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Dakota State is #1 Again Says U.S.News & World Report’s Annual Survey

For the second consecutive year, Dakota State University in Madison is the best public baccalaureate college in the Midwest according to U.S.News & World Report magazine’s annual analysis of “America’s Best Colleges 2008.”

Dakota State is ranked first in the category of Top Public Baccalaureate Colleges in the Midwest region. 

In response to the ranking, Dakota State President Dr. Doug Knowlton stated, “For the second year in a row Dakota State University has been recognized for the excellence of the educational experience we provide to students. Who would have known that just over 20 years ago there was a real question about the future of this campus—and now with its implementation of our special mission we are recognized as the highest ranked public comprehensive college in the Midwest. All our alumni, our faculty, staff and our students deserve to feel very proud of this continuing recognition.”

U.S. News categorizes the nation’s schools by mission and in some cases, region.  They base the overall rankings on several measures of academic excellence including graduation and retention rate, ACT percentiles, class size, student to faculty ratios, and alumni giving. The colleges are also asked to do a peer assessment of the other schools in their category. Scores for each measure are weighted to arrive at the final rankings.  

The U.S.News & World Report rankings list the top four public baccalaureate colleges in each region. Rounding out the top four institutions in the Midwest are Northern State University, in second place, Valley City State University (ND) in third and University of Minnesota-Crookston in fourth.  

Dakota State offers undergraduate majors in education, arts and sciences, and business and information systems, graduate degrees in information systems, educational technology, and information assurance, and a Doctor of Science degree in information systems.