Beloit College ranked among top 100 liberal arts colleges in U.S.

BELOIT — U.S. News & World Report placed Beloit College as the 95th best liberal arts college in the country in an annual ranking released this week.

The online publication, which compiles dozens of rankings over a wide swath of industries, lauded Beloit College for its innovation, undergraduate teaching programs, first-year experiences for freshman students and the overall value of its degrees compared to cost.

Beloit College’s economics program also scored particularly well. It ranked 240th out of the nearly 1,500 colleges and universities that U.S. News & World Report studies annually and was the top-ranked liberal arts economics program in Wisconsin.

Beloit College has worked hard to make sure its degrees have economic value. The college created four schools — health sciences, business, media and the arts, and environment and sustainability — to give students clear pathways to careers.

“We are a liberal arts institution, thinking pragmatically about what’s best for our students,” Beloit College President Eric Boynton said in a news release. “Our new schools will equip students for the jobs of the future, further integrating career readiness into our curriculum.”

The college also has focused on making sure the experience at Beloit College is affordable. According to U.S. News data, Beloit’s tuition and fees are $60,886 and its food and housing costs average $11,264, but the college’s average need-based aid package is $58,797 and its average annual cost after aid is $19,762.

Aiming to keep more Stateline Area students close to home, Beloit College now has the Beloit College Commitment program. That gives guaranteed pricing for eligible high school seniors from eight counties surrounding Beloit to ensure that their net tuition price for four years will be no more than that of either the University of Wisconsin or University of Illinois.

Undergraduate college enrollment nationally has generally been declining since 2011. That has made the competition over students increasingly competitive. This past summer, Beloit College spent $2 million upgrading Whitney Hall, the first of a series of planned upgrades to its dorms to make the college more attractive to students.