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Top 25 Best Midwest Colleges 2015

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The Forbes annual list of the top 25 colleges in the Midwest presents the highest ranked school for 2015: The University of Notre Dame, which comes in No. 13 overall on the America’s Top Colleges list. Coming in second after the Indiana school is Chicago’s Northwestern University, ranked No. 16 overall. Last year’s winner for best Midwestern school, Carleton College, in Northfield, MN, dropped three spots to No. 4.

The University of Chicago maintained a top five spot by moving up one ranking toNo. 3. The University of Michigan finished as No. 5 in the regional ranking this year, two spots up from 2014, exchanging spots with Kenyon College, now No. 7.

Although the cohort of schools in this year’s top 25 for the Midwest remains generally the same as last year, there have been some shifts in the leader board. Several schools among the top 15 solidified the same rankings this year: Ohio’s Oberlin College (No. 6); Minnesota’s Macalester College (No. 10); University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (No. 11); and University of Wisconsin, Madison (No. 12).

The top 15 Midwest schools also ranked among the top 100 colleges and universities overall, ranging from Indiana’s Notre Dame (No. 13) to Ohio’s Denison University (No. 96). The largest changes in ranking for the Midwest this year were Kalamazoo College in Michigan, which moved up five spots to No. 16, and Earlham College in Indiana, who dropped five spots to No. 20.

Grinnell College, Wheaton College, Lawrence University, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Purdue University, West Lafayette all ranked lower this year. DePauw University, St. Olaf College and Case Western Reserve University were among those who gained a few spots.

Click here for the complete rankings of America's Top Colleges for 2015.