Forbes ranks Knox College 46th in the nation

GALESBURG -- A new college ranking, "America's Best Colleges," compiled by Forbes magazine, places Knox College in the top 50 among more than 500 public and private colleges and universities in the United States.

The Forbes report, released on August 15, offers an "alternative" to U.S. News and World Report. "For too many years," according to Forbes, "information about the quality of American higher education has been monopolized by one publication."

Forbes lists Knox at 46th in the nation, based on academic quality and achievements by students, faculty and alumni. In all, Forbes evaluated 569 public and private colleges and universities?the top 15% of schools in the country.

"This is a new way to compare colleges," said Paul Steenis, Knox's Dean of Admission. "Forbes focuses on academic quality and on student, faculty and alumni accomplishments. A lot of times rankings focus on the inputs ? on the class ranks, test scores, and acceptance rates of students seeking admission. Forbes emphasizes the quality of the experiences students have in the classroom, and resulting success achieved in life after college."

Knox's national ranking of 46th is the highest among the 13 members of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and Knox is the only ACM college in the top 50. It also places Knox in the top 3, along with Northwestern and University of Chicago, among 23 colleges and universities in Illinois.

"What's really valuable here is that the Forbes survey compares all of the nation's best colleges and universities, public and private, big and small, without segmenting them into separate groups," Steenis adds. "Students often look at very different kinds of colleges before they decide where to go. A ranking like this helps them weigh those choices together."

The "America's Best Colleges" is an expansion of an earlier Forbes report that also gave Knox high marks. In June, Forbes ranked Knox 16th among national liberal arts colleges.

Forbes wrote that its "methodology attempts to put itself in a student's shoes. How good will my professors be? Will the school help me achieve notable career success??

Forbes looked at the proportion of students and faculty who have won nationally competitive awards, the proportion of alumni listed in "Who's Who in America," student evaluations of courses and instructors on the website RateMyProfessors.com, the average graduate's school loan, and the percentage of students graduating in four years.

The Forbes website also features comments from Knox College President Roger Taylor, and from a student, Julia Ricciardi. A junior from Seattle, Washington, Ricciardi said that Knox "fosters a learning environment where collaboration, personal growth and intellectual pursuits are all top priorities."

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 48 states and 42 nations. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.