Westmont Remains High in College Rankings

Westmont is ranked in the top 100 for the fourth straight year in this year’s listings of the best liberal arts colleges according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges, 2013 Edition.” Of the nation’s 251 liberal arts colleges, Westmont finished tied for 90th, the same ranking it held last year and its highest ranking as a national liberal arts college.

“I’m pleased that the ranking reflects Westmont’s standing as one of the country’s most selective, challenging colleges with small classes,” says President Gayle D. Beebe.

Only eight other liberal arts colleges in California appear in the top 100: Pomona (4th), Claremont McKenna (10th), Harvey Mudd (12th), Scripps (24th), Occidental (39th), Pitzer (43rd) and Thomas Aquinas (82nd) Colleges. Soka University of America, which was reclassified in 2010, ranked 49th.

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 improved slightly in the 2013 rankings in the percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students (60 percent), and improved SAT scores. The college remained unchanged in its graduation rate (77 percent) and percentage of faculty who are full time (83 percent).

“It’s an honor to be recognized as one of the top residential, Christian, liberal arts colleges in the nation,” says Silvio Vazquez, dean of admission.

In August, Forbes recognized Westmont as one of the top two Christian colleges in the country in its 2012 America’s Top Colleges list, which included 650 institutions. Westmont ranked 103, second only to Wheaton College (99) in Illinois for Christian colleges. The Princeton Review lists Westmont as one the Best Western Colleges, saying “‘very personable’ faculty members ‘take a genuine interest not only in the academic well-being of their students, but also their personal, relational, and spiritual lives.’”