Academic Reputation

2024-25

Finalized 6-21-2024

Classified by the Carnegie Foundation as an Arts and Sciences institution, Augustana has had a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society since 1950. Ten percent of U.S. colleges and universities have Phi Beta Kappa chapters.

Admission is selective. Students accepted to Augustana typically rank in the top quarter of their high school classes and score well above national norms on the ACT and SAT. For the Class of 2027, the ACT mid-range score was 21-28.

Twenty-six percent of Augustana's graduates attend graduate school. Eighty-five percent of the 2023 graduates who applied to graduate or professional school were accepted into their first or second choice. Ninety-nine percent of 2023 graduates were employed, continuing their education, in a service position or pursuing other opportunities within six months of graduation.

More than 90 percent of the full-time faculty hold Ph.D.s or the terminal degrees in their fields. All classes are taught by faculty; Augustana does not have graduate teaching assistants. The 11.5-to-1 student-faculty ratio allows students to work closely with professors and advisors while pursuing their academic careers. The largest majors at Augustana are business administration-management, biology and education, followed by psychology, accounting, communication sciences and disorders, and computer science.

Augustana College was ranked No. 100 in U.S. News and World Report's 2024 ranking of best national liberal arts colleges.

U.S. News and World Report also ranked Augustana as:

• No. 36 in Best Undergraduate Teaching

• No. 67 in Best Value Schools

• No. 120 in Top Performers on Social Mobility

Augustana’s curriculum and faculty are consistently recognized through grants for innovative projects by major foundations, including the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, National Institutes of Health, John Deere Foundation, National Science Foundation, Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation, the Teagle Foundation and the Wallenberg Foundations of Sweden.

Augustana actively promotes, underwrites and administers research projects involving both professors and students. Research work has included major projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Chemical Society's Petroleum Research Fund, Argonne National Laboratories and the American Heart Association.

For more information and data about Augustana’s academic community and reputation, see the Office of Institutional Research.