St. Lawrence University Among Top Colleges in the Country: U.S. News & World Report
St. Lawrence University upheld its strong standing among the nation's top liberal arts colleges according to the U.S. News and World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” rankings, released on Monday, Sept. 13.
In the 2022 edition, St. Lawrence ranks 57 among the more than 200 liberal arts colleges included in the publication, placing the University in the top 25 percent of its peer group. The publication included St. Lawrence on its list of “best value” schools, which weighs a college's academic quality alongside the net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid.
U.S. News also recognized St. Lawrence as one of the “Top Performers on Social Mobility,” which ranks those colleges most successful at enrolling and graduating large portions of students from low-income households awarded with Pell Grants. In 2021, the University was recognized as a First-gen Forward institution, a designation that highlights colleges and universities that have demonstrated a commitment to improving experiences and advancing outcomes of first-generation college students. In August, St. Lawrence announced it was removing the admissions application fee in an effort to remove barriers for anyone interested in applying.
The report builds upon a long list of recent national recognitions for St. Lawrence from The Princeton Review and Fiske, among others. Earlier this year, The Princeton Review included St. Lawrence among the top 200 schools with exceptional return on investment (ROI) for the tuition investment. In the publication, the University’s famed alumni network earned a No. 3 ranking, St. Lawrence’s fourth top-5 placement on the list in as many years, and also ranked among the best private schools for internships (#7) and for making an impact (#20). In late 2020, The Princeton Review also included St. Lawrence on its top list of “green” colleges.
In August, The Princeton Review applauded St. Lawrence University for its outstanding academic and co-curricular offerings and the supportive faculty and staff who make it possible in its most recent publication, “Best 387 Colleges: 2022 Edition.” The popular college guide described St. Lawrence as an institution where “the ‘alumni network is super active,’ students have ‘lots of opportunities for hands-on research’ and nearly two-thirds of SLU undergrads study abroad.”
U.S. News categorizes national liberal arts colleges as institutions that focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education and award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the arts and sciences, such as languages, literature, biology and life sciences, philosophy, and psychology. Fewer than half of the nation’s higher educational institutions are ranked in any category by the publication.
This 37th edition of “Best Colleges” evaluates more than 1,450 colleges and universities on 17 indicators of academic quality. U.S. News measured academic quality using 17 metrics, with the most weight placed on outcomes, including not only the ability of a college to retain and graduate its students from different socioeconomic backgrounds but also their graduates' average indebtedness. Class size, undergraduate academic reputation and how much colleges invest in instruction and student services are among the other data points U.S. News collected to develop the latest set of rankings.
