U.S. News Ranks Marist Among Best in Undergraduate Instruction

Students walking on the campus green in front of the Rotunda. Credit: Ava Battinelli '26

Marist College was ranked second for Best Undergraduate Teaching in the North region by the U.S. News and World Report.

“In terms of what the U.S. News rankings mean to Marist, I’d say it means mostly an enhanced national reputation and a heightened national profile,” Marist Provost Catherine Kodat said. “Both are good things for Marist!”

Marist was ranked 16th in the same categories last year. According to U.S. News, these rankings focus on schools whose faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner.

Marist also placed in other rankings, including 10th in the U.S. News’ overall rankings for Best Regional Universities North and fourth in the Most Innovative category. 

The results were determined by “reputational surveys” sent out by college and university leaders who rank schools in their peer group in what they believe to be their areas of achievement. Kodat believes Marist did not need to do anything differently to improve its ratings in U.S. News; it simply took this long for other schools to notice Marist’s innovation and teaching possibilities. 

Marist has been ranked top five in the Most Innovative category for the last five years. This category recognizes schools that are making the most “innovative improvements in curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities,” according to US News. 

“So one interpretation I’d offer of our terrific showing in those categories is that we are getting increasingly well-known, to an increasingly wider circle of higher education professionals, for things we have always done well,” Kodat said. “Rather, they’ve finally begun paying attention to Marist.”

Kodat believes that the College’s new strategic plan will only help Marist get ranked even higher in years to come.