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Marietta College is ranked 13th among Best Midwest Regional Colleges in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report survey, released today. Marietta was also ranked No. 1 in the region in the Foreign Student Factor category.

Marietta is tied Benedictine College in Kansas and Loras College in Iowa. Each institution has an overall score of 79.

Overall, there were 79 colleges included in the Midwest rankings. When compared to other regional rankings, Marietta’s overall score would put it No. 4 in the South, No. 4 in the North and No. 8 in the West.

If you combined all of the regions together, which ranks 248 colleges and universities, Marietta would be tied for 23rd overall.

The rankings help prospective students and their families obtain a glimpse of the relative quality of each college and university. That quality is based on 15 indicators of academic excellence, according to U.S. News & World Report’s ranking explanation. Those indicators include first-year student retention numbers, graduation rates and quality of faculty, among other metrics. Each of those factors is weighted, and then the college is ranked against peer institutions based on the composite weighted score.

Three areas Marietta excels in are Percent of Classes under 20 students (83 percent), Average Alumni Giving Rate (16 percent) and Freshmen in top 25 percent of high school class (41 percent).

The top institutions in the Midwest include Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Taylor University (Upland, Indiana), College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout, Missouri), Augustana University (Sioux Fall, South Dakota), Ohio Northern University (Ada, Ohio) and Dordt College (Sioux Center, Iowa).

U.S. News recognizes the global culture and the importance of befriending and learning to collaborate with students from other countries. Marietta’s proportion of international students was 18 percent.

In the Best Value category, Marietta was 16th in the Midwest. Marietta was also ranked 168th in the Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs without a doctorate component.