Wabash College rose significantly in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Colleges rankings, which were released Tuesday. The College continues to be rated among the best national liberal arts colleges in the nation and is the top-ranked liberal arts college in Indiana.
Wabash is tied for 50th among national liberal arts colleges, which is an improvement of five spots over the 2025 rankings.
“It is very rewarding to have USN&WR recognize the strong outcomes that students are achieving here,” said Wabash College President Scott E. Feller. “I am especially pleased that they identified Wabash as a leader in social mobility given our long history of providing an exceptional educational experience to first-generation and low-income students.”
Wabash is ranked 26th on the Top Performers on Social Mobility list, a 37-spot improvement over 2025. U.S. News said that Wabash is “more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of Pell Grant recipients.”
Wabash is ranked 35th nationally by U.S. News as a Best Value School, a measure of both academic quality and cost, which was the second-highest value ranking for any school in the Great Lakes Colleges Association.
Wabash also notched a 10-place improvement in being ranked 51st in Undergraduate Teaching Programs. The category focuses on schools whose faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner. College presidents, provosts, and admissions deans who participated in the annual U.S. News peer assessment survey were asked to nominate up to 15 schools in their Best Colleges ranking category that have strength in undergraduate teaching.
“What excites me about this year’s recognition from U.S. News is that our jump in the rankings corresponds with what I see happening on campus,” said Todd McDorman, Dean of the College and Professor of Rhetoric. “We are retaining and graduating students at an impressive rate and providing them with life-changing experiences. Our talented and innovative faculty are deeply committed to teaching and mentoring Wabash students. I’m proud of the accomplishments of our students, faculty, and staff, and I think prospective students and their families should take note of these recognitions.”
The U.S. News rankings are based on a weighted breakdown of the following criteria: peer assessments (20%), graduation rates (16%), graduation rate performance (10%), faculty salaries (8%), financial resources (8%), Pell graduation rates (5.5%), Pell graduation performance (5.5%), first-year retention rates (5%), borrower debt (5%), earning potential vs. a high school diploma (5%), standardized tests (5%), student-faculty ratio (4%), and full-time faculty (3%).
These listings continue a strong rankings season for Wabash where the school was ranked in more than one-third of The Princeton Review’s top-50 rankings in various categories. The College had 11 top-10 rankings, including No. 2 nationally for professor accessibility and internship opportunities, No. 3 for health services, No. 4 for career services, No. 5 for its alumni network, and No. 8 for best classroom experience.