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. CHASS saw its enrollment numbers for the College increase as well, at a time when liberal arts colleges see declines.
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.
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.
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.
- 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