50 Top Liberal Arts Colleges, ranked

College Search & Selection
1

Rank, Score, Standardized test scores of admitted freshman converted to percentile rank, retention rate, graduation rate, USNWR National Universities ranking

Score = (2 * Test Scores Percentile + Retention Rate + Graduation Rate) / 4

Correlation between Rank and USNWR rank = .877

1 97.2 Pomona College 98.0% 97% 96% 5
2 96.9 Amherst College 97.3% 98% 95% 2
3 96.8 Williams College 97.6% 96% 96% 1
4 96.6 Bowdoin College 97.2% 97% 95% 5
5 96.1 Carleton College 96.3% 98% 94% 8
6 96.1 Swarthmore College 97.7% 97% 92% 3
7 95.8 Middlebury College 96.1% 97% 94% 7
8 95.7 Harvey Mudd College 98.4% 98% 88% 15
9 95.7 Haverford College 96.3% 97% 93% 8
10 94.8 Vassar College 96.2% 96% 91% 11
11 94.8 Claremont McKenna College 96.1% 95% 92% 8
12 94.5 Hamilton College 95.5% 96% 91% 15
13 94.4 Wesleyan University 95.9% 95% 91% 15
14 94.4 Wellesley College 96.3% 93% 92% 4
15 94.2 Washington and Lee University 95.9% 95% 90% 14
16 94.2 Davidson College 93.8% 97% 92% 11
17 93.7 Barnard College 93.9% 97% 90% 32
18 93.7 Colgate University 94.9% 95% 90% 22
19 93.4 Grinnell College 94.2% 95% 90% 19
20 93.1 Scripps College 95.1% 92% 90% 24
21 93.0 Colby College 93.5% 95% 90% 15
22 93.0 Macalester College 94.0% 94% 90% 24
23 92.8 Bates College 94.2% 95% 88% 19
24 92.6 Kenyon College 93.2% 94% 90% 30
25 92.4 College of the Holy Cross 90.8% 95% 93% 34
26 92.4 Colorado College 92.2% 95% 90% 27
27 92.3 Wheaton College 92.0% 95% 90% 56
28 91.9 Oberlin College 94.3% 94% 85% 23
29 91.8 Bucknell University 91.1% 95% 90% 32
30 91.4 Whitman College 92.4% 94% 87% 37
31 91.3 Smith College 93.7% 93% 85% 19
32 91.3 Lafayette College 89.6% 95% 91% 35
33 90.8 Connecticut College 93.0% 92% 85% 45
34 90.1 Occidental College 91.2% 94% 84% 44
35 89.8 Franklin and Marshall College 92.0% 92% 83% 37
36 89.7 University of Richmond 91.4% 93% 83% 30
37 89.7 Mount Holyoke College 92.9% 92% 81% 41
38 89.6 Bryn Mawr College 93.2% 90% 82% 27
39 89.5 St Olaf College 89.5% 93% 86% 54
40 89.3 Reed College 95.5% 92% 74% 77
41 88.8 Dickinson College 89.6% 91% 85% 37
42 88.7 Soka University of America 81.9% 99% 92% 41
43 88.5 Muhlenberg College 86.5% 94% 87% 64
44 88.5 Skidmore College 87.0% 92% 88% 37
45 88.5 Gettysburg College 89.4% 91% 84% 50
46 88.4 Centre College 87.8% 91% 87% 45
47 87.7 Rhodes College 89.8% 90% 81% 54
48 85.8 Bard College 89.1% 86% 79% 45
49 85.8 Lewis & Clark College 89.1% 89% 76% 77
50 85.8 Kalamazoo College 85.1% 92% 81% 64

2

I excluded these schools because less than 75% of their admitted students submitted test scores:

33 90.9 Pitzer College 93.2% 90% 87% 35
38 90.0 Union College 91.4% 94% 83% 41
41 89.3 Denison University 89.7% 92% 86% 51

And, for disclosure purposes, here are the schools from the above list that had less than 95% test reporting (test% is the last column):

4 96.6 Bowdoin College 97.2% 97% 95% 5 80%
12 94.5 Hamilton College 95.5% 96% 91% 15 83%
31 91.3 Smith College 93.7% 93% 85% 19 82%
37 89.7 Mount Holyoke College 92.9% 92% 81% 41 75%
41 88.8 Dickinson College 89.6% 91% 85% 37 82%
43 88.5 Muhlenberg College 86.5% 94% 87% 64 93%
45 88.5 Gettysburg College 89.4% 91% 84% 50 87%

3

These are the schools that ranked substantial higher than they did in USNWR:

17 93.7 Barnard College 93.9% 97% 90% 32
27 92.3 Wheaton College 92.0% 95% 90% 56
39 89.5 St Olaf College 89.5% 93% 86% 54
40 89.3 Reed College 95.5% 92% 74% 77
43 88.5 Muhlenberg College 86.5% 94% 87% 64
49 85.8 Lewis & Clark College 89.1% 89% 76% 77

Note:
Wheaton College is the one in Illinois.

