PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Saint Mary’s University made 13th on a new list of best Minnesota Colleges in the annual niche.com rankings. Carleton was Number 1 The only public university in the Top 10 was the University of Minnesota. Niche.com, in business since 2002, draws on publicly available data and student reviews for its rankings. The grades:
> A-plus: 1, Carleton (Northfield).
> A: 2, Macalester (St. Paul); 3, University of Minnesota; 4, Saint Olaf (Northfield).
> A-minus: 5, St. Thomas (St. Paul); 6, Gustavus Adolphus (St. Peter).
> B-plus: 7, Saint Catherine (St. Paul); 8, Concordia (Moorhead); 9, St. Scholastica (Duluth); 10, Lather (New Ulm). 11, UM-Crookston.
> B: 12, Bethany (Mankato); 13, Saint Mary’s (Winona); 14, Bethel (St. Paul); 15, Metro State (Minneapolis); 16, UM-Duluth; 17, MSU-Mankato; 18, Saint John’s (Collegeville); 19, Saint Benedict (St. Joseph); 20, UM-Morris; 21, Concordia (St. Paul; 22, UM-Rochester); 23, Minneapolis Art & Design; 24, Winona State; 25; Crown (St. Boniface); 26, Hamline St. Paul).
> B-minus: 27, Northwestern (St. Paul); 28, Dunwoody Tech (Minneapolis); 29, Bemidji State; 30, Augsburg (Minneapolis); 31, MSU-Moorhead; 32, Southwest Minnesota State (Marshall).
> C-Plus: 33, North Central (Minneapolis). 34, St. Cloud State.
niche.com profile
Two Carnegie Melon business students launched niche.com in 2002 to grade and rank colleges. It first was called College Prowle. rAs a startup Niche.com attracted several muti-million dollar investors. The company has expanded in recent years to rank K-12 schools and livable neighborhoods. Niche.com has 325 employees. The company was the victim of what was called the FacebookGate scandal jn 2008. College administrators created 125 online groups posing as students to tilt the rankings. Niche.com responded by removing administrators from any input.