Rankings

Wabash featured on U.S. News’ Best Liberal Arts Colleges List

College also cited for overall excellence, value, and social mobility

Wabash College Professor of Economics Joyce Burnette leads an in-class discussion. The liberal arts college in Crawfordsville, Indiana, was rated among the best nationally by U.S. News & World Report and singled out for outstanding undergraduate teaching programs.
Wabash College Professor of Economics Joyce Burnette leads an in-class discussion. The liberal arts college in Crawfordsville, Indiana, was rated among the best nationally by U.S. News & World Report and singled out for outstanding undergraduate teaching programs.
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Wabash College improved its rankings in multiple categories as it continues to be rated among the best national liberal arts colleges in the 2025 U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Colleges rankings, released Tuesday. Data was collected nearly 1,500 colleges and universities in the report.

“Wabash is always pleased to appear in national rankings, including in the top tier of national liberal arts colleges in this guide,” said Wabash College President Scott Feller. “We encourage prospective students and their families to visit our campus and see for themselves the passion we have for educating young men. It’s easy to sense that passion when people sit in on classes, meet our professors, attend sports practices, and talk with our students. Wabash is a student-centered institution and everything we do is focused on providing a world-class education for our young men.”

Wabash is tied for 55th among national liberal arts colleges, ranking the College in the top-third nationwide. That is an improvement of four spots over the 2024 rankings. Wabash was ranked 29th nationally by U.S. News as a Best Value School, a measure of both academic quality and cost, which was the second-highest value ranking for any school in the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

Wabash ranked 61st in Undergraduate Teaching Programs, which focuses on schools whose faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner. College presidents, provosts, and admissions deans who participated in the annual U.S. News peer assessment survey were asked to nominate up to 15 schools in their Best Colleges ranking category that have strength in undergraduate teaching.

Additionally, the College was ranked 63rd on the Top Performers on Social Mobility list, a 19-spot improvement over 2024. U.S. News said that Wabash is “more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of disadvantaged students awarded with Pell Grants.”

“Outstanding teaching and providing students of all backgrounds the opportunity to improve their economic standing and their lives are traditional pillars of the Wabash experience,” said Todd McDorman, Dean of the College and Professor of Rhetoric. “As the U.S. News rankings indicate, Wabash faculty are deeply committed to the education and success of their students. Likewise, Wabash is a place that provides students many pathways for securing their long-term future. The sort of recognition offered by U.S. News says to prospective students and their families that Wabash is a school that should definitely be on their list of potential college destinations.”

The U.S. News rankings are based on a weighted breakdown of the following criteria: peer assessments (20%), graduation rates (16%), graduation rate performance (10%), faculty salaries (8%), financial resources (8%), Pell graduation rates (5.5%), Pell graduation performance (5.5%), first-year retention rates (5%), borrower debt (5%), earning potential vs. a high school diploma (5%), standardized tests (5%), student-faculty ratio (4%), and full-time faculty (3%).

These rankings continue a strong rankings season for Wabash where the school was ranked in 40% of The Princeton Review’s 50 rankings lists for 2025, each identifying the top 25 colleges nationally (of the 390 profiled) in those specific categories. The College had 12 top-10 rankings, including No. 2 nationally for internship opportunities, No. 4 for its alumni network, and No. 5 for great financial aid, career services, and great professors.


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