2026 College Rankings

Best Colleges in the Plains Region

About

America's heartland has a lot to offer – beautiful scenery, booming industry, vast farmlands, and fantastic colleges. In fact, some of the very best colleges in the US are in the plains, or mid-west, region. The best colleges in the plains region include schools from: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Use these rankings as a jumping-off point for you to create your own personalized rankings using our college match tool.

Methodology

Each of these rankings is based on an analysis of data about the school’s selectivity, financial health, graduation rates, student success, and more. We’ve outlined our full methodology here.

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School data is from 2022–2023 (top 500 results shown) for schools with at least 100 undergraduate students.

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