U.S. News and World Report ranked Indiana University Bloomington 73rd out of 436 national universities and 34th out of 225 public schools this year in a new ranking released Sept. 24. The Kelley School of Business was ranked ninth in the country — tied with University of Southern California and Cornell University’s business schools — and first in the state for best business schools.
Seven programs from Kelley also received rankings in the top 10 in the country according to IU’s news release. Kelley’s marketing program was ranked third nationally, accounting was fourth, entrepreneurship fifth, management information systems eighth, finance 10th and production/operation management 10th.
IU Indianapolis was 196th in the ranking of national universities. This is the first year of IU Indianapolis, after it split from Purdue this summer.
The report places IUB at 161st for “best value schools," a calculation based on the academic quality of the university in relation to its ranking in the “2025 Best Colleges Rankings” and the costs for attendance of out-of-state students receiving average aid. For in-state students, tuition and fees are $12,142 per year and for out-of-state students, tuition and fees are $41,890 per year
The data calculated by U.S. News that goes into their final rankings are based on the year prior. The rankings this year were based on the 2023-24 academic year.
In U.S. News' ranking based on the 2022-23 academic year, IU placed 72nd out of 443 national universities. IU also went down in ranking from the 2023 report for best public schools, having been ranked 29th.
In the past 10 years, IU’s highest ranking for national universities by U.S. News’ annual report was 68th in 2022. IU usually ranks in the range of 71st to 90th.
U.S. News makes their rankings based on several factors, taking students’ priorities into account. Some of these top priorities, according to U.S. News, are the “academic reputation, cost of attendance and return on investment.”
U.S. News describes the top ranked schools in their report as ones that provided the best classroom resources for both the students and the faculty and that gave out bachelor’s degrees at the highest rates. IU’s bachelor's degree graduation rate is 71% according to the report. They also label the top-ranking universities as those that’s graduates left the university most well off, with “manageable debt and worthwhile starting salaries.”
On IU’s profile, U.S. News detailed important factors for prospective students, such as IU’s acceptance rate of 80%, in-state tuition and fees that total to $12,144, graduation rate of 71% for four-year students, 18:1 student to faculty ratio, range of 1170-1400 for SAT scores, 27-32 range for ACT scores and 3.8 average high school GPA of admitted students.
This summer, IU was ranked 135th out of 2,250 universities globally by U.S. News. In the state of Indiana, IU was ranked as the best global university.
