Recently, the College Atlas Encyclopedia of Higher Education ranked Iowa State as the best public research institution in the Midwest, according to its main criteria of affordability, academic quality and accessibility.

U.S. News & World Report also ranks Iowa State as one of the top 50 public institutions in the country. U.S. News & World Report ranks Iowa State’s biological and agricultural engineering as sixth in the nation, analytical chemistry as 14th in the nation, veterinary medicine as 17th in the nation and statistics as 20th in the nation.

Spencer Hughes, president of the Government of the Student Body, said he thinks there are a number of things that contributed to these high rankings. 

“I think that the Board of Regents’ and Iowa Legislature’s support for a tuition freeze helped with the affordability category. Our membership in the [Association of American Universities] is also a strong factor in academic quality,” Hughes said. “And our status as a land-grant university — the best example of a true land-grant university in America — helped us to score highly on the accessibility category.”

Hughes oversees GSB as a whole, which helps to improve the university through “advocacy and empowerment.”

Jonathan Wickert, senior vice president and provost for Iowa State, explained what he thinks the rankings mean.

“The rankings mean that we’re all doing a lot of things well in implementing President [Steven] Leath’s vision to enhance both institutional excellence and the student experience at Iowa State,” Wickert said.

Wickert said these rankings show that Iowa State is recognized nationally for offering an affordable education.

“In fact, Iowa State’s resident tuition is the lowest among our peer group of 10 universities across the country,” Wickert said. “The rankings mean we’re striking the right balance between offering practical education in the [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields and teaching students to think critically through the humanities.”

Not only is Iowa State ranked as the best public research institution in the Midwest and as one of the best 50 public institutions in the country, but Ames, Iowa is also ranked as the second best college town in the nation, according to Business Insider.

According to Business Insider: “Ames has the highest student concentration of any of the college towns on this list. It also has the second-lowest unemployment rate, an incredibly low 3.2 percent.”

In response to Business Insider’s college town ranking of Ames, Hughes said it “just goes to show even further that Iowa State University is the best place for a student to go for an accessible, high-quality education at an affordable price.”

Even with Iowa State’s rankings on the rise, Wickert said the university as a whole still has to keep moving forward.

“We can always do more and be more innovative, and our success in that regard is more important than any ranking,” Wickert said.