All kinds of students find a place at IUP. Maybe you have big dreams. Maybe you are afraid to dream. Maybe you don’t even know what opportunities are out there.
That’s okay with us. It’s our job to help you find your path, define your goals, and get you there.
And, with a little bit of encouragement and support, we know you can do it.
2019–20 Fulbright US Scholar
recipient Dr. Josiah Townsend working with students
2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Reed Ward '96
And it’s not just our students who achieve big dreams.
IUP professors have won more than 60 Fulbright scholarships since the program’s inception in 1946, the most of any university in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. IUP’s 2019 recipient, Dr. Josiah Townsend, connected four IUP students
with his Fulbright to Honduras by inviting them to be presenters at an international biodiversity conference there.
IUP has graduated six Pulitzer Prize winners. Communications media alumna Melissa Tkach ’99 and journalism and public relations alumni Paula Reed Ward ’96, Susan Snyder
’85, Alysia Burton Steele ’97; Doug List ’78; and Madelyn Ross ’71 continue to be involved with IUP and its students.
IUP’s Chief Information Officer Bill Balint ’88 is the 2016 recipient of the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Chief Technology Officer award.
Dr. Charles McCreary, associate professor of French, was honored with the Nancy, France, Gold Medal of the City for his work in the IUP-Nancy student exchange program.
We Rise to the Top
We think IUP is amazing, and we love to brag on our university. But you don’t have to take our word for it. IUP has scores of accolades from independent national and international publications for academic excellence, value, and our outstanding faculty.
IUP is a fixture (more than two decades!) in Princeton Review’s Best Colleges guidebook, which selects universities based
on surveys and interviews with students. Students tell guidebook editors that IUP is a place of “truly stellar academic departments” and “Professors feel like family and express that they genuinely care about the students outside of just the classroom
situation.”
The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings puts IUP in the top 20 percent for student engagement, student recommendations, student interaction and breadth of opportunities for involvement.
IUP is one of only 41 Pennsylvania schools in Forbes Magazine’s “America’s Best Colleges,” which evaluates graduation rates, academic
success, student debt and post-graduate success.
Money magazine’s editors chose IUP for its “Best College for You” list, based on IUP’s quality of education (including graduation rates), affordability, and outcomes.
IUP was selected by Washington Monthly for its annual “Best Bang for the Buck” listing. We’re very proud to be in the company of colleges that deliver
strong academics and marketable degrees at affordable prices.
College Factual ranks IUP highly in 35 different categories, including in the top 15 percent of universities for affordability.
IUP is an inaugural recipient of the Pennsylvania National Guard Association’s Guard Friendly School designation. Universities are selected for this honor in recognition of dedication and support to members of the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Education is changing. We get that, and we’ve stepped up in the on-line courses and programs that we offer, and we’re getting noticed. IUP is one of only two Pennsylvania colleges and universities ranked in “Best Online Colleges and Universities,
2019-2020,” by EdSmart.org; we are ranked eighth in the state by “Best Value Schools” for the quality and value of our online programs and we’re in the top 10 of EduRef.net’s “10 Most Affordable Accredited Online Colleges” (the only Pennsylvania school in this listing!)
Our home community of Indiana also gets rave reviews, including selection in Great Value College’s “Great Affordable College Towns” listing.
Want more? Check out the President's Points of Pride.