Taylor ranked best in Midwest again
Seth Slabaugh
seths@muncie.gannett.com
Undergraduate enrollment at Taylor is 1,913 from 41 states and 37 foreign countries
Sixty-three percent of classes at Taylor have fewer than 20 students,
UPLAND – U.S. News & World Report has ranked Taylor University as the best regional college in the Midwest for the eighth consecutive year.
"High recognitions are nothing new to us at Taylor, but at the same time we are incredibly grateful for this ongoing recognition," Jim Garringer, a spokesman for the Christian college, told The Star Press. "We don't take it for granted."
Taylor was rated as the best of 69 regional colleges in the Midwest. Regional colleges focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.
Sixty-three percent of classes at Taylor have fewer than 20 students, and only 5 percent of classes have 50 or more students. The student/faculty ratio is 13:1.
"You don't see it on billboards ... but it's not uncommon for faculty members to get phone calls in the evening from a student or a student group seeking assistance," Garringer said. "Many faculty live right here in Upland and come over to meet students at the library or classroom building. Faculty on many occasions host students in their homes for dinners, brunches, that sort of thing."
"We attended a brunch at the home of a faculty member on the morning that our own son, Peter — a graduate of (Muncie) Central High School — graduated from Taylor," Garringer said.
"U.S. News is probably the oldest and best recognized of all the surveys," he added.
Undergraduate enrollment at Taylor is 1,913 from 41 states and 37 foreign countries. A little over a third of the student body comes from Indiana.
Taylor ranked first among Midwestern regional colleges in peer assessment (including ratings by presidents of other colleges); graduation rate; and freshman retention rate. Taylor also received high marks for alumni giving, faculty-student ratio and freshmen from the top 25 percent of their high school class.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.