APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University’s academic excellence earned it a spot among the top quarter of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges for the ninth consective year in U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 “America’s Best Colleges” report released Friday (8/17).
Lawrence was ranked 56th among 248 national colleges and universities in U.S. News’ “Best Liberal Arts Colleges” category in the magazine’s annual guide. Lawrence was the top-ranked institution in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan in the national category. For the first time, the U.S. service academies were included in the rankings. Two of them, the U.S. Naval Academy (no. 20) at Annapolis, Md., and the U.S. Military Academy (no. 22) at West Point, N.Y., were included in the national liberal arts category.
Among the factors used in determining the rankings, Lawrence showed improvement from last year’s rankings in more than half of them, among them graduation rate, acceptance rate, percent of classes with less than 20 students and alumni giving rate.
“We obviously are pleased to have the overall strength of our academic program recognized among the top quartile of a very distinguished group of colleges,” said Steve Syverson, vice president of enrollment management at Lawrence. “At the same time, we continue to encourage students as they search for an appropriate college to focus on the best personal match for themselves. The statistical information collected by U.S. News can be of value, but students should determine which pieces of it are of most importance to them in identifying colleges that will best suit their needs.”
The top three ranked institutions in the national liberal arts college category remained unchanged from the previous year, with Williams College earning the no. 1 designation for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Amherst College and Swarthmore College.
In compiling its annual “America’s Best Colleges”guide, U.S. News & World Report evaluates nearly 1,400 of the nation’s public and private four-year schools, using data from 15 separate indicators of academic excellence such as peer assessment, selectivity, graduation rates, student retention, faculty resources and alumni satisfaction. Each factor is assigned a “weight” that reflects the magazine editor’s judgment as to how much that measure matters. Each school’s composite weighted score is then compared to peer institutions to determine final rankings.
Institutions are divided into several distinct categories. In addition to the best liberal arts college category that measures national institutions like Lawrence, other rankings are based on universities that grant master and doctorate degrees and colleges that are considered “regional” institutions.
