Bemidji State University has received its highest ranking in the annual U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges since 2010, and is tied for 22nd amongst the region’s top public universities.
Now in its 36th year, the U.S. News & World Report evaluates schools on hundreds of data points using up to 17 measures of academic quality.
“BSU focuses on student success, persistence and completion as our top priorities, driven by our strategic, academic, athletic and diversity plans,” President Faith C. Hensrud said.
“Dedicated support from our exemplary faculty and staff, along with an increasingly engaged student body, is reflected in our growing rank as one of the region’s top universities.”
Now tied for 86th in the survey’s list of the Midwest region’s colleges and universities, Bemidji State climbed from last year’s deadlock for 92nd according to a Sept. 14 release.
BSU was also recognized as the 17th top performer among Midwestern universities on social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of underrepresented students awarded with Pell Grants.
This year, U.S. News introduced two new outcome measures that emphasize graduate indebtedness, which held a five percent weight of a school’s overall score.
Bemidji State ranked ninth on universities with the least amount of graduate debt. Schools that ranked the highest had the lowest average amount of debt accrued by their most recent graduates and a relatively small proportion of students graduating with debt compared with other schools in their ranking category.
