Bowdoin College remains a top liberal arts college in the nation, coming in fourth in annual college rankings released Wednesday by U.S. News & World Report. Bowdoin was ranked fifth overall last year.
The news magazine releases several “best of” lists at once, from best national universities and best schools for veterans to “Top A+ schools for B Students.” Princeton University remained the top school in the best national universities category, while Williams College again was the top national liberal arts college. The University of California, Berkeley is the top public national university.
Many institutions and groups release “best of” lists ranking higher education institutions, and U.S. News has been releasing its annual list for more than 30 years. The news magazine evaluates schools on up to 16 measures of academic quality, with 30 percent of the ranking based on graduation and retention rates.
Maine colleges and their rankings are:
• Best liberal arts colleges: Colby College (19), Bates College (25), and College of the Atlantic (82). The news magazine evaluated the nation’s 217 private and 27 public liberal arts colleges, which are schools that emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the arts and sciences.
• Best national universities: University of Maine at Orono (168), up from 173 last year.
• Best regional colleges: Maine Maritime Academy (7), University of Maine at Farmington (19), Unity College (28), UMaine Fort Kent (38), UMaine Presque Isle (40) and Thomas College (44). Regional colleges offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master’s level programs, but few, if any, doctoral programs.
• Best regional universities: University of New England (83).
In the best colleges for veterans lists, Maine colleges were: Bowdoin (4) and Colby (15) for liberal arts colleges, and Unity College (22), UMaine Farmington (14), and UMaine Fort Kent (29) for regional colleges.
In the best value listing for liberal arts colleges, Maine schools were College of the Atlantic (11), Bowdoin (12), Colby (13) and Bates (25). Unity was ninth for best value for regional colleges.
UMaine Augusta was 40th in the nation for best online degree programs.
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