The Big Ten schools are famous for football, but they should also be famous for the number of honors colleges and programs at some of those schools that are among the best in the nation.

In our new book, A Review of Fifty Public University Honors Programs, no less than seven Big Ten programs are among the top 20. And even more impressive is that in the group of top large programs–those that enroll more than 1,800 honors students–the Big Ten has half the programs in the top ten, so to speak. This is important because it indicates not only the quality of the honors programs but also the institutional commitment required to sustain larger programs.

The book reviews the leading public universities in the nation, including those in the top 75 in the U.S. News rankings and/or those that belong to the prestigious Association of American Universities.

Michigan, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana are all in the top 20 in Overall Excellence among the 50 programs surveyed.

Michigan, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan State, and Indiana are on the top 10 list of large programs.

Other leading large programs are Arizona State, Georgia, Arizona, Delaware, Arkansas, and Texas A&M.