Located 25 miles west of downtown Detroit, this small Catholic liberal arts university was founded by the Felician Sisters in 1937 with the motto “Wisdom From Above.”
The university is best known today for its robust nursing program, which is by far the most popular program on campus. Almost half of all bachelor’s degrees awarded during the 2023-2024 academic year were in nursing, and the university’s roughly 7,000 nursing alums are spread out across 43 states. Another standout area? Madonna’s sign language studies department, founded in 1975, was one of the first in the country, and the university now offers the only four-year degree in American Sign Language education in the state of Michigan.
Applicants are drawn to the school’s low student-to-faculty ratio — most classes have fewer than 20 people. Its tuition is lower than the typical private school, and almost all freshmen get scholarships to reduce their costs even further. Plus, Money estimates that its graduation rate is significantly higher than predicted, based on the student body demographics.
