St. Mary’s College of Maryland continues to get top grades in the annual college ranking guides, including one of the best known, U.S. News & World Report, which came out today listing St. Mary’s College as one of the top five public liberal arts colleges in the nation, along with the military academies and Virginia Military Institute. It also lists the college as number 90 in a list of the top 100 national liberal arts colleges.
In other recent rankings:
St. Mary’s College of Maryland was again chosen as one of the best 376 colleges nationwide by The Princeton Review in its 2012 annual rankings. It also was chosen in its spring guide as one of the best colleges in the Northeast. On a ranking scale of 60-99, St. Mary’s was ranked number 90 for quality of life, number 90 for being green, and number 89 for academics. “ ‘Friendliness’ is the hallmark of the typical St. Mary’s undergrad,” students were quoted as saying, “with a very welcoming student body.” In fact, the college ranked 7th for race and class interaction.
The Princeton Review write-up ends with, “As Maryland’s public honors college, gaining admissions to St. Mary’s is competitive. Admissions officers here really strive to get to know the applicant as an individual, not just a set of numbers on a paper. While academic rigor definitely holds the most weight, admissions officers thoroughly evaluate your essays, recommendations, and extracurricular activities as well.”
Forbes magazine rates St. Mary’s College as the 25th best college in the South. Of 650 schools representing the top 20% of undergraduate colleges, St. Mary’s is 112.
The book, “Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids – and What We Can Do About It,” out in paperback this month, included St. Mary’s College in a new list of colleges the authors thought were “doing right by the students.” … “There are excellent dedicated liberal arts colleges within affordable public systems,” the authors, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, said. “New College of Florida and St. Mary’s College of Maryland are two.”
“We are pleased to continue to be recognized for the rigorous liberal arts education we offer,” said St. Mary’s College President Joseph Urgo. “We are working hard to continually challenge our academic programs for the benefit of our students and are pleased the results of that work are reflected through our rankings each year.”