For the past thirteen years, Washington Monthly College Guide has ranked colleges “not based on what colleges do for themselves, but on what they do for their country.” In the rankings released today, St. Mary’s College of Maryland is ranked 28 among the top 30 Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States.
The ranking was established to recognize “smart, well-run colleges that enrolled students from all walks of life and helped them earn a high-quality diploma at an affordable price. Colleges that instilled a sense of service and public obligation while producing groundbreaking research.”
Washington Monthly rates schools on three equally weighted criteria: social mobility, research, and public service. “Instead of rewarding schools that reject 95 percent of applicants, we give high marks to colleges that enroll lots of low-income students and help them graduate and earn a good living without too much debt. We factor in pure research spending and the number of undergraduates who go on to earn PhDs. And we give extra weight to colleges that send their graduates out into the world to serve the community at large.”
St. Mary’s College is ranked #1 in Peace Corps Volunteers among small colleges, #6 among the Top 50 Green Colleges and listed among Best 384 Colleges by the Princeton Review, included in the 2019 Fiske Guide to Colleges, recognized as a 2018-19 College of Distinction, and ranked among the Best Colleges of Maryland by Schools.com.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education through 2024-2025. St. Mary’s College, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best public liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Approximately 1,600 students attend the college, nestled on the St. Mary’s River in Southern Maryland.