4

You put an awful lot of weight on test scores (Bowdoin thanks you) and on USNWR. I’m not sure I understand your reason for doing this “ranking”.

As with all rankings at this level it seems silly to rank individual schools. Just 2.4 points separate #1 and #10. Do we really think that represents a real difference in quality of education amongst any of those top ten schools?

5

^ You actually hit exactly on the main reason why I put this list together - to illustrate how small the differences between schools actually are! I think way too many people fail to understand that, which leads to all sorts of misery. (To take one small example, the number of people who apply to all the Ivies, and ignore schools that are quite comparable to the “lesser Ivies.”

I am not actually using the USNWR ratings at all, just provided it for reference.

I do put a lot of weight on test scores, primarily because I am ignoring stuff like admit rate and yield.

6

NickFlynn, any background for us? Where did you go to school? Your children? Any insights into your experience as one who has navigated life past college and concerns for one entering college? Are these the things you feel are important?

7

Truman State should be added to this list and it would be ranked pretty high too.

8

I’m a retired software engineer. I do some college admissions counseling on the side.

I think the value of these lists is to use them to expand your search list by identifying schools you might not have considered. The danger of these lists are that people think they are more precise than they really are.

I think that “fit” is way more important for most kids than getting into the highest ranked school possible.

9

@CompSciMajor00 I used the same classification that UNSWR uses - they put Truman State in “Regional Universities - Midwest” and ranked them 9th.

They would have ended up about 60th on my list, if I ranked them against the LACs.

10

Nick are you using just SATs or a combination of SAT and ACT?

11

Both SAT and ACT, blended based on reported percentage of submission.

Most of the data I am using is from IPEDS 2013-14, but a lot of the east coast LAC data has been updated from 2014-15 CDS.

12

Surprised not to see Bates included in your post #1 given it is test optional?

13

^ 85% of Bates freshman submit the SAT, and 15% the ACT.

That doesn’t necessarily imply 100% submit scores due to overlap, of course, but it is more comprehensive than the schools I listed.

14

With regard to standardized testing, these schools fall into three categories:

  1. SAT/ACT required
  2. Standardized testing required, but with the form being flexible (a specified combination from SAT subject tests, ACT writing, AP or IB exams being acceptable).
  3. No standardized testing required.

As a consequence, in terms of these rankings, the 1 schools will be relatively deflated and the 3 schools will be relatively inflated. The 2 schools will be somewhere in between.

Examples can be found of highly selective schools (including one within the top five in the above ranking) that are score optional accepting students with SAT scores in the 1600 range (out of 2400), so the above distinctions are not hypothetical.

15

@NickFlynn: I’m happy to see a lot of the schools we’re considering on this list, but see that several others didn’t make the cut, and am wondering if you have ready enough access to this information to indicate whether they just missed it the cut, or fell way short. I’m particularly interested in where College of Wooster sits, but also Beloit & Earlham.

16

Assuming Clark & Lawrence are out of consideration because they’re universities rather than colleges, though I wouldn’t imagine they’d make the top 50 anyway, given the competition.

17

And, one more question: I now see there are some universities on your list. Am I misunderstanding your criteria? Are you including universities whose primary focus is really undergraduate education?

I don’t put a lot of stock on rankings, but they’re interesting when they generally reveal strengths and weaknesses, which is why I’m asking about the other schools – to see if there are issues I’m missing.

18

@porcupine98

55 84.6 Lawrence University 87.8% 90% 73% 56
56 84.3 Beloit College 84.1% 91% 78% 61
59 83.8 The College of Wooster 84.7% 90% 76% 69
71 81.7 Earlham College 86.0% 83% 72% 73

Earlham’s test scores are likely inflated somewhat, as they only reported 69% of the incoming class.

I don’t have the data for Clark University, but I’ll google their CDS.

19

@porcupine98, Lawrence is definitely a LAC, despite the name. You’ll see that some LACs may have decided to call themselves a university even though they don’t have PhD programs and almost none (or no) grad students.

In some regard, “liberal arts college” is kind of a marketing term, but you may want to determine whether a college is focused on undergraduate teaching with little research and grad students or not.

20

^^ USNWR seems to rely pretty heavily on the Carnegie classifications for their lists, and I tried to follow that just so I could compare directly. Lawrence did end up classified as a LAC, but Clark did not. They put Clark in their “National Universities” list, ranked 76th.

By my system, Clark ends up at 85.5, which would put it right outside the Top 50 (test scores only covered 80% of incoming students.)