In rankings announced today, U.S. News & World Report has named Lafayette College the 30th best National Liberal Arts College in the United States, moving Lafayette up nine places over last year. For 40 years, since 1983, U.S. News has been ranking more than 1,500 four-year colleges and universities on more than 15 measures. The criteria used in the rankings have varied over the years.

“We appreciate that U.S. News has recognized in its latest methodology the value of so many attributes of an exceptional liberal arts education at which Lafayette excels, including earnings of our graduates and low student-loan indebtedness,” said Lafayette Vice President for Enrollment Management Forrest Stuart. “Rising nine spots is considerable, and provides another indicator for our admissions prospects of the great living and learning experience that our faculty and staff deliver for our wonderful student community every day.”

Under President Nicole Hurd’s leadership, Lafayette has shown a commitment to making college more accessible and the application process more inclusive for students. Recent examples of this commitment include reducing the number activities requested on the Common App, becoming the first liberal arts college to waive the complex financial aid form (known as the CSS profile) for students from high-poverty high schools, and tripling to $150,000 the family-income level below which financial aid consists exclusively of grants and no loans.

More information on enrolling at Lafayette can be found by exploring Lafayette Admissions online.