New College of Florida was ranked No. 10 among the nation’s liberal arts colleges – and first among public liberal arts schools – in Washington Monthly magazine’s “2015 College Rankings” issue.
Washington Monthly is unique among the prominent college guides because it takes a different approach to rankings:
“We rank four-year colleges in America on three measures that would make the whole system better, if only schools would compete on them. The first is upward mobility: Are schools enrolling and graduating students of modest means and charging them a reasonable price?” it’s editors said.
“The second is research: Are they preparing undergraduates to earn PhDs, and creating the new technologies and ideas that will drive economic growth and advance human knowledge?
The third is service: Are schools encouraging their students to give back to the country by joining the military or the Peace Corps, or … letting them use their work-study money to do community service?”
Washington Monthly noted that New College ranks second in the country for the percent of federal work-study funds spent on community service, and ninth in the country for the percentage of graduates going to attain doctoral degrees.