Is a research university right for me?–

Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. Research universities offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students. Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines. Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you? If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel. Consider whether you are self motivated enough to be a face in the crowd for some classes and largely unknown on campus at a large university. Of course you can find clubs and friends at a large university, but often liberal arts colleges have a more personal quality to them. If you want the community feel, a research university may not fit you well. Are you interested in STEM fields? Research universities have that name for a reason – real research is happening there. This can create an exciting atmosphere for students interested in STEM. Attending a research university can give you a better chance of getting into better programs for graduate degrees, although a lot of that depends on your performance.

Is an online college right for me?–

Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available. Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degrees you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no distinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online. Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whether you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college. Are you a self-driven student? Perhaps the hardest aspect of obtaining an online degree is whether you will be disciplined enough to manage your time and course demands. Many online students report that online college made them more disciplined in all areas of their lives, but the flexible, self-paced learning that makes online colleges attractive can often be the same qualities that make it difficult. If you tend to be a procrastinator, you need to be honest with yourself. You can change your habits and propensities, or you can throw money down the drain. Do you need the flexibility of an online degree program? Most online students study online because of time demands of balancing work and life, or because the online college affords them the chance to attend a better school without moving. If you are serious about earning your degree for career advancement, online colleges make it possible. The most flexible options among online degrees are those that are asynchronous, meaning you don’t have scheduled times to meet with your class online. However, many students seek synchronous online degree programs so that they have some structure – set meeting times, scheduled exams, etc. The good news is that attending an online college doesn’t mean you will miss out on getting to know your professors and classmates. In fact, many online students who have experienced both online and on-campus courses report having easier access to their professors. Since most communication with your professor is expected to be in text – via email or your class learning management system – it makes asking your questions easier. The same students also report that they got to better know the thoughts of their classmates. While in-person course conversations can be dominated by a few extroverts, online courses that require online discussions make it so that you see all of your classmates’ thoughts and questions. If you’re interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Wisconsin 2024

Q: Is a liberal arts college right for me?–

Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. Do you want your professors to know you? Liberal arts colleges strive to cultivate campus cultures that encourage tight bonds between professors and students. Professors at these schools will typically conduct original research. Yet the best of these schools offer their faculty reduced teaching loads so that they can both be productive researchers and still have plenty of time for students (both in and outside the classroom). Do you want to feel like you know everybody? One of the most enticing features of a liberal arts college is that in very little time, you can feel like you know who’s who, which can create strong friendships and make walks across campus more fun. While your sports teams may never be on ESPN, it’s more likely that you’ll know the athletes as your peers. Beyond student and faculty relationships, it’s not unusual for the school president and other administrators to learn who you are. When faced with problems with your student account or the need to switch classes, this can be comforting during a stressful moment.

Badge for BEST IN WISCONSIN LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES

By Dr. James Barham

Published: May 6, 2021
Updated: Oct 26, 2023

Liberal arts colleges are a great option for students seeking a well-rounded education in an intimate campus setting. The best liberal arts colleges in Wisconsin offer a diverse selection of degree programs with opportunities for a highly individualized educational experience.

10 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Wisconsin

Lawrence University
Beloit College
University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Milwaukee School of Engineering
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse
University of Wisconsin–Whitewater
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay
Carroll University
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh

Lawrence University
Beloit College
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Carthage College
Carroll University
Ripon College
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
St. Norbert College
University of Wisconsin–River Falls

Lakeland University 100%
University of Wisconsin–Superior 96%
Wisconsin Lutheran College 94%
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay 90%
Alverno College 90%
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh 89%
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point 89%
University of Wisconsin–Stout 86%
University of Wisconsin–Platteville 85%
St. Norbert College 84%

University of Wisconsin–Green Bay 23 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point 21 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh 20 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Platteville 20 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Whitewater 19 to 1
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse 19 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire 19 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Stout 18 to 1
University of Wisconsin–River Falls 18 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Parkside 17 to 1

