College of the Atlantic moves up in Washington Monthly rankings

Courtesy / College of the Atlantic College of the Atlantic, a small Bar Harbor college that offers a bachelor of arts degree in human ecology, made the top 20 in Washington Monthly's rankings of the country's liberal arts colleges.

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By Staff

College of the Atlantic, a small Bar Harbor college that offers a bachelor of arts degree in human ecology, moved up in Washington Monthly’s rankings of the country’s liberal arts colleges.

The college comes in at No. 20 on the 2017 list, compared to No. 46 last year. It prides itself on being “intentionally small,” with about 350 students and 35 faculty members.

Washington Monthly rates schools based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.’s) and service (encouraging students to give back to their country).

Among liberal arts colleges whose alumni go on to serve in the Peace Corps, relative to size, COA ranks No. 2.

“Educating our students to give back to their countries and communities is a central part of College of the Atlantic’s mission,” said Darron Collins, COA’s president and 1992 alumnus, in a statement. “It is an honor to be recognized for this work by Washington Monthly.”

Among other Maine liberal arts schools ranked by the publication, Bowdoin College came in at No. 13 while Colby College was No. 25.

And in the ‘best bang for the buck’ category for the Northeast, the Maine Maritime Academy was No. 4, moving up from No. 13 last year.

It was outranked this year by Harvard University, Amherst College and Massachusetts Maritime Academy, coming in at No. 1, 2 and 3, respectively.