Goshen College ranked #2 nationally by Washington Monthly, cited as ‘the face of successful twenty-first-century higher education’

Goshen College has been ranked second nationally in the Bachelor’s College category of the 2019 Washington Monthly magazine’s annual college rankings, which takes into consideration civic engagement, research and social mobility.

The ranking places Goshen College as the top bachelor’s college in Indiana as well as the Midwest. A total of 216 colleges are included in the rankings, which includes “institutions that award almost exclusively bachelor’s degrees.”

“It is gratifying to see the good work of Goshen College reflected again in national rankings, and that is especially true when the rankings reflect our values: academic excellence, serving the public good, diversity and equitable outcomes for all of our students,” said Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus. “It is an honor to be recognized as one of the top colleges in the nation while also providing outstanding economic value to our students.”

Washington Monthly specifically highlighted Goshen College in its article about the rankings, stating:

“Goshen College, in Indiana, our second-ranked bachelor’s-granting institution, also has a Christian tradition. Forty percent of Goshen undergrads are first-generation students, making its 69 percent graduation rate impressively high. Like Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas), Goshen also sends a strong cohort of graduates into doctoral programs and manages their financial aid so they can repay their loans.

“People generally don’t think of institutions like Goshen and Trinity as of a kind; they’re 1,300 miles apart and don’t play football against each other on weekends. But the schools are, in many ways, the face of what successful twenty-first-century higher education needs to look like: academically rigorous, demographically diverse, rooted in scholarly and ethical value systems that promote learning and engagement with the world.

“The challenge is to make that definition of excellence the standard in academia and public life.”

Washington Monthly gave high marks to Goshen College in several areas, including ranking the college second for students who go on to earn a Ph.D., seventh for graduation rate, 11th for loan repayment rate, top 20 for social mobility, top 25 for first-generation performance, top 25 for loan repayment rate and top 50 for service. Goshen College was also listed as 18th out of nearly 400 colleges for “Best Bang for the Buck” among all Midwest colleges, again receiving high marks for graduation rate, graduate performance and repayment rank.

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education defines a bachelor’s colleges as institutions where “bachelor’s degrees accounted for at least 10 percent of all undergraduate degrees and they awarded fewer than 50 master’s degrees.”

With very different criteria than other well-known college rankings, Washington Monthly highlights colleges whose students, faculty and alumni provide “contributions to public good.”

See the full rankings at washingtonmonthly.com/2019college-guide/bachelors.