Northwestern College is ranked seventh among 79 Midwestern regional colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Colleges guidebook. This is the 12th year in a row for Northwestern to be in the top 10. The rankings, which include nearly 1,400 schools nationwide, are available at www.usnews.com/colleges.
Northwestern is also one of nine Midwestern regional colleges selected for Best Undergraduate Teaching, as cited by administrators at peer institutions, and one of 38 Best Value Schools.
“Once again we are pleased to see that the high quality of a Northwestern education has been affirmed by a strong ranking from U.S. News,” says Greg Christy, Northwestern College’s president. “Our graduates and students consistently praise the strength of the Northwestern experience. This and other recognition from organizations like College Consensus, Forbes and Money magazine—as well as rankings like our second-in-the-nation CPA exam pass rate and MCAT scores in the top 25 percent worldwide—add external validation to the excellence of our academic program.”
The U.S. News rankings are based on key measures of quality such as academic reputation; retention (freshman retention and graduation rate); faculty resources (including class size, the percentage of faculty with the top academic degree, student-faculty ratio and compensation); student excellence; financial resources; alumni giving; and social mobility.
Northwestern is in the top 10 in several individual categories, including peer assessment, first-year retention rate (80 percent), graduation rate (68 percent), freshmen in the top 25 percent of their high school class (59 percent) and alumni giving rate (18 percent).
