UW-Platteville named one of top 50 best rural colleges in new rankings
UW-Platteville ranks among the top 50 rural colleges in the nation, according to Washington Monthly magazine's new Best Colleges for Rural America rankings.
The magazine said it worked off a list of more than 1,000 rurally located schools identified by the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges' Rural-Serving Postsecondary Institutions project. Washington Monthly winnowed that list down to 225 four-year nonprofit colleges and universities with acceptance rates over 75 percent. The magazine then ranked the top 100 using metrics such as the percentage of students on Pell grants; the annual net price students from median-income and below families pay; median student loan debt; and alumni earnings.
Colleges that grant large numbers of degrees in high-demand fields that are in short supply in rural areas, such as teaching, nursing, engineering, agriculture and natural resources management scored extra points.
UW-Platteville ranked 48th among the top 100.
"This recognition is deeply personal to me because serving rural communities is not just what UW-Platteville does, it is who we are," Chancellor Tammy Evetovich said. "Since 1866, we have opened doors of opportunity for students from small towns, farming communities and rural families, and I am honored to be part of an institution that remains so committed to that mission 160 years later."
The University of West Alabama ranked first, followed by Sul Ross State University and Georgia Southwestern State University. UW-Stevens Point ranked 47th and UW-Whitewater ranked 71st.
"From the top of these rankings on down, there's a final aspect shared among the Best Colleges for Rural America: These schools offer a solution to rural communities' chicken-and-egg, jobs-and-talent problem," Washington Monthly Features Editor Gillen Tener Martin wrote in an Aug. 30 story announcing the rankings. "They give talented youth a way to stay local and make a decent living, and they show incoming industry that local talent is on offer."
More than 1,000 students graduated from UW-Platteville this past May. A 2025 economic impact study conducted by UW-Whitewater Fiscal and Economic Research Center found that the average income of a UW-Platteville graduate from the classes of 1982 to 2015 is about $98,000, far eclipsing the $46,208 income of 25-to-54-year-olds with only a high school degree. An estimated 21,600 UW-Platteville alumni live and work in the tri-state region of Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, generating an additional $660 million in economic activity annually across multiple industries.
"For every dollar Wisconsin invests in UW-Platteville, the state receives $2.19 in return," Evetovich said. "But our impact is about more than economics. It is about helping first-generation students, farm families and future leaders build better lives. Every day, we see the transformative power of a degree from UW-Platteville strengthen individuals, communities and Wisconsin's workforce, and that is work worth celebrating."
Washington Monthly's website describes its mission as renewing American liberalism. West Virginia Democrat Charles Peters founded the magazine in 1969.