Best colleges in Indiana: These schools made the U.S. News and World Report list

Indiana's colleges and universities are spread throughout U.S. News and World Report's latest "Best Colleges" list, released Tuesday. 

The annual rankings rely heavily on such factors as student outcomes, financial information and expert opinions to rate the nation's best undergraduate institutions in national and regional categories. The publication also highlights the nation's top liberal arts universities, best value schools and measures specific programs such as undergraduate business schools and engineering programs.

Notre Dame is the best in Indiana

The University of Notre Dame remains the highest ranking institution in the state, tying this year for 18th on the publication's list of "Best National Universities." That rank is down three from the 15th-place spot it shared last year. 

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The university also appeared 20th on the "Best Value" list and made lists for both "Best Business Program" (11th) and "Best Engineering Program" (40th, where the highest degree attainable is a doctorate).

For the seventh year in a row, the national list is topped by Princeton University. It's followed by Harvard, the University of Chicago, Yale and Columbia to round out the top five colleges and universities in the country. 

Rankings around the state

Purdue University-West Lafayette (56), Indiana University-Bloomington (90), Ball State University (187) and Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis (192) also made the national list. Indiana State University was included in the ranks of the final 70 schools in the 300-school list, which are not ordered but instead listed alphabetically. 

Top for engineering

Purdue was also recognized for its engineering program, ranking eighth in the nation among programs that award doctorate degrees.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology was also recognized nationally for its engineering program, tied for first place among programs whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's. This is the 19th year Rose-Hulman has been ranked at the top of that list. 

Top for business

IU's Kelley School of Business was ranked 11th among the nation's best business programs, tied with Notre Dame's Mendoza School.

Top for liberal arts

DePauw University was tied at 53rd among the "Best National Liberal Arts Colleges," with Wabash College (65), Earlham College (68), St. Mary's College (101), Hanover College (112) and Franklin College (147) also making the list.

Best in the Midwest

In addition to its national rankings, U.S. News also creates lists of the best schools that primarily serve particular regions of the country. 

Butler University ranked second on the list of the Midwest's "Best Universities," behind Creighton, a result unchanged from last year. Butler was also named the "Most Innovative" university in the Midwest.

Valparaiso University (4) and the University of Evansville (9) also made the top 10 in the Midwest's best universities, and were recognized as best values — first and third, respectively — among their peers. 

Taylor University was second on the list of "Best Colleges" in the Midwest, ahead of Goshen College (6) and Huntington University (16). Goshen (7) and Manchester University (10) were recognized as best values in Midwest colleges. 

How colleges are ranked

The distinction between "universities" and "colleges" in the U.S. News lists comes down to size of the institution and the types of degrees they award, and is based on more complex classifications used most often by researchers. These are sometimes different than the names schools give themselves, which is why some "universities" will appear on "best colleges" lists and vice versa. 

For U.S. News' purposes, national universities are institutions that provide a full range of undergraduate majors, as well as master's and doctoral degrees. Regional universities are those that offer few, if any, doctoral degrees. National colleges are those that emphasize undergraduate education and award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the liberal arts, while regional colleges offer fewer degrees in liberal arts disciplines. 

U.S. News divides institutions into these categories first, then ranks them against their peers in the same categories. 

The full list of "Best Colleges" and other rankings can be viewed on the U.S. News and World Report site. 

Call IndyStar reporter Arika Herron at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.