DSU #1 - 5 Years Running
August 17, 2010
Dakota State University is the highest ranked public regional college in the Midwest according to U.S. News & World Report magazine's annual analysis of "America's Best Colleges 2011." This is the 5th consecutive year that Dakota State has achieved the top position. Dakota State is ranked first in the Top Public Regional Colleges in the Midwest region category.
In response to the ranking, Dakota State President Dr. Doug Knowlton stated, "This amazing accomplishment will give us another opportunity to tell the DSU story. It is a credit to our faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the university. While in the past we may have been a little quiet about this recognition - this year we are going to shout it from the rooftops and make sure everyone in our region knows what is going on here at this remarkable university. We will use some of the most mind-blowing technology to tell the story!"
The numbers of schools rated for the categories and the regional designations remain the same as in 2010, but U.S. News did make changes in how they named the 2011 categories. Schools are designated National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges (last year it was Liberal Arts Colleges), Regional Universities (Last year it was Universities-Masters) and Regional Colleges (last year it was Baccalaureate Colleges). Dakota State was the top ranked public university in the baccalaureate category for 2010.
Rankings are based on several measures of academic excellence including graduation and retention rate, ACT percentiles, class size, student to faculty ratios, alumni giving and a reputational score (ratings by presidents and vice presidents of peer institutions). Scores for each measure are weighted to arrive at the final rankings.
