(Posted September 14, 2016)

Juniata College was rated at 108, along with four other liberal arts institutions.
Juniata file photo
Juniata College was rated at 108, along with four other liberal arts institutions.
Juniata file photo

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The weekly news magazine U.S. News & World Report has rated Juniata College 108th in its 2017 rankings of the best liberal arts college in the nation.

            “Juniata tends to do well in rankings that measure value and student outcomes, such as this year’s Money magazine poll, where we leaped 270 slots to 179th out of 702 institutions. The U.S. News rankings are an important indicator of of overall quality and we are glad to be rated in the upper tier of liberal arts colleges,” says James A. Troha, president of Juniata College. “We will dedicate ourselves to improving some of the indicators the U.S. News poll relies on.”

            Juniata College was rated at 108, along with four other liberal arts institutions, including Drew University, in Madison, N.J., Hope College, in Holland, Mich., Lake Forest College, in Lake Forest, Ill., and Stonehill College, in North Easton, Mass.

            Last year, Juniata was rated at 105. In this year’s ratings, there are three institutions tied at 105th place, directly followed by the five schools rated at 108. The three institutions rated 105th are Austin College, in Austin, Texas, Hampden-Sydney College, in Hampden Sydney, Va. and Hollins University, in Roanoke, Va.

            According to guidelines established by the Carnegie Foundation and adopted by U.S. News, institutions that award at least 50 percent of their undergraduate degrees in liberal arts are defined as liberal arts schools.

"The U.S. News rankings are an important indicator of of overall quality and we are glad to be rated in the upper tier of liberal arts colleges."'

James A. Troha, president of Juniata College.

In addition, in the U.S. News & World Report 2017 Rankings, Juniata College was named as an “A+ School for B Students” among national liberal arts colleges for the third year in a row.

            U.S. News’ “A+ Schools for B Students” rankings come from two values: the institution’s performance in the last U.S. News poll and the college’s average freshman retention rate.

            Juniata is one of seven colleges from Pennsylvania to be included in the “A+” rankings. The others are Allegheny College, Elizabethtown College, Grove City College, Muhlenberg College, Susquehanna University and Ursinus College.

            Juniata is one of 12 liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania to be ranked in the top 108 nationally.

Other Pennsylvania colleges in the U.S. News Top 100 are: Swarthmore College (4th); Haverford College (12th); Bryn Mawr College (31st); Bucknell University (32nd); Lafayette College (36th); Dickinson College (41st); Franklin & Marshall College (47th); Gettysburg College (51st); Muhlenberg College (65th); Allegheny College (77th); Ursinus College (95th); and Washington & Jefferson College (99th).

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.