduce material costs for magnet production, reduce dependence on foreign rare earth sources, and support corporate efforts to operate in environmentally sustainable ways. Recycling rare earth magnets involves separating magnets from electronics and extracting rare earth elements using gases, solvents, salts, or other processes. Recycled materials are currently a tiny share of the materials used in magnet manufacturing. Working with the WPI Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the group interviewed individuals from rare earth magnet manufacturing companies, rare earth recycling companies, national laboratories, metal alloy companies, and metal recycling companies. Those interviewed included customers, suppliers, outside experts, and government employees. They also interviewed rare earth magnet cutting companies and electronics manufacturers to assess the availability of scrap magnets for recycling. Although the team identified challenges for rare earth recycling, they also found reasons to think that the industry could grow. “The people we interviewed said that recycling rare earth magnets could mitigate supply risks and appeal to companies that want to decrease their impact on the environment,” says Chinwego. “As demand for rare earth elements grows, recycled materials ma...
- 0:35Fire Protection Students Researching Wildfire Safety and PreventionMeet the next generation of fire protection professionals! These students are hard at work on research projects that could make a real difference in keeping our communities safe. It's inspiring to see young minds tackling such important safety challenges with dedication and innovation. Their work today could help protect families and communities tomorrow. #FireProtection #StudentResearch #CommunitySafety #STEMEducation #SafetyFirst
- 22:51E17: Fintech, AI, and the Future of Finance | Kwamie Dunbar, Interim Dean, The WPI Business SchoolThe future of money isn't minted, it's coded—and every time you deposit a check on your phone or send money via an app, you're actively using financial technology or "fintech." On this episode of The WPI Podcast, Kwamie Dunbar, Interim Dean of The WPI Business School and Professor of Finance, walks us through blockchain, cryptocurrency, and how artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the future of finance. As the first university in the U.S. to offer fintech degrees at every level of study, we'll also discuss the unique and exciting experiences our students have, including a yearly trip to center of the financial world—the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street.
- 0:39WPI Students Send Messages Home to Their FamiliesWe asked students to send a message to their families back home, and you gotta hear what they said! Drop a 🥹 in the comments if this made your ❤️ melt!
- 0:30Why Consider WPI? | Hands-On Learning, Global Impact & Career-Ready SkillsWhy choose Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)? Because here, you don’t just learn—you do. From day one, WPI students take on hands-on projects that tackle global challenges while gaining the practical experience employers value most. WPI graduates are in high demand because they leave prepared to innovate, lead, and solve problems that matter. With a project-based curriculum, global opportunities, and strong employer connections, WPI helps you turn your education into a career that makes an impact. Discover why so many future engineers, scientists, and innovators choose WPI. wpi.edu/top5