Beloit College $56,312
Lawrence University $53,979
Ripon College $49,600
Milwaukee School of Engineering $46,506
St. Norbert College $43,204
Northland College $41,237
Carroll University $36,190
Carthage College $34,500
Wisconsin Lutheran College $33,762
Mount Mary University $33,390

Carthage College $33,450
Milwaukee School of Engineering $24,786
Mount Mary University $18,848
Carroll University $12,938
St. Norbert College $12,640
Lakeland University $12,535
Marian University $11,509
Wisconsin Lutheran College $10,080
Viterbo University $9,824
Alverno College $9,744

Wisconsin Lutheran College
Maranatha Baptist University
Mount Mary University
Lakeland University
Marian University
Northland College
Viterbo University
University of Wisconsin–Superior
University of Wisconsin–River Falls
University of Wisconsin–Stout

Maranatha Baptist University
Wisconsin Lutheran College
Northland College
Marian University
Lakeland University
Mount Mary University
University of Wisconsin–Superior
University of Wisconsin–Platteville
University of Wisconsin–Parkside
Viterbo University

Milwaukee School of Engineering 63%
Beloit College 66%
Northland College 68%
Mount Mary University 69%
Viterbo University 72%
Marian University 72%
Lawrence University 72%
Carroll University 72%
University of Wisconsin–Parkside 73%
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse 74%

Alverno College 8 to 1
Lawrence University 8 to 1
Mount Mary University 9 to 1
Northland College 10 to 1
Beloit College 10 to 1
Maranatha Baptist University 11 to 1
St. Norbert College 11 to 1
Viterbo University 12 to 1
Wisconsin Lutheran College 12 to 1
Marian University 12 to 1

University of Wisconsin–Parkside $6,298
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay $6,298
University of Wisconsin–Platteville $6,418
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh $6,422
University of Wisconsin–River Falls $6,428
University of Wisconsin–Whitewater $6,519
University of Wisconsin–Superior $6,535
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point $6,698
University of Wisconsin–Stout $7,014
University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire $7,361

Maranatha Baptist University $7,120
University of Wisconsin–Stout $7,444
University of Wisconsin–Superior $7,640
University of Wisconsin–River Falls $7,793
University of Wisconsin–Platteville $7,831
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay $7,996
University of Wisconsin–Parkside $8,028
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point $8,066
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh $8,108
University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire $8,188

Table of Contents

Colleges and Universities in Wisconsin

Between community colleges, technical schools, and universities, Wisconsin has 30 public schools. All the public schools in Wisconsin have affordable tuitions, ranging from $4,000 to $11,000. The University of Wisconsin - Madison has over 35,000 students in attendance, making it the largest in the state. The tuition runs about $11,000, and the school boasts an 85% graduation rate. Public affairs, veterinary medicine, and human ecology are just some of the fields students can study here.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

Of Wisconsin’s 29 private schools, 18 are religious. With just under 10,000 students, Marquette University is the largest, and tuition for this school is about $42,000. Located in Milwaukee, this Catholic, Jesuit university offers degrees in fields like business, engineering, physical therapy, and law. Also located in Milwaukee, the state’s smallest institution, the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology, is a private graduate school with just over 30 students, and is geared toward those earning their doctoral degree in clinical psychology. Wisconsin, like many states, also provides a loan forgiveness program to those who are working in the health care field.

When people think Wisconsin, they might immediately crave cheese. After all, the state is home to a museum dedicated to all things cheese, including the annual making of a 90-pound wheel of Swiss. But The Beaver State is also known for its more than 15,000 lakes, including Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Prospective students looking to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree will enjoy the food, landscape, and educational variety Wisconsin has to offer.

Learn more about Wisconsin’s higher education opportunities by checking out the state’s variety of colleges and universities.

What are Wisconsin’s Colleges & Universities?

Wisconsin’s Best Overall

How do we determine Wisconsin's best liberal arts colleges ?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified 26 liberal arts colleges in Wisconsin. To be ranked among the best liberal arts colleges in Wisconsin, schools must fully accredited institutions.

