The 25 Most Desirable Rural Schools

Ranking No. 1 on Newsweek’s list of most desirable rural schools and the eighth most desirable school in the country, it’s no wonder that only about 15 percent of the applicants are invited to matriculate at this sought-after Hanover, New Hampshire, gem. The student population, totaling almost 6,000 students, more than 4,000 of which are undergraduates, is offered a low student-to-faculty ratio of 8:1, contributing to Dartmouth College’s No. 1 ranking on U.S. News & World Report’s list of schools with a “Strong Commitment to Teaching.”

With a student body that is 55 percent white, 14 percent Asian, 8 percent black and 7 percent Hispanic and an ongoing commitment to Native American education (in the past 40 years, more than 700 Native Americans have attended Dartmouth) this Ivy is the 24th most diverse school on Newsweek’s list.   

Influential alums earn Dartmouth 11th place for power brokers. Its nearly 25 percent participation in varsity sports positions the Big Green at No. 13 for athletics. With 3 Rhodes scholars in just the last decade or so, a sizable number of students going on to get Ph.D.s, an average incoming student scores of 34 on the ACT and 1550 on the SAT it’s not a surprise that Dartmouth ranks 13th on Newsweek’s brainiacs list.

Taking advantage of these accolades isn’t cheap, however. According to U.S. Department of Education estimates, tuition and fees were almost $39,000 for the 2009–2010 academic year, nearly five percent more than the previous year.