Best Minnesota Schools
By Iris Stone
In this ranking, we examine the top values in Minnesota colleges and universities. You may also want to check out our ranking of the best value online Minnesota colleges.
If you're willing to brave the cold weather and cozy up to the Canadian border, there's no reason not to consider Minnesota as a potential home-away-from-home for your college years. The University of Minnesota's public school system is both expansive and affordable, and each satellite campus offers something unique. Beyond that, small religious colleges and focused liberal arts universities fill in the cracks, and Minnesota residents enjoy superb educational choices in every direction they look.
Minnesota's relatively low cost of living – even in metropolitan areas like Minneapolis and St. Paul – help many of the state's top colleges maintain tuition rates that fall far below the national average. And while affordability is important, we also wanted to make sure we identified the best universities in Minnesota based on several other factors as well, such as student success, engagement, and selectivity. The result is the ranking below, where the boundaries between affordability and excellent academics nearly disappear.
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 88 to 168, 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 Minnesota.
Ranking the Top Values in Minnesota Colleges and Universities
Featured Online Programs
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Sources:
Pay Scale
College Navigator
This concludes our ranking of the best values in Minnesota colleges and universities.
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.
