Based on surveys by students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania—which recognized the university for “highly personalized attention and support”—IUP has been selected for The Princeton Review’s “2025 Best Colleges” guidebook.
IUP has been included in the guidebook for more than two decades.
Fewer than 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges were chosen for the 2024 publication.
Surveys and interviews with students are the basis for selection for the annual guidebook. Schools in the guidebook are ranked in several categories, including academics, admissions selectivity, and financial aid.
The guidebook narrative about IUP recognizes IUP’s commitment to student success and individualized support:
“From the first day a student sets foot on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus, they receive highly personalized attention and support. Each student is immediately assigned a professional mentor, and students say one of the school’s greatest strengths are these ‘staff and faculty who aim to help the students academically, personally, or professionally.’ Affirms one student, ‘they want to ensure we all have a good and safe experience at IUP.’”
The guidebook also quotes students as describing the IUP community as “widely diverse, yet inclusive, [which] creates a wonderful environment to want to be a part of.”
The guidebook continues: “Students here are ‘supportive, collaborative, and unique’ and ‘provide a welcoming environment for [incoming] students’ of all kinds, including the ‘very welcoming’ LGBTQIA student body and international population. This is ‘a group of people that likes to try new things… and ‘everyone has their own style and views,’ and ‘seems to be respectful of each other.’”
Students interviewed for the publication recognize that IUP professors “care a lot about the success of their students and go out of their way to help them truly understand what is being taught.” Students also recognized the value of IUP’s more than 200 clubs and organizations and said that “‘most people are in the routine of going to classes, studying, and either balancing work, an extracurricular, or a varsity sport,’” and that the academic workload “‘is challenging but doable.’”
The guidebook’s entry about IUP closes with recognition of all that IUP offers to students: “All in all, the ‘opportunity that IUP provides students in terms of activities, networking, and future career guidance’ is at a high level, especially for ‘great on-campus job[s]’ and there are ‘a lot of resources around campus to help you with anything you could think of.’”
IUP offers 100 undergraduate majors and more than 60 graduate programs. In addition, students can complete more than 70 minors—including a unique teamwork minor—and scores of specialized tracks and certificate programs, including certificates in athletic coaching, preschool education, geospatial intelligence, photography and digital imaging, popular music, and public history.
IUP has a longstanding commitment to research on all levels and in all disciplines. In 2021, IUP was one of only two public universities in Pennsylvania and one of only 93 public universities in the United States selected for the “High Research Activity” designation by the American Council on Education.
IUP is routinely selected by national publications and websites for excellence, including College Magazine’s “top 10 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania; U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” list; Washington Monthly’s national ranking of universities based on contributions to society; in Forbes Magazine as one of “America’s Top Colleges”; as the number two most affordable college in Pennsylvania by Academic Influence; and in a number of rankings for excellence and affordability of online programs.