We recently published our list of the 50 best colleges in America.
Many of the top schools — such as MIT (No. 1), Stanford (No. 2), and Harvard (No. 3) — appear on the east or west coasts of the United States, but there are plenty of incredible schools in America's heartland : the Midwest.
To create this list, we asked readers to select the colleges that best prepare students for success after graduation from a list of the nation's 100 best schools.
We combined the survey results with each school's average SAT score and median starting salary. (You can read the full methodology here.)
We've filtered our list down to show the top schools in the Midwest. Keep scrolling to see which colleges made it.
15. Macalester College
Average SAT Score: 1990
Average starting salary: $41,200
St. Paul, Minnesota Macalaster College ranked seventh in the nation, according to US News, for commitment to teaching. And some of the courses taught at the college of St. Paul of Minnesota are quite unusual:cutting edge coursesthey include “inside the animal mind,” “constructions of a female killer,” and “the automobile and the American environment.”
14. Kenyon College
Average SAT Score: 1995
Average starting salary: $46,400
With more than 50 majors, minors and interdisciplinary concentrations, Kenyon makes it easy for students to customize their education and create a curriculum that works for them. Ohio's Gambier School offers lifelong career services for alumni and engages alumni in recruiting other Kenyon students for internships, externships, and other employment opportunities.
13. Grinnell College
Average SAT Score: 2093
Average starting salary: $43,100
Call Grinnell the gateway to a degree if you want: 10 years after graduation, 51% of Grinnellians they hold advanced degrees from institutions such as Harvard, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins and the London School of Economics. Other students at Iowa's Grinnell School find jobs with companies like Mayo Clinic, Nickelodeon and the Kauffman Foundation. The school is located in Grinnell, Iowa.
12. Oberlin College
Average SAT Score: 2040
Average starting salary: $40,200
Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio, is known for his music conservatorywhich channels talented musicians into careers as performers, composers and conductors with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Canton Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, for example.
Eighty-six percent of graduates go directly into the workforce, a service corps, or a fellowship or graduate school after their degree.
11. Ohio University
Average SAT Score: 1885
Average starting salary: $48,000
Ohio State University offers over 200 majors, and about 12,000 courses. OSU graduates are highly desirable job candidates, according to the Wall Street Journal, which ranked the school 12th in the nation for the most sought-after graduates. Ohio State, in Columbus, was also ranked the nation's 18th best overall public university by US News.
10. Carleton College
Average SAT Score: 2115
Average starting salary: $43,700
Carleton's primary focus is to give students a true liberal arts education by teaching them to be lifelong learners. In that pursuit, the school, located in Northfield, Minnesota, offers courses in 37 departments, including everything from linguistics to sociology to economics. US News also named Carleton the No. 8 best liberal arts college in the US.
9. University of Wisconsin at Madison
Average SAT Score: 1935
Average starting salary: $48,500
UW ensures that learning takes place in more than just the classroom. students learn through community service, research opportunities, and internships. The University of Wisconsin at Madison is the alma mater of many famous alumni, incl architect Frank Lloyd Wright, novelist Joyce Carol Oates, transatlantic pilot Charles Lindbergh and US Senator Tammy Baldwin.
7 (TIES). Purdue University
Average SAT Score: 1780
Average starting salary: $55,400
Indiana land grant university in west lafayette has an amazing record of students pursuing their dreams after graduation: 85% of students surveyed from the class of 2013 found themselves employed full-time or in graduate school. Employers of Purdue graduates range from large corporations such as Amazon, PepsiCo, and Disney to government entities and universities.
7 (TIES). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Average SAT Score: 2030
Average starting salary: $55,000
No. 45 on our overall list of the best colleges in America, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosts one of the largest public university library collections in the world, with more than 24 million volumes in more than 20 area studies libraries. Students can take advantage of more than 400 study abroad programs in more than 60 countries.
6. Case Western Reserve University
Average SAT Score: 2030
Average starting salary: $58,000
Cleveland, Ohio-based Case Western is known for its top engineering and science programs. almost 30% of students majoring in an engineering field and another 13% majoring in biology. Students are exposed to an endless number of research opportunities at a school consistently ranked in the top 20 private research institutions in the country.
5. Washington University in St. Louis
Average SAT Score: 2230
Average starting salary: $55,000
Ranked it seventh most selective university by US News and No. 27 on our top colleges list, WashU says more than 90% of its students rank in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. WashU makes it a priority to help students succeed not only as employees, but also as employers by giving them a meaningful background in business studies and executive training.
4. University of Notre Dame
Average SAT Score: 2140
Average starting salary: $55,200
Within six months of graduation, 86% of Notre Dame's class of 2013 were either working full-time or enrolled in graduate school. These graduates earned an average starting salary of $55,200 and landed at top companies such as NBC Universal, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte. The University of South Bend, Indiana is No. 24 on our main list.
3. University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
Average SAT Score: 2065
Average starting salary: $56,800
Second only to Harvard, Michigan students received more Fulbright scholarships than anywhere else in the country last year. Ranked 23rd on our overall list of best colleges, the university includes Google co-founder Larry Page, actor James Earl Jones and President Gerald Ford among its many. high profile alumni.
2. Northwestern University
Average SAT Score: 2215
Average starting salary: $54,200
Based in Chicago, Northwestern doesn't just focus on students' time during college, it helps them look to the future as well. The most popular majors among 2013 graduates were finance, journalism and psychology, and within six months of graduating 81% of the class either working or in graduate school full-time.
“Students from Vanderbilt and Northwestern have always impressed me with their high level of intelligence but low level of entitlement,” said one survey participant. “They're not flashy about how much they know, but they're very kind—at least in my experiences—and they've always been interesting people to be around.”
1. University of Chicago
Average SAT Score: 2255
Average starting salary: $48,800
The University of Chicago (No. 19 on our main list) offers 51 majors and 33 minors to undergraduates, including everything from comparative literature to statistics. For students looking to further their education, UChicago's business and law schools both earned the No. 4 spots for their respective categories from US News.
“The University of Chicago offers an exciting mix of world-class teaching by Nobel Prize winners in a radically changing social environment,” noted one researcher.
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