U.S. News Ranks Westmont in Top 100
For the fifth straight year, the U.S. News & World Report ranked Westmont in the top 100 best liberal arts colleges. “America’s Best Colleges, 2014 Edition” lists Westmont as 94th out of the nation’s 248 liberal arts colleges.
“The ranking reflects Westmont’s commitment to being one of the country’s most selective and academically challenging colleges in the country,” says President Gayle D. Beebe. “Small class sizes are just one measurement of how we strive to maintain an environment where faculty members are genuinely interested in our students’ well-being, academically, personally and spiritually.”
Only eight other liberal arts colleges in California appear in the top 100: Pomona (4th), Claremont McKenna (9th), Harvey Mudd (16th), Scripps (25th), Occidental (41st), Pitzer (35th) and Thomas Aquinas (61st) Colleges. Soka University of America, which was reclassified in 2010, ranked 41st.
Westmont is just one of two liberal arts colleges among the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) in the top 100, and the only one in California to be listed in the first tier. Westmont moved into the third tier in 2000, into the second in 2003 and into the top tier in 2005. In 1985, Westmont tied for seventh in Regional Liberal Arts Colleges, the first time the college was ranked.
Westmont’s overall score rose slightly in 2014, making improvements in average freshman retention rate and the actual 2012 graduation rate. Westmont’s SAT scores for the 75th percentile rose to 1310 and the number of freshman in the top 10 percent of their high school class jumped five percent.
In August, Princeton Review listed Westmont as one of the Best Western Colleges, giving it the top academic ranking among the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
“I am pleased to be recognized by U.S. News as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation,” says Silvio Vazquez, dean of admission. “We hope college-bound students also consider such factors as community, spiritual life and their relationships with faculty when choosing a college.”