Colby-Sawyer College has once again been recognized as one of the top colleges in the region by U.S. News & World Report, earning top 10 rankings in three categories — including its first ever No. 1 ranking — in the publication’s 2022 Best Colleges issue.
The annual report, released Monday, ranks Colby-Sawyer in a tie for first place in its Best Undergraduate Teaching category for regional colleges in the North, and in the top 10 in its Best Regional Colleges — North and Best Value Schools — North categories. Colby-Sawyer also earned a 19th-place ranking on the report’s Social Mobility — North list.
“Colby-Sawyer is delighted to again be recognized as a top 10 institution in three categories by U.S. News & World Report,” Colby-Sawyer President Susan D. Stuebner said. “These rankings are a valuable resource for prospective students and their families as they make decisions about college and our rankings speak to the institution’s overall strength and value, as well as to the quality education we offer.”
Colby-Sawyer ranks in a tie for first place with Landmark College in Putney, Vt., in the report’s Best Undergraduate Teaching — North category, representing the college’s first-ever top billing in the publication. The category recognizes schools where faculty and administrators have “an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching” according to the U.S. News website, and are determined using the results of a peer assessment survey of college presidents, provosts and admissions deans.
The college was last recognized in the Best Undergraduate Teaching category in the 2019 Best Colleges issue when it earned a third-place ranking.
“I am particularly pleased that the college was recognized for its undergraduate teaching,” Stuebner said. “Our faculty are talented teachers who are incredibly dedicated and committed to student success. This ranking is an affirmation of their hard work on behalf of our students.”
Colby-Sawyer earned an eighth-place ranking in the report’s Best Regional Colleges – North list for a fourth straight year, placing ahead of 41 similarly sized institutions from New Jersey to Maine. The category ranks both public and private institutions focused on undergraduate education that grant fewer than 50% of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. Of the seven schools to place ahead of Colby-Sawyer in the category, six are publicly funded.
The college also improved on its fifth-place standing in the report’s Best Value Schools – North list from a year ago, earning a third-place ranking in the category this year. According to U.S. News, the Best Value Schools list recognizes the overall value of institutions based on several criteria, including a quality-to-price ratio, distribution of need-based aid and overall undergraduate costs covered through scholarships or grant awards.
“Being named a Top Value institution is especially gratifying as it reinforces our commitment to providing solid financial aid during our students’ time at Colby-Sawyer while also achieving key outcomes,” Stuebner said. “It is extremely gratifying to be recognized for the value of the education our students receive.”
U.S. News groups colleges into categories based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which it calls the most widely accepted classification system in U.S. higher education. The report bills itself as the top peer benchmarking and performance assessment tool in higher education.