Forbes Magazine has named Northwestern University the best undergraduate institution in the Midwest, in rankings released Monday.
In August the magazine listed NU as the 18th best college in the nation, compared to another popular collegiate ranking from U.S. News & World Report, which placed NU 12th overall.
NU is followed by the University of Chicago in the number two spot and Carleton College at number three.
The Forbes list includes public and private institutions as well as larger universities and small liberal arts colleges. Their ranking system considers five different factors, weighted differently in compiling school’s scores: student satisfaction at 27.5 percent, postgraduate success at 30 percent, student debt at 17.5 percent, four-year graduation rate at 17.5 percent and nationally competitive awards at 7.5 percent.
University spokesman Al Cubbage said Forbes contacted him about the best of the Midwest superlative last week.
He said it is not one accolade alone that will clinch NU the top spot among Midwestern colleges.
“We don’t know if people are going to hear about Northwestern because of our women’s lacrosse team, or a Nobel Prize winning economist or a ranking in a magazine,” Cubbage said. “So I don’t think it is any one thing that is going to solidify our ranking but an accumulation of them, obviously the Forbes ranking just adds to that.”
