Winona State University has been named among the "Best in the Midwest" by The Princeton Review, a well-known national college ranking program, for the fourth consecutive year.

Winona State is one of 161 Midwestern schools receiving the designation. Of the 16 Minnesota schools on the list, only four are public institutions. Winona State is the only university in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to receive the designation.

The Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges: Region by Region rankings are based on student opinion data from 654 schools. The Princeton Review is a New York City-based company known for its test-prep courses, education services and books.

For more information or to view Winona State’s Princeton Review profile, visit: www.princetonreview.com.

Winona State was also recently ranked as a top tier institution in the category of “Midwestern colleges and universities with master's degree programs” in the 2008 listing of America's Best Colleges published by U.S.News and World Report. WSU was ranked 52nd among the top tier institutions, up from number 62 last year and number 64 in 2005.

Winona State University is located in Winona, Minn., along the banks of the Mississippi River. Winona State was founded in 1858 as the first college in the present system of state universities and the first teacher preparatory school west of the Mississippi River. Today, there are more than 8,000 students enrolled at Winona State, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in more than 80 undergraduate academic areas and 16 graduate level programs.