Whether you're a born Midwesterner or are looking for a change in pace from coastal life, Indiana has a lot to offer potential college students. Universities like Purdue, Notre Dame, and IU Bloomington take center stage thanks to their prestigious reputations, and in fact many Indiana colleges enjoy top positions on national rankings. But this state is also full of smaller schools – both public and private – that offer exciting alternatives for students of all tastes. Religious colleges, engineering specialty schools, close-knit campuses – Indiana has it all.
Of course, when it comes to "having it all," it's important to consider the one factor that can trump all else: cost. Even the best schools in the world can't offer much if their tuition makes them inaccessible to the average student. That was the motivation for this ranking: to combine traditional measures of college quality (like selectivity and graduation rate, for example) with an honest assessment of affordability.
For flexible online programs, see our ranking of best value online colleges in Indiana.
Our Ranking Methodology:
Graduation Rate: This indicator refers to the percentage of students who complete their degree within 150% of normal time (six years for a typical four-year degree program). Schools that perform well in this area have a track record of keeping students engaged and successful for their entire time on campus. We weighted this category 30% of the total and retrieved the information from College Navigator.
Net Price: In order to make sure that cost was still a factor in the ranking, we also considered overall net price as an indicator. Taken from data on College Navigator, "net price" is an approximate value that refers to the average amount of money a student could expect to pay each year after taking into account tuition, room and board, living expenses, scholarship awards, and financial aid packages. We weighted this category 25% of the total.
Acceptance Rate: Academically challenging, popular universities tend to be more selective and thus have a lower acceptance rate. In order to pinpoint those colleges that boast rigorous academics and also receive a large number of applications, we considered acceptance rate – the percentage of students out of the total number of applicants who receive an acceptance letter. We retrieved this information from College Navigator and weighted it 30% of the total.
20-Year Net Return on Investment: Taken from information on the website PayScale, this statistic provides a picture of how much students can expect to make after they graduate from a particular college. More specifically, the figure is calculated by taking the average income an alumnus will make over his or her first 20 years after graduation and subtracting the amount paid in tuition. Schools with a high ROI tend to be better at preparing their students for the job market. We weighted this category only 15% because data was not available for all colleges considered.
After adding all the points, we gave each university a final score out of 200. The schools below have scores ranging from 81 to 157, and each has something different to offer in terms of its cost, quality, and reputation. No one college is perfect (which is why the scores vary so much) but this ranking offers you a premier selection of universities to help get you started on your search for an education in Indiana.
Featured Online Programs
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Sources:
College Navigator
Pay Scale
About the Author:
Iris Stone began her writing career as a freelance writer and researcher. She now owns and operates a writing and editing firm that works with clients all across the country. Her work has included articles related to education policy, colleges and universities, academic programs, and careers.
