Colleges and Universities

With more than a dozen four-year universities and colleges, Greater St. Louis is a top-choice for students pursuing degrees in a variety of fields. Almost 89,000 students are currently enrolled in area four-year institutions, which each year produce more than 23,000 new graduates with bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, or professional degrees and attract to the area an enormously gifted workforce.

U.S. News & World Report named Washington University in St. Louis the fourth-best research medical school in the country and the 12th best university overall in 2007. The medical school ranked among the top ten in specialty fields of internal medicine (7), pediatrics (9), and drug/alcohol abuse (10), according to "America’s Best Graduate Schools” from U.S. News & World Report in 2008.

The biological sciences graduate program ranked 7th overall with top ten rankings in microbiology (3), genetics/genomics/bioinformatics (4) , immunology/infectious disease (5),  cell biology (9), and neuroscience/neurobiology (9) according to the same report.

The National Science Foundation ranked Washington University in St. Louis sixth among private universities receiving federal research and development support, and the school routinely ranks in the top five in funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The oldest institution of higher education west of the Mississippi, Saint Louis University (SLU) ranked among the top 100 U.S. universities and top five Catholic universities, according to U.S. News & World Report in 2006. The magazine also ranked SLU law school’s health law program No. 1 in the nation for 2008.

The University of Missouri — St. Louis’ international business program was named the 8th best international business program by U.S. News and World Report in 2007.

Maryville University was named the 22nd best university in the Midwest division of U.S.News & World Report’s “Best Universities-Master’s” category in 2006, while Webster University was named 25th on the same list.

For more greater St. Louis higher education rankings, please visit the Ratings and Rankings section of our website.

Source: National Center For Education Statistics, 2006.
Note: Religious seminaries are not included in the school listing.