by Dennis Dalman
Three local colleges/universities made Forbes’ magazine’s list of the 500 “Best in the Nation,” along with 10 others in Minnesota.
Making the list were St. John’s University (number 356), St. Cloud State University (427) and the College of St. Benedict (469).
The schools were chosen by using data from federal education databases, and colleges/universities are ranked based on categories, such as alumni salary, debt, retention rate and academic success.
The differences between colleges and universities is a “college” is usually smaller in size and primarily focuses on undergraduate education, while a “university” is typically larger and offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs, often with a greater emphasis on research opportunities.
Others Forbes honorees in the state are the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (75), Carleton College (222), Gustavus Adolphus College (232), St. Olaf College (269), Macalester College (293), the University of St. Thomas (304), Concordia College (373), the University of Minnesota, Duluth (377), St. Catherine’s University (391) and St. Mary’s University (498).
Forbes had these comments about the three chosen in central Minnesota:
SJU
“The all-men Saint John’s University is one half of a pair of liberal arts institutions located in central Minnesota. The partnership between St. John’s and the College of St. Benedict, located six miles away, offers a combination of the benefits of a large school and that of a small school. Students can choose from more than 30 majors and 40 minors. Students hail from more than 40 states and more than a dozen countries.”
SCSU
“Home of the Huskies, SCSU is another hockey-mad public college to make the list. It offers more than 200 academic programs and has an acceptance rate of 95 percent, although it has recently made a number of major cuts to its academic offerings.”
CSB
“The sister school of St. John’s, the all-women’s Catholic liberal-arts college offers multiple ‘merit and legacy’ scholarships, including some to first-generation students.”
Top 10
For the second consecutive year, Princeton University ranked tops on the Forbes list. Others in the top 10 are (in this order) Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of California (Berkeley), Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Rice University and Cornell University.
