Notre Dame tops best colleges list for Indiana
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The University of Notre Dame is still Indiana's best university.
Driving the news: U.S. News & World Report released its 2024-25 Best Colleges rankings this morning.
Why it matters: U.S. News is one of the most influential college rankings and has shaped the hierarchy of higher education since 1983.
Yes, but: The list (and others like it) has become polarizing.
- Education Secretary Miguel Cardona previously called the college rankings "a joke."
The big picture: Notre Dame is consistently the top-ranked school in the state and the only one to regularly place among the top 20 in the nation.
- It ranked 18th among national universities this year, up two spots from last year.
- It also ranked No. 20 on the list of the nation's best values in higher education.
Meanwhile, Purdue University moved down three spots to No. 46.
- Indiana University's Bloomington campus remained at No. 73.
The intrigue: The annual rankings also include a plethora of specific categories.
- U.S. News releases regional lists and ranks everything from the best public schools to the most innovative. It also rates individual programs, down to the best undergraduate engineering program at a school that doesn't offer a doctorate.
- Rose-Hulman has taken the top spot on that last list for the past 26 years.
Zoom in: Butler University was once again named the best Midwest university and most innovative in the Midwest.
- Taylor University ranked No. 3 among best Midwest colleges.
- Purdue also made the list of best public schools in the nation, ranking 18th, and was named ninth most innovative in the country.