Augustana University has been named a top regional university for the second year-in-a-row by U.S. News & World Report — ranking #13 in Best Regional Universities in the Midwest. Augustana is listed in other Best Regional Universities Midwest categories: #7 in Best Value, #8 in Most Innovative and #15 in Best Undergraduate Teaching.
Director of Undergraduate Enrollment Madeleine Ellis said, "Our recent rankings affirm that Augustana University continues to achieve excellence in our classrooms, in our community and in our graduate outcomes. Students can feel confident knowing that an Augustana education is a best value investment for their undergraduate experience, with lifetime returns."
More than 1,400 colleges in the nation were evaluated according to their performance across several indicators of academic quality including outcomes, faculty resources, expert opinion, financial resources, student excellence and alumni giving. The data used in these rankings pertain to fall 2019 and earlier, meaning the COVID-19 pandemic did not impact the data.
U.S. News identifies a regional university as one that offers a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs. The publication defines a regional college as “one that focuses on undergraduate education but grants fewer than 50% of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.” Both categories rank institutions in four geographical groups: North, South, Midwest and West.
To place each school in its ranking, U.S. News strictly maps its categories to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education's Basic Classification system, which is the accepted standard in U.S. higher education. The U.S. Department of Education and many higher education associations use the Carnegie system to organize or label their data, among other uses.
“These rankings confirm that Augustana offers an innovative education that transforms students personally and professionally. Students discover a distinctive education of enduring worth that challenges the intellect and prepares them to serve in a rapidly changing, complex world,” said Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success and Engagement Billie Streufert.
Augustana was also recently ranked the Best College in South Dakota by Niche and listed as one of the Best Colleges in the Plains Region by College Raptor. This summer, career site Zippia ranked Augustana No. 1 nationally for Best Small Colleges for Getting a Job and the second-highest college for post-graduate employment in the nation.