Two Colorado schools were named among the top 30 liberal arts colleges in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s latest annual rankings.
In the 2025 rankings released this week, the U.S. Air Force Academy, just north of Colorado Springs, ranked No. 8, and Colorado College, a private school in Colorado Springs, ranked No. 29.
In the magazine’s 40th annual ranking of Best Colleges, the University of Colorado tied for 98th place and Colorado State University was ranked 148th. The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley was tied for 188th place.
The rankings are based on a variety of factors, including academic reputation, tuition fees, return on investment, classroom resources for students and faculty, bachelor’s degree conferral rates and producing employed graduates with manageable debt and worthwhile starting salaries, the publication explained in its methodology explanation.
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Both CU and CSU ranked in the top 80 among public universities, with CU ranking 46th and CSU tied at 78th.
Rankings were also released for specific fields of study, with CSU ranked second nationally in veterinary medicine, tied for 57th in engineering and tied for 80th in biological sciences. CU ranked in the top 50 in engineering (tied for 23rd), fine arts (tied for 23rd), education (tied for 48th) and law (tied for 48th).
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, select sports and other topics of interest for The Coloradoan. She can be reached at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
