Keene State College garnered a No. 9 ranking for Regional Colleges North, up six positions from a year ago, from U.S. News and World Report. The American media company released its 2026 Best-Of list today.
U.S. News & World Report publishes news, consumer advice, and rankings, and has been conducting its Best Colleges analysis for more than four decades. It evaluates more than 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities as part of this research, and has become an important guide for millions of families and students in their college search.
Keene State, a public institution founded in 1909, also achieved higher-than-last-year rankings in three additional categories.
This year’s Keene State rankings include:
- Regional Colleges North: #9 (tie), up six spots
- Top Public Schools: #6 (tie), up five spots
- Best Value College: #6, up three spots
- Top Performers on Social Mobility: #47, up two spots
Regional colleges in the North are in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Maryland.
Keene State’s No. 9 Regional Colleges ranking is out of 68 colleges in the North Region, according to U.S. News and World Report. Colleges are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.
The best-value calculation, meanwhile, considers a college’s academic quality and net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student who received the average level of need-
based financial aid. Only colleges ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included because U.S. News and World Report considers the most significant values to be among colleges that are above average academically.
Social mobility is a measure of a college’s ability to improve all students’ socioeconomic status, earn a degree, and realize their full potential.
“Through good times and disruptive moments, I’m proud of the collective way in which Keene State keeps its work centered on the student experience,” Dr. Melinda Treadwell, Keene State’s president, said. “These rankings, and how we’ve risen in them, reaffirm that there is value, opportunity, and the promise of a better future for our amazing students. They also remind me of the passion and dedication our faculty and staff deliver every day.”
Keene State has an undergraduate enrollment of 2,744 (fall 2024) and utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. The college, set at the foot of the city of Keene’s downtown, offers more than 40 areas of undergraduate study in the liberal arts, social sciences, sciences, professional programs, and selected graduate degrees.
Ranking strengths cited for Keene State include:
- 35% of our students are first-generation
- The student-faculty ratio is 17:1
- 51.1% of the college’s classes have fewer than 20 students.
- 100% of students receive some form of financial aid.
- 24% of students work closely with faculty on research projects.
- 59% of students participate in field experiences or internships.
To learn more about the rankings and details about Keene State’s distinctions, click here
