August 20, 1999

Middlebury College Ranked Fifth Nationally by
U.S. News — College’s ranking is highest it has received from
U.S. News; Last year’s ranking was seventh
U.S. News & World Report magazine has ranked
Middlebury College fifth among national liberal arts colleges
in its year 2000 edition of “America’s Best Colleges,”
which will appear on newsstands Monday, Aug. 23. Middlebury’s
ranking is the highest the College has received in the annual
U.S. News survey. The College ranked seventh in last year’s survey.

Six New England institutions are listed among
the top 10 national liberal arts colleges. Middlebury is the only
Vermont college to be included.
According to Middlebury College president John
M. McCardell, Jr., Middlebury’s U.S. News ranking indicates the
effectiveness of ongoing policies specifically designed to develop
fully Middlebury’s potential to be among the very best liberal
arts colleges in the country. “Though there is legitimate
concern regarding how much can be read into these rankings, I
do believe that Middlebury’s general rise in the U.S. News survey,
relative to the other high-quality institutions in our category,
and taken over a number of years, indicates that our programs
to make Middlebury the best college it can be are having an effect,”
said McCardell.
U.S. News, which publishes its rankings both
in the magazine and in its annual college guidebook, included
over 1,400 schools in this year’s survey. The magazine’s national
rankings are based on academic reputation, graduation and retention
rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources,
alumni giving, and graduation rate performance (the difference
between actual and predicted graduation rates).