Northwest Iowa — Dordt University has been ranked the fifth and Northwestern College was ranked sixth best regional Midwest college, according to the 2022 U.S. News and World Report rankings.
These rankings take into account a variety of factors, including graduation and retention rates, undergraduate academic reputation, social mobility, alumni giving, and more.
Ranked the number one school for “Best Undergraduate Teaching (Regional Colleges Midwest)” Dordt is a school where “faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner,” as stated in the U.S. News and World Report methodology.
5th ranked Dordt tied for third in the “Most Innovative (Regional Colleges Midwest)” ranking, which, according to the methodology, “examines the colleges and universities that are making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology, and facilities.”
Dordt made additional rankings on U.S. News and World Report, including “A+ Schools for B Students (Regional Colleges Midwest)” and “Top Performers on Social Mobility (Regional Colleges).” Dordt ranked 24th on the “Best Value Schools (Regional Colleges)” list, which considers both the academic quality and cost of an institution. Dordt also was included on the list of “Undergraduate Engineering Programs (No Doctorate),” which considers engineering schools whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
6th ranked Northwestern is also one of 33 Best Value Schools and 38 institutions cited as Top Performers on Social Mobility. The rankings, which include more than 1,400 schools nationwide are available at www.usnews.com/colleges.
Northwestern is in the top 10 in several individual categories, including six-year graduation rate, third at 68%; peer assessment, fifth; and alumni giving rate, 10th.
The U.S. News rankings are based on key measures of quality such as outcomes (freshman retention, graduation rate and graduate indebtedness), faculty resources (including class size, the percentage of faculty with the top academic degree, student-faculty ratio and compensation), expert opinion, student excellence, social mobility, financial resources and alumni giving.