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Wisconsin 2023

Build your own college rankings

Wisconsin’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Your Area of Interest

Frequently Asked Questions About Research Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Online Colleges

In pursuing a bachelor’s degree, you will need to choose between three kinds of schools: research universities, liberal arts colleges, and online colleges.

Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. Research universities offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students.

Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines.

Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you? If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel.

Consider whether you are self motivated enough to be a face in the crowd for some classes and largely unknown on campus at a large university. Of course you can find clubs and friends at a large university, but often liberal arts colleges have a more personal quality to them. If you want the community feel, a research university may not fit you well.
Are you interested in STEM fields? Research universities have that name for a reason – real research is happening there. This can create an exciting atmosphere for students interested in STEM. Attending a research university can give you a better chance of getting into better programs for graduate degrees, although a lot of that depends on your performance.

Learn more about research universities by reading about the best research universities in the US.

Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree.

Do you want your professors to know you? Liberal arts colleges strive to cultivate campus cultures that encourage tight bonds between professors and students.

Professors at these schools will typically conduct original research. Yet the best of these schools offer their faculty reduced teaching loads so that they can both be productive researchers and still have plenty of time for students (both in and outside the classroom).

Do you want to feel like you know everybody? One of the most enticing features of a liberal arts college is that in very little time, you can feel like you know who’s who, which can create strong friendships and make walks across campus more fun. While your sports teams may never be on ESPN, it’s more likely that you’ll know the athletes as your peers.

Beyond student and faculty relationships, it’s not unusual for the school president and other administrators to learn who you are. When faced with problems with your student account or the need to switch classes, this can be comforting during a stressful moment.

Learn more about liberal arts colleges by reading about the best liberal arts colleges in the US.

Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available.

Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degrees you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no distinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online.

Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whether you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college.

Are you a self-driven student? Perhaps the hardest aspect of obtaining an online degree is whether you will be disciplined enough to manage your time and course demands.

Many online students report that online college made them more disciplined in all areas of their lives, but the flexible, self-paced learning that makes online colleges attractive can often be the same qualities that make it difficult. If you tend to be a procrastinator, you need to be honest with yourself. You can change your habits and propensities, or you can throw money down the drain.

Do you need the flexibility of an online degree program? Most online students study online because of time demands of balancing work and life, or because the online college affords them the chance to attend a better school without moving.

If you are serious about earning your degree for career advancement, online colleges make it possible. The most flexible options among online degrees are those that are asynchronous, meaning you don’t have scheduled times to meet with your class online. However, many students seek synchronous online degree programs so that they have some structure – set meeting times, scheduled exams, etc.

The good news is that attending an online college doesn’t mean you will miss out on getting to know your professors and classmates. In fact, many online students who have experienced both online and on-campus courses report having easier access to their professors.

Since most communication with your professor is expected to be in text – via email or your class learning management system – it makes asking your questions easier. The same students also report that they got to better know the thoughts of their classmates. While in-person course conversations can be dominated by a few extroverts, online courses that require online discussions make it so that you see all of your classmates’ thoughts and questions.

If you’re interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.

2021 Ranking Archive

Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utilized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.

Check out our directory of liberal arts colleges throughout the U.S. for a look at the top liberal arts schools in every state.

Do you have a question about this topic? Ask it here

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Wisconsin 2024

10 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Wisconsin

Colleges and Universities in Wisconsin

What are Wisconsin’s Colleges & Universities?

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Wisconsin 2023

Career Outlook for degree at Lawrence University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Beloit College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Milwaukee School of Engineering

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–La Crosse

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Whitewater

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Green Bay

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Carroll University

Most Influential Alumni

Carroll University’s Online Degrees

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at St. Norbert College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Carthage College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Platteville

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Parkside

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Alverno College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Ripon College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Stout

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–River Falls

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at University of Wisconsin–Superior

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Viterbo University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Northland College

Career Outlook for degree at Marian University

Career Outlook for degree at Lakeland University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Mount Mary University

Career Outlook for degree at Maranatha Baptist University

Career Outlook for degree at Wisconsin Lutheran College

Wisconsin’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Your Area of Interest