McNeese Ranked as One of Top Universities in the South

For the 12th consecutive year, the U.S. News and World Report has ranked McNeese State University as one of the top universities in the South in its 2022-2023 Best Colleges list.

The university also ranks among the Top Public Schools (#42) in the southern region as well—one of six Louisiana institutions to make the Top 48.

Now in its 38th year, the U.S. News rankings evaluate more than 1,450 colleges and universities on up to 17 measures of academic quality. The ranking system considers information collected from several sources and measures indicators of academic quality based on such areas as outcomes – which include graduation and retention rates, social mobility and affordability, faculty and financial resources, academic reputation, student excellence and alumni giving.

“McNeese is a student-centric university whose mission is to ‘change the lives’ of our students by giving them the means, knowledge, opportunities and confidence to go forward and make a life, make a living and make a difference in their communities,” said Dr. Daryl Burckel, McNeese president. “This national recognition reaffirms our role as a leader in providing access to labor-market focused academic programs and acknowledges the work of our faculty who are dedicated to teaching excellence and student success.”

McNeese’s online master’s degree in criminal justice ranked among the Top 81 Best Online Master’s in Criminal Justice programs.

Once again, McNeese’s undergraduate engineering program was ranked (#130) among the best engineering programs in the country. Most recently, the 2021-2022 College Report by PayScale Inc. ranked the McNeese engineering program as one of the Top 45 public and private institutions in the nation for salary potential for engineering majors.

McNeese also ranked in the Top Performers on Social Mobility (#113) in graduating students with federal Pell Grants.

U.S. News publishes the Best Colleges rankings each year to provide prospective students and their families with helpful data and information to help narrow their college search.