After checking in at No. 1 among Midwest Colleges in the 2021-22 U.S. News and World Report, Taylor clocked in this year at No. 2, behind Cottey College in Missouri.
“While college rankings don’t come close to demonstrating the true value of educational institutions, we were very pleased that U.S. News has once again ranked Taylor highly, adding to a streak of more than 25 years in which Taylor has ranked in the top three Midwest colleges and universities,” President Michael Lindsay said. “We also were pleased by several other good results, including being named #17 among all undergraduate colleges and universities in a ranking that measures the contribution institutions make to the common good in three areas: social mobility, research and promoting public service.”
This specific ranking marks the 26th consecutive year that Taylor has been ranked within the top three colleges in the Midwest region. Half of those years, they’ve been ranked first.
Cottey College, which finished first, also finished first in the 2020-21 report. Other institutions that have frequented the top of this ranking include College of the Ozarks, Ohio Northern University and Illinois Wesleyan University, among others.
“The US News rankings really illustrate the incredible place that Taylor is,” Provost Jewerl Maxwell said. “Factors in the rankings include the quality of incoming first year students, retention, graduation rate, class size and alumni giving. We outperform our peers in these areas — a byproduct of the Lord blessing us with gifted students, a committed group of faculty and staff (retention) and alumni who value the institution and desire to give back.”
The criteria for the rankings are broken into different categories and focus on the following 10 factors: Graduation and Retention rates, Social Mobility, Graduation Rate Performance, Undergraduate Academic Reputation, Faculty Resources, Student Selectivity, Financial Resources per Student, Average Alumni Giving Rate and Graduate Indebtedness.
Including the rankings highlighted by Lindsay above, Taylor also ranked No. 2 in Best Undergraduate Teaching and No. 56 in Top Performers on Social Mobility.
