Marietta College was recognized among the best in three different regional categories, including No. 7 in Best Value School, which were published by the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings.
Marietta also ranked ninth in the Best Midwest Regional Colleges in the 2023 rankings that were released today. The College also ranks No. 49 for Top Performers on Social Mobility in the Midwest Region.
“The U.S. News & World Report rankings continue to reveal our clear intent to offer a first-class education for our students, while also celebrating our commitment to offering an education at a cost that is affordable,” said President Bill Ruud. “The rankings also reaffirm what we already know about Marietta College — that our faculty and staff provide an educational experience for our students that is of the highest quality, and we are preparing our students to succeed in their careers.”
To determine which colleges and universities offer the best value for students, U.S. News considers both academic quality and cost. The rankings assess a school’s academic quality, as indicated by its 2023 U.S. News Best Colleges ranking, and the 2021-2022 net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal. Only schools ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included because U.S. News considered the most significant values to be among colleges that are above average academically.
Overall, there were 76 colleges included in the Midwest rankings. When compared to other regional rankings, Marietta’s overall score would put it No. 4 in the North and No. 7 in both the South and the West.
If you combined all the regions together, which ranks 266 colleges and universities, Marietta would be tied for 24th overall.
The rankings help prospective students and their families obtain a glimpse of the relative quality of each college and university. That quality is based on 17 indicators of academic excellence, according to U.S. News & World Report’s ranking explanation. Those indicators include first-year student retention numbers, graduation rates and faculty resources, among other metrics. Each of those factors is weighted, and then the college is ranked against peer institutions based on the composite weighted score.
Three areas that Marietta excels in are Percent of Classes under 20 students (84 percent), Average Alumni Giving Rate (18 percent) and Student-to-Faculty ratio (8 to 1).
The top five institutions in the Midwest include Cottey College (Nevada, Missouri), Taylor University (Upland, Indiana), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, Illinois), College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout, Missouri), and Ohio Northern University (Ada, Ohio).