Chris Knight / LNP | LancasterOnline
Statues of Chief Justice John Marshall, right, and Benjamin Franklin on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, photographed in June 2021.
Franklin & Marshall College was the highest-rated Lancaster County institution for higher education in the latest edition of U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings.
The Lancaster college was ranked 35th among national liberal arts colleges for the second time in three years, tied with Occidental College in Los Angeles. The top college on the list was Williams in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
U.S. News highlighted F&M’s 9:1 student-to-teacher ratio and noted more than 64% of classes have 20 or fewer students.
The school also was ranked 46th for best value, a measure U.S. News said is based on tuition and needs-based assistance, as well as a school’s educational performance.
On the value score, Elizabethtown College was ranked 27th overall, 19 spots higher than F&M. Among Regional Universities North, Elizabethtown placed 45th, and among that same group it was ranked 6th for best undergraduate teaching. That measure, U.S. News said, assesses the focus a school places on teaching undergraduates instead of research-oriented graduate students.
Lancaster Bible College in Manheim Township was ranked 146th among Regional Universities North but was 52nd for social mobility, a measure U.S. News says is based on a college’s acceptance of, and successful graduation rates for, disadvantage students (i.e. students who received Pell grants).
Millersville University, meanwhile, ranked 98th among Regional Universities North, but scored 11th for best undergraduate teaching, up from 19th last year.
Other notable rankings from colleges around south-central Pennsylvania include:
Adams County
Gettysburg College: tied for 36th in Best Undergraduate Teching; 54th in Best Value; tied for 58th in National Liberal Arts Colleges
Berks County
Albright College: tied for 170th in National Liberal Arts Colleges
Alvernia University: tied for 352nd in National Universities
Cumberland County
Dickinson College: tied for 43rd in Best Undergraduate Teaching; tied for 45th in National Liberal Arts Colleges; 47th in Best Value
The full U.S. News college rankings can be read online at usnews.com/best-colleges.
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