Richmond Ranked in Top Tier of National Liberal Arts Colleges Category by U.S. News
August 19, 2005
U.S. News & World Report has ranked the University of Richmond in the top tier of the prestigious “best liberal arts colleges” category in its annual “America’s Best Colleges” issue that hits newsstands next week. Richmond was also named to the magazine’s list of “great schools, great prices” in the liberal arts category.
It is the first time that Richmond has been ranked in the national liberal arts category, which includes 215 schools throughout the country. Richmond tied for 34th place.
“We are pleased to be included in the top tier of national liberal arts colleges and will continue efforts to build distinctive programs at the highest level of academic quality,” said University of Richmond President William E. Cooper.
For the past 11 years, Richmond had been ranked as the top school in the magazine’s “master’s universities-South” category but changed categories this year following a reclassification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching last December. The Carnegie Foundation administers the official classification system for all U.S. colleges and universities. U.S. News bases its various categories on the Carnegie classifications.
Richmond requested the change to the new category because it includes primarily undergraduate colleges that award at least half of their baccalaureate degrees in the liberal arts. Many of America’s leading, small private colleges are in the baccalaureate liberal arts category and compete with Richmond for students.
“We requested this change because Richmond compares more closely across a variety of measures to nationally ranked liberal arts colleges than to regionally ranked master's universities,” said Cooper.
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wellesley and Carleton colleges ranked first through fifth, respectively, in the national liberal arts category in this year’s rankings. Richmond tied with Sewanee--The University of the South and ranked ahead of such schools as Franklin and Marshall, Furman, Occidental, Dickinson and Rhodes. The only other Virginia school to make the top 50 was Washington & Lee University which ranked 14th.
Richmond was ranked 35th out of 40 schools in the magazine’s best values rankings for liberal arts colleges. U.S. News determines these rankings based on a school’s academic quality compared to the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of need-based financial aid. Richmond is the only university in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and one of fewer than 40 universities in the country, to meet 100 percent of an undergraduate student’s demonstrated need while remaining “need-blind” in admission decisions.