CSB and SJU ranked among top liberal arts colleges in two surveys

The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University are ranked among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the United States in two rankings by national publications.

Both U.S.News & World Report and Washington Monthly rank the colleges among the nation’s top liberal arts institutions.

Since 1994, no other college in the country has moved further or faster in the U.S. News national liberal arts rankings than CSB, which has moved from the fourth quartile to the top 100. The magazine ranks 213 liberal arts colleges and the national liberal arts category includes the nation's most prestigious and selective liberal arts colleges.

With a combined enrollment of 3,834, CSB and SJU have the largest enrollment of any college in the national liberal arts category.

Saint John’s was the highest rated Catholic liberal arts college in the country in the Washington Monthly poll.

CSB/SJU and the College of the Holy Cross were again the highest rated Catholic liberal arts colleges in the nation, according to both rankings.

The second annual Washington Monthly College Rankings rate institutions on three primary criteria: how well it performs as an engine of social change (“ideally helping the poor to get rich rather than the very rich to get very, very rich”), how it does in fostering scientific and humanistic research, and how well it promotes an ethic of service to country.

The Washington Monthly poll can be seen at The Washington Monthly College Rankings.

The U.S. News rankings take into account the academic reputation of the school, admissions selectivity, retention and graduation rates, class size, financial resources and alumni giving, among other factors.

The U.S. News poll can be seen at America's Best Colleges 2007.