September 09, 2019 | Matt Kucinski

A professor teaches a class.

U.S. News & World Report is the latest ranking guide to give Calvin University high marks. The digital news and information company ranks Calvin University #3 overall among Midwest regional universities in their 2020 Best Colleges Guidebook. (Note: In previous years, Calvin was ranked in the Midwest regional colleges category, where it held the top spot for three consecutive years.)

View full list of Michigan colleges/university rankings. 

Released online today, the report helps prospective students and their families evaluate colleges and universities based on 16 widely accepted indicators of excellence, such as first-year retention rates, graduation rates, and the strength of faculty. The report also takes into account qualitative assessments by administrators at peer institutions. 

In addition to the #3 overall ranking in its category, Calvin also garnered U.S. News' #5 ranking among Midwest regional universities on its “Best Undergraduate Teaching” list, #18 on its “Best Value Schools” list, and #3 for total percentage of international students.

When considering all colleges and universities included in all U.S. News & World Report categories, Calvin University ranked #31 for “First-Year Experiences” and #50 for “Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects.”

Calvin’s engineering program was also included on the “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs” list.

More high marks

The Fiske Guide to Colleges has again touted Calvin University as one the country’s best and most interesting colleges and universities in its 2020 guidebook. The guidebook's editors also shortlisted institutions with unusual strength in preprofessional areas. Calvin is selected as one of 39 “small colleges and universities strong in business” and one of 21 “small colleges and universities strong in engineering.”

Forbes includes Calvin University on its “America’s Top Colleges 2019” list. This list highlights undergraduate institutions that “deliver the top academics, best experiences, career success, and lowest debt.” Only 15-percent of the 4,300 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the United States are included on this list.

Calvin is again included in The Princeton Review’s annual college guide, “The Best 385 Colleges.” These rankings are based on surveys from 140,000 students at 385 top colleges that includes a wide representation by region, size, selectivity, and character.

The Washington Monthly ranks Calvin University 81st on its Top 250 Master’s University rankings list. Calvin is the top private institution in Michigan on this list.


About Calvin University
Founded in 1876, Calvin University is a top-ranked, liberal arts university that equips its more than 3,600 students from 45 U.S. states, 63 countries and seven Canadian provinces to think deeply, to act justly, and to live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. Calvin offers 100+ majors and programs, including graduate-level offerings in accounting, education, and speech pathology and audiology. Calvin students engage in intensive internships, community-based service learning, and significant research that results in publishing and presenting alongside world-class faculty.

And the university’s 400-acre campus, located in the vibrant city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, serves as a launching pad for students who, in any given year, participate in 40 faculty-led off-campus programs on six different continents. Discover more at www.calvin.edu


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