WASHINGTON – Winona State has entered the Top 40 list of Midwest regional colleges published annually by U.S. News and World Report. The new rankling placed Butler in Indianapolis first. Winona State was in a six-way tie for 39th. For many years U.S. News has ranked Winona State among the best values of state and regional colleges, but the university has never before cracked the broader best overall category. The magazine U.S. News has ranked colleges for 39 years. Its criteria include data about majors, campus life and costs. The magazine acknowledges that it keeps fine-tuning its methodology in what is, after all, an attempt to quantify questions of quality. In the end, the magazine says, choosing a college is an individual matter that’s largely intuitive. Even so, colleges that make the USN&WR cut use the ranking as a marketing tool that bypasses the usual academic expectation of detailing the research methodology. There are no footnotes in the marketing. Notably, the magazine’s criteria exclude world-class schools whose emphasis is graduate-level research but but that also offer significant undergraduate programs, like the University of Minnesota, Northwestern, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois.

Regional ranking

> Illinois: Emhurst (13), Dominican (15), North Central (17), Illinois-Springfield (20, tie), Lewis (22, tie), North Park (39, tie), Western Illinois (39, tie).

> Indiana: Butler (1), Evansville (5, tie), Wesleyan (13, tie), Huntington (22, tie), Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (33, tie), Anderson (39, tie).

> Iowa: Dordt (9, tie), Northern Iowa (17), Northwestern (26, tie).

> Michigan: Calvin (4), Kettering (6, tie), Michigan-Dearborn (30, tie), Lawrence Tech (33).Michigan-Dearborn (30, tie),

> Minnesota: Hamline (12), Augsburg (17),  Minnesota-Duluth (33, tie), Northwestern (39, tie), Winona State (39, tie).

> Missouri: Truman State (3), Drury (20, tie), Webster (22, tie), Missouri (26, tie).

> Nebraska: Wesleyan (22, tie), Nebraska-Kearney (37).

> Ohio: Carroll (2), Wallace (8), Otterbain (9, tue), Cedarville (14), Franciscan (26, tie), Mount Union (30, tie), Capital (39, tie).

> South Dakota: Augustana (9), South Dakota Mines (26, tie).

> Wisconsin: Milwaukee Engineering (6), Carroll (30, tie), Carthage (33, tie), Wisconsin-Eau Claire (37), Wisconsin-Whitewater (40).

Verbatim

USN&WR blurb: “Winona State is a public institution that was founded in 1858. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 5,763 (fall 2021), its setting is city, and the campus size is 125 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Winona State University’s ranking in the 2022-2023 edition of Best Colleges is Regional Universities Midwest, Number 39. Its tuition and fees are $10,184 in-state.” The magazine also noted the average salary of Winona State alumni at $48,900