Was wondering what you consider to be the top five liberal arts colleges in the country, including east and west coasts as well as the midwest
Williams
Amherst
Swathmore
Pomona
Rice
Bowdoin
Williams
Amherst
Swarthmore
Pomona
I think of Rice as a research university with 3,000 graduate students, $5 billion endowment, etc…
USNWR rankings tend to closely track general views on college prestige.
Agree with @ucbalumnus But don’t get hung up on prestige to the point where you miss fit as an important criteria. Unlike large universities which typically have enough diversity on campus that pretty much everyone should be able to “find their people”, we found each LAC we visited had a distinct vibe or a personality.
Rice is not an LAC.
Macalester, Carleton, and Grinell for some good LACs in the Midwest.
That’s an impossible question to answer. Even with liberal arts colleges vary based on interests. Someone who’s happy at one might not be happy at another. There are two in the lists above that I wouldn’t want my kids to attend for two different reasons. There are lots of ways to look at preside beyond US News lists. And there are lots of schools which excel in liberal arts. Some things to consider are the amount of students attending Phd programs, the scores of incoming and outgoing students on various tests, the amount of awards ( in the Rhodes type category) and on and on.
What is prestige? What is “best”?
Some will go by the US News college ranking or Forbes college ranking, both of which you can access quickly online.
Some will look at how many kids at each college go on to receive PhD’s. Or professional school degrees. Or jobs on Wall Street.
Some will go by name recognition by the average person on the street— which does not always align with rankings.
Some will look at particular majors.
A better question is, which is a good choice college for YOU? What are you looking for? Which qualities, other than reputation, appeal to you?