Saint Michael’s shines on new ratings-website lists

April 26, 2018
Office of Marketing and Communication

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“College Consensus” — a new college ratings website that aggregates publisher rankings and student reviews — recently published their ranking of the “Best National Liberal Arts Colleges 2018,” placing Saint Michael’s College at No. 80.

Other College Consensus lists for 2018 place Saint Michael’s at No. 3 among ‘”Schools in Vermont” (coming in ahead of UVM), No. 28 among “Best Catholic Colleges” in the U.S., and No. 205 among “Best Colleges and Universities” across the nation.

To identify the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges 2018 and in creating the other lists, College Consensus combined the latest results from the most respected college rankings with thousands of real student reviews to produce a unique consensus score for each school. According to College Consensus founder Jeremy Alder, “Like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic does for movies, College Consensus gathers the publisher rankings and student reviews from around the web and distills the results into simple, easy to understand scores so students can quickly and easily compare schools. It is the ranking of all rankings, so to speak.”

To help prospective college students and their families evaluate the educational options open to them, College Consensus has identified the best national liberal arts colleges, according to the combination of published rankings and student reviews. Leading the Top 10 this year was Amherst College in Massachusetts.

College Consensus Managing Editor Carrie Sealey-Morris said institutions listed on The Best National Liberal Arts Colleges “keep the spirit of traditional college education alive, while reinventing the classical humanities and sciences for the 21st century.” National liberal arts colleges, for College Consensus ranking purposes, are identified by a few factors. First of all, “their emphasis is primarily on providing the very best undergraduate experience,” and their curriculum is built on a “common core of classes in the humanities, arts, and sciences.” Secondly, these schools “have a reputation that allows them to attract students nationally.” Most importantly they offer a curriculum designed for students to continue to graduate education, and emphasizes “critical thinking, research, and communication”: transferable, adaptable skills for any profession or academic path.

The profile of Saint Michael’s in the College Consensus lists states: “Saint Michael’s emphasizes connection and mentorship, with small class sizes … That focus on community building and collaboration means students have an excellent level of support, and every course is taught by faculty members, not assistants, most of whom hold the highest degree in their field. Four Saint Michael’s professors have been named Vermont’s Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation. The undergraduate curriculum at Saint Michael’s is rooted in the classical humanities and sciences, reflecting its heritage as a liberal arts college, and all students develop a strong grounding in critical thought, communication, collaboration, and leadership. As a Catholic college, all students are required to take courses in philosophy and Christian thought. All courses have an experiential project or activity built in, from research projects to internships, study abroad to service learning.”

Read listing of Best National Liberal Arts Colleges 2018>>

Read the full profile about Saint Michael’s>>

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