The University of Pittsburgh tops the list of public colleges and universities in the Northeast in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings, while Harvard University leads all private schools in the region.

Among the top 10 public schools in the region, Pitt’s campus in Pittsburgh has the highest scores in three of the four categories that the overall rankings are based on: student outcomes, academic resources and student engagement. (For engagement, it tied with Temple University, which is tenth overall...