Northwestern College ranked sixth by U.S. News and World Report

Northwestern College is ranked sixth among 76 Midwestern regional colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Colleges guidebook. Northwestern is also one of 33 Best Value Schools and 14 cited for Best Undergraduate Teaching, and it's included in the Top Performers on Social Mobility list. The rankings, which include more than 1,400 schools nationwide, are available at www.usnews.com/colleges.

 “We are always pleased when Northwestern’s standout education is affirmed by rankings and our peer institutions,” says Greg Christy, Northwestern College’s president. “Our latest U.S. News ranking joins strong rankings from organizations like Money magazine and College Consensus. These rankings—as well as top scores by our students on actuarial, CPA, MCAT and nursing exams—add external validation to the praises we consistently hear from alumni and students about the strength of the Northwestern experience. They affirm the excellence of our faculty as they prepare students to lead lives of significance.”

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.

Northwestern is in the top 10 in several individual categories, including peer assessment, first-year retention rate (78%), six-year graduation rate (68%) and alumni giving rate (18%).