Where Do Women’s Colleges Stand in the New U.S. News Rankings?

The magazine U.S. News and World Report recently issued its annual rankings of the best colleges and universities in the United States. Among the nation’s highest-ranked liberal arts colleges, Williams College and Amherst College in Massachusetts were in the top two spots.

How did the nation’s highly selective women’s colleges rate in the latest survey? The short answer is, “Not very well.” In fact, all of the most highly ranked women’s colleges were ranked lower than they were a year ago.

Wellesley College in Massachusetts was the highest-rated, ranking seventh overall in the U.S. News rankings of the best liberal arts colleges. For the past two years, Welleseley sat in the sixth position. Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts held the 20th spot in the rankings, down two places from a year ago. The only other women’s college in the top 25 was Scripps College in Claremont, California, which was ranked 25th overall and down one spot from 2012.

Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and Mount Holyoke College held the 30th, 32nd, and 38th positions, respectively, in the current survey. All three colleges dropped in the rankings from a year ago.