The Naval Academy took top honors among the military services in the 2016 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings released Wednesday, claiming the top spot among public schools on the list of national liberal arts colleges — good enough to tie for ninth place overall.
The U.S. Military Academy ranked second among public schools and 22nd overall. Williams College in Massachusetts was named the best of the class, which doesn't include "national universities" — schools that "offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs," according to the U.S. News & World Report website. That rules out Ivy League stalwarts like Harvard and Yale, as well as state-backed schools like the University of California, Berkeley.
While the rankings consider a host of data points, West Point and Annapolis finished tied for first among liberal arts schools in a simpler rating created by surveying high school counselors. Williams and the Air Force Academy tied for third place.
Navy also ranked as the most selective liberal-arts school, accepting only 7.9 percent of applicants in the Fall 2014 cycle, according to U.S. News data. Army's 9.5 percent acceptance rate placed second.
Army's engineering programs outpointed Navy's, with West Point earning high marks for its overall engineering department (tied for third) and its civil (second), mechanical (fourth) and electrical/electronic/communications (tied for sixth) programs. Navy ranked fifth overall in engineering (tied with Air Force), ninth in the electrical/electronic/communications category and 10th in mechanical. All rankings were for schools that don't offer doctorates.
The lists include tuition and fee estimates for each school; the zero-dollar charge for the service academies stands in contrast to the rest of the top 25 liberal arts schools, none of which costs less than $46,000 a year to attend.
The Air Force Academy tied for 29th overall and was third on the public liberal arts school list.
The Coast Guard Academy ranked first among "regional colleges" in the North region, according to the survey. The Merchant Marine Academy took third on that list.
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
