Bethel College moved up a notch in the annual “Best Colleges” issue published by U.S. News & World Report.
In the list of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” Bethel lands at #23 (up from #24) among schools that award mostly bachelor’s degrees and are located in the 12-state region that covers Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Bethel appears at #22 (up from #37) for “Top Performers in Social Mobility.”
Schools noted for undergraduate teaching were picked by “top academics [who were asked] to name the schools they believe have faculty with an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching,” according to the U.S. News methodology.
“The rankings for ‘Best Undergraduate Teaching’ focus on schools whose faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner,” the methodology continued.
“Best Value Schools” are chosen based on a calculation that takes into account a school’s academic quality (as indicated by its 2022-23 U.S. News Best Colleges ranking) and the 2021-22 net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.
“Top Performers in Social Mobility” puts Bethel among those schools U.S. News considers “more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of [economically] disadvantaged students awarded with Pell Grants.”
In addition to academic reputation, faculty resources, financial resources and social mobility, the U.S. News rankings also take into account graduation and retention rates, student selectivity for the entering class (first-time freshmen’s high school class standing, for example), alumni giving and graduate indebtedness.
You can explore Bethel’s rankings in more detail by going to www.usnews.com/best-colleges/bethel-college-1905 or see the complete Midwest list at www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-colleges-midwest
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #14 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges,” and #24 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” both for 2022-23. Bethel is the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
