A student looking off camera in the oak grove while shadows from tree leaves cover their face

Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been recognized as second in the state for affordability, third in the state as a “best public college,” and in the top 20 in the state as a “Pennsylvania’s Best Overall” university by AcademicInfluence.com.

Academic Influence, which is led by an independent team of academics and data scientists, created the rankings by evaluating a university’s most influential professors, including publication; success of its graduates; and stewardship of university resources. Its rankings are objective and created to be “non-gameable,” to identify and recognize the best in higher education. Editors considered 315 colleges and universities for the 2022 rankings.

In March 2022, IUP lowered its tuition by almost 20 percent for most students—by $1,854 a year—for Pennsylvania undergraduate students who take 15 credits per semester, effective fall 2022. This follows three years of frozen tuition and six years of frozen housing costs. IUP students annually receive $16.4 million in IUP scholarships above state and federal aid, and 93 percent of fall 2021 first-year students receive renewable merit scholarships. More than $2 million in housing scholarships have been awarded for fall 2021 and spring 2022.

IUP balances affordability with its commitment to academic excellence and to being a student-centered university. IUP is one of only two public universities in Pennsylvania and one of only 94 public universities in the United States selected for the “High Research Activity” designation by the Carnegie Classification of Higher Institutions of Higher Education. Going forward, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education (ACE) will be collaborating on the next incarnation of the Carnegie Classifications, and for the first time, overall administration of the Universal and Elective Classifications have been brought together in a single organizational home at ACE.

IUP is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top doctoral universities by U.S. News & World Report. It has been included in the Princeton Review’s Best Colleges guidebook for two decades and has been included in Washington Monthly magazine’s national rankings of schools based on their contributions to society.

Individual programs and departments continue to gain accolades in national surveys, including in the top three Safety, Health, and Environmental Applied Sciences programs in the nation by Universities.com; and the BS in Hotel, Restaurant, Tourism, and Event Management program, recently ranked ninth in the nation by Study.com, among others.

IUP also has been selected for national rankings that recognize value in online programs.

IUP offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 60 graduate programs and certificates, including 14 doctoral programs. Students can complete more than 65 minors and scores of specialized tracks and certificate programs, including certificates in athletic coaching, gerontology, photography and digital imaging, popular music, and public history.