Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict were recently ranked No. 10 and No. 13, out of 50 schools respectively, in the Best Colleges in the Midwest category by Money Magazine in its 2022 rankings of public and private colleges.

Colleges in the Midwest were located in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. The only Minnesota college ahead of CSB+SJU was St. Olaf ranked No. 7 and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities ranked No. 12 – between our schools. Of note, Gustavus Adolphus College ranked No. 17 and Carleton College ranked No. 23 of 50 Midwest schools.

While Money has been ranking and evaluating colleges for many years, they adopted a new methodology for the 2022 ranking. Colleges and universities had to have at least 500 undergraduates, have “sufficient, reliable data” to be analyzed, not be in financial distress and have a graduation rate to be considered for this ranking, according to Money.

The magazine also ranked the schools nationally. SJU was ranked No. 38 and CSB No. 50 out of 671 colleges and universities in the magazine’s national rankings of The Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value. The schools were Nos. 2 and 3 among Minnesota institutions in the national rankings.

Money magazine ranked 671 schools across the nation in three categories: quality of education, affordability and outcomes.

Specifically, the magazine based its quality measure on graduation rates. For the affordability measure, it weighed the net price of a degree, student and parent borrowing and loan repayment rates. For outcomes, the magazine considered median earnings, the share of alumni working and the share of alumni earning more than a high school grad.