Online and On-Campus Colleges in INDIANA

The history of Indiana University Bloomington stretches back nearly two centuries. In 1824, it admitted a total of ten students for the year. Today, it serves as the flagship campus of Indiana University and hosts the largest student body in the state, reporting undergraduate enrollment of more than 33,000 and a full student headcount close to 44,000.

IU maybe one of the best schools in Indiana for students hoping to keep their college debt in check. A cost management initiative here has been successful, according to the statistics -- just 51 percent of students graduate from the Bloomington institution with any loan debt at all.

Academic quality is a bright spot at IU Bloomington, also. Numerous academic programs here rank among the best in their field, particularly the graduate degrees in nonprofit management, environmental policy, public affairs, social psychology and design.

Ball State University was founded in in 1918, after the buildings of a defunct teachers' college were purchased by industrialist Frank C. Ball and donated to the State of Indiana. The institution grew quickly, expanding to serve more than 21,000 students each year.

The Muncie institution also ranks it among the top online schools in Indiana, thanks to a variety of online degree programs that few other schools can match. More than 70 fully online degrees and certificates can be earned at Ball State, including post-baccalaureate certificate programs in education, health care, criminal justice, business and more.

Numerous programs at Ball State are accredited by program-specific organizations. The architecture program is accredited by the National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB), for example, and teaching degrees are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Purdue University is another large institution among the top colleges and universities in Indiana. A total of more than 41,000 students were enrolled here in 2017, with 75 percent of them (roughly 31,000) working toward a degree in one of Purdue's nearly 200 undergraduate majors.

Even with its high student population, Purdue still manages to keep the classrooms from feeling crowded. The undergraduate student-faculty ratio is around 12:1 -- an improvement over the 14:1 ratio recorded just ten years ago despite total enrollment rising 5 percent in the same period.

Perhaps as a result of that close-knit learning environment, Purdue posts some impressive graduation and retention rates. More than 91 percent of first-year students return for their sophomore year, and the 2017 graduation rate represents a nearly 20 percent increase over the figure tallied a decade ago.

This small school in the town of Winona Lake is an evangelical Christian institution that works to create an academic environment based in Christian ideals that instills biblical values in its students. The undergraduate student body at Grace College and Theological Seminary numbers under 1,300 and the student-faculty ratio is 23:1.

Students seeking advanced religious degrees have quite a few to choose from at Grace. The theological seminary portion of the institution offers three Master of Arts (M.A.) degrees, six Master of Divinity (M.Div.) programs and two doctoral degrees, in intercultural studies and pastoral studies.

The core curriculum here features just six credits of standard general education courses in subjects like math, science, humanities and modern languages. The bulk of the Grace core consists of Bible study, public speaking and approaches to science and critical thinking from a Christian perspective.

Founded in 1859, Valparaiso University is an independent Lutheran college in the northeastern part of the state, located approximately an hour's drive from Chicago, Illinois. The student body is relatively small, featuring fewer than 3,300 undergraduate students in 2017, but the ratio of just 13 students per faculty member can provide great academic opportunity.

Students hoping for some help with their tuition bill can often find what they need at Valparaiso. Nearly 95 percent of those enrolled in 2017-18 received some form of financial aid, whether they were undergraduates, graduates, or law students.

Valparaiso maintains five undergraduate colleges -- arts and sciences, business, engineering, nursing and health professions and an honors college -- and a graduate school that offers more than 40 master's degree programs. Two Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) degrees are also available.

Created as a result of a 1969 agreement between Indiana's two largest universities, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis has become a formidable urban research institution in its own right. The Indianapolis school serves nearly 30,000 students and earned more than $400 million in external research funding in 2015-16.

IUPUI was also one of the top online colleges in Indiana, offering close to 120 degree and certificate plans and hundreds of individual online courses to add extra flexibility to students' degree plans. A few unique certificate programs are available, such as analog audio electronics, cultural heritage tourism and technical communication.

The Indianapolis school also works to help students get involved in the local community. The university offers more than 1,200 community-based courses designed to provide degree-relevant work experience while bringing benefits to people and organizations in the region.

Bethel College began its life in 1947 as an evangelical Christian institution affiliated with the Missionary Church. It's grown to a modest-sized private college of around 1,600 students in the seven decades since its founding, and its roots in faith continue to inform its mission and educational approach.

Points of pride for Bethel include its sign language interpreting program, which produced a 100-percent pass rate on the national interpreter exam, and a pre-med program that has produced a medical school acceptance rate twice as high as the national average over the last two decades.

Bethel offers more than 50 areas of study for undergraduates, in secular fields like marketing and chemistry as well as church music, youth ministry and other religious disciplines. A small set of programs for busy adult learners is available online and in the evenings.

This Christian school in the town of Upland is one of the oldest evangelical colleges in the United States. Founded in 1846 by the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and originally known as Fort Wayne Female College, Taylor University works to shepherd its students' spiritual lives as well as enrich them academically.

Total enrollment at Taylor checks in at just under 1,900 students, making it one of the smaller Indiana colleges we surveyed. Its educational efforts focus on undergraduate programs -- just 41 graduate students were counted at Taylor in 2017 -- and, as such, 99 percent of students here are under age 25.

A student-faculty ratio of 13:1 indicates that time for students and professors to work closely together won't be hard to find. Taylor's top majors by enrollment include business, art and kinesiology.

Butler University has been marching to the beat of its own drummer since its founding in 1855. Attorney and abolitionist Ovid Butler founded the institution on the principle that everyone, regardless of race or gender, deserves a good education -- a highly unusual line of thinking in antebellum America.

Located in the historic Butler-Tarkington neighborhood about five miles from downtown Indianapolis, Butler features six academic colleges and offers degree programs in nearly 70 fields of study. Aspiring graduate students have around 20 master's degree programs to choose from.

Student success numbers are high at this liberal arts school, likely thanks in part to a student-faculty ratio 25 percent better than the national average. Around 97 percent of Butler students either find work or enroll in grad school within six months of graduation.

Goshen College is a private liberal arts institution with one of the smallest student bodies among all Indiana universities. Just 800 undergraduates were enrolled here in 2017, as well as around 70 graduate students, making for one of the more intimate campus environments anywhere in the state.

A ratio of just 10 students per faculty member can be found here, which is nearly 40 percent better than the nationwide average ratio of 16:1. Students may choose from a degree catalog that contains around 40 majors and 50 minors and primarily consists of Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degrees.

Goshen has an official affiliation with the Mennonite Church, but it does not discriminate against applicants from other spiritual traditions. The majority of students here -- nearly two-thirds -- identify as Protestant, with around 13 percent Roman Catholic and five percent from other faiths